The last notable film that Jason Krawczyk directed is the 2015 film He Never Died which is a terrific combination of bullets, blood, and bingo. The film that he is going to direct now, the Tubi original Don’t Mess With Grandma or otherwise known as Sunset Superman revolves around similar themes. It’s an action comedy about a home invasion with the over the top Michael Jai White hitting all the right terrible notes as he fights to protect a frail Old Woman. There’s some comical material when the bumbling ruffians meet someone bigger and tougher than themselves, but the overall production suffers from a lack of vigor, and the cohesion crumbles to dust. It is this kind of corny cuteness that becomes Jai White’s huge strength as he beats the villains then goes back to taking care of the grannies which sounds a lot funnier than it actually is.
Jasper (White) drives for “Trusted Trays”, helping the ‘Meals on Wheels’ program, and often pays visits to his overstretched and unnerving Grana (Jackie Richardson). On the recent visit, while having a drink of rum and attempting to fix sink pipes, thugs popped gun and burst through the front window. Because of his glorious military past, Jasper very quickly overcomes the bumbling home invaders, only for their leader Stan (Billy Zane) to gather his forces outside. Things, however, cannot get any worse for Jasper because soon after very cheerful Stan comes with his ammunition loaded reinforcements. Acting like a good grandson, he assists in the defense of Grana’s house, ensuring that she remains completely unaware of anything breaking and subduing anyone foolish enough to reach Grana’s house.
That’s the gimmick. Can Jasper take out Paula’s dumb hick thugs without Grana catching wind that her seclusion is being attacked? Such a scenario is a modest chuckle when Jasper retorts and first hits back by shushing unconscious enemies or removing Grana’s hearing aids. Jackie Richardson as ever appears detached and resigned with exaggerate old lady’s patience but that sort of idea only lasts for so long. Jai White is doing his best to up the game of this very simple premise by having his grandmother take blood red bath or screaming while he throws himself from a second story window so she doesn’t catch him it’s not impressive. The irony of Krawczyk’s scenario is rich but does not have long shelf life owing to its repetitiveness which even the thickest of sports Jai White couldn’t withstand.
Equally annoying are the action scenes, which feel clumsy and pathetic. Essa Holdover’s Pam only keeps time with Jasper because she is the trained soldier in the group, which is why the bedroom tussles are hardly impressive. When it comes to the refinement of action choreography, there are limitations, with the use of camera angles preferred over properly executed martial arts craft. Jai White is doing his best to play some sort of an army working on the skill of bone breaking and it is more Stan’s henchmen who pose a threat, but this too has been ruined by the terrible camera work in the film. Don’t Mess With Grandma’s Ronnie James Doi wannabe dressed in denim vest is nothing like Black Dynamite’s Kung Fu master and even Jai White cannot salvage the unexciting fight scenes that the production is able to deliver.
Some will claim humor is a relative term, but at the risk of sounding like a cynic, I don’t think any level of understanding will make you burst out laughing while watching Don’t Mess With Grandma. Stan, Billy Zane’s character, is an unappealing blue collar character who wears a fake sounding mustache and resembles Ned Flanders. Zane’s character is played without any comedy, as if it’s common knowledge. Krawczyk’s distinct style of humor belongs somewhere in pogo purgatory. It cannot be called offensive or soft, and thus struggles to get even a few chuckles from the audience. The whole experience gets more repetitive than it was once Gran’s enemies are described as useless people who completely miss targets, can’t bandage wounds properly, or do anything remotely harmful to Grana’s protector. Jasper’s grandma adoration seemed cute for a while, and it was amusing to see him drunkenly talking about something that made no sense. However, one feels let down once one comprehends that the film is only good for those moments. It’s a one track event played on a single flat frequency and there is nothing to look forward to in terms of excitement or energy.
It’s a pity though as there are some genuinely funny moments in Don’t Mess with Grandma. Squeaky voiced Evan Stern plays the ‘bad guy’ and his over the top silliness caused a few amusing tussles with the other characters. Rufus the Dog is surprisingly good at everything from fighting with Jasper all night to hilarious and blood splattered house sitting. Krawczyk had nothing but good intentions and though he does take quite a few pot shots at various home invasion movies including sly tributes to some of the details within it, it’s a crying shame that such humble aspirations only ever come true in the most set in a plain manner. It’s dull and monotonous as Jasper manages to defeat the competition in the course of time, which unfortunately has to do with the portrayal of the idiotic villain archetype but somehow still becomes a victim of the same deadpan production over meta entertainment.
Don’t Mess With Grandma schools its audience appropriately enough as an action comedy without going head first into either sub genre. A million dollar presence that belongs to Michael Jai White and his cool fighting techniques aren’t sufficient to salvage the inability of the dull and washed out scripting. Many people have possible explanations that the point of this film is to satisfy the audience expectations to the fullest and go for more center of the plate easy targets: the aforementioned reasons are the case here. Krawczyk was able to make “nice” movies that’s not the problem. What is perhaps more annoying? Krawczyk for reasons different from this seems to be unable to direct a movie that’s amusing in order to be entertaining, and as a result, it resembles a very slow moving picture that smoothly rolls from one scene to the next.
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