Thanks to Covid-19 closing down many movie theatres and slowing down film releases, few new features have come out. “The War with Grandpa” is one such example.

A tween boy, Peter, is excited when he finds out his grandpa (Robert DeNiro) is coming to live with his family. He becomes less excited when Grandpa takes over his room, kicking him to the attic. Peter loves his grandpa but he also really wants his own room back. He has no other choice than to “declare war” with his grandpa. Peter has a whole scheme to make his grandpa give Peter back his room. But his grandpa is tougher than he looks and will play through all of this with Peter!

The film did not review particularly well, with Rotten Tomatoes saying “Fitfully funny but mostly misguided, The War with Grandpa will leave audiences with a handful of chuckles — and a lot of questions about what this talented cast was thinking.” Other critics, including Roger Ebert, were confused about why such big name actors would involve themselves in such a production.

Despite the ratings, the movie can be very funny and might just be the laugh many people need right now.