Comedy: some scenes may not be suitable for young children, language and mature themes

Movie Review: Grand Daddy Day Care (2019) seen on DVD

The movie follows a man named Frank, (played by Reno Wilson,) an aspiring writer who decides to turn his home into a recreation center for elderly people after his father in law moves into his house. This movie is a sequel to the 2003 film “Daddy Day Care.”

The movie begins with an action sequence in which a man named Jack Quartermane, (played by Bradley Cooper,) is seen running towards a face with a voice over from Frank saying “Jack Quartermane was a dead man,” while consistently changing his mind. Jack then tells Frank to make up his mind as to whether or not he is dying. The scene then cuts to Frank sitting in front of his computer trying to write a story which Jack is a character within. Frank is seen to have a case of writer’s block which causes him to be depressed.

Meanwhile, Frank father in law Eddie, (played by Danny Trejo,) moves in with his family after he is kicked out of his apartment for disorderly conduct. Eddie’s physical appearance and rough demeanor make him appear as a man who is 20 or 30 years younger than his actual age would suggest, (which is not revealed in the movie.) He is shown as a health nut who complains that Frank’s cooking at dinner is too salty while suggesting something else he would rather eat.

The next day, as Frank’s wife is at work as he is tasked to look after Eddie throughout the day, he is constantly interrupted by Eddie while trying to finish his novel, either by Eddie correcting his grammar or talking about the last time he was in court, citing that he had a case with the local judge named Judge Hightower, (the rest of his explanation as to what his problem with him was is not understood by me as I watched the film.) When Frank comments that Eddie is distracting him, Eddie agrees to leave the room and proceeds to play loud polka music in his room while lifting weights, the noise of which distracts Frank even more who requests that he not play his music so loudly.

While taking a break for lunch, Frank realizes that he cannot find the Thai food he had been saving from the previous night’s dinner, which Eddie admits to throwing out due to it being unhealthy. As Frank attempts to set ground rules for Eddie going forward, he is distracted by the sight of Eddie taking a sip of vinegar and spitting it into the sink as he claims it’s healthy.

When Frank realizes he may not be able to finish his writing, he becomes depressed when he realizes he needs money to pay for the house as he and his wife are currently in debt over $50,000. His wife suggests that Eddie invite some of his friends the next day to which Frank agrees on the condition that they must be quiet to allow him to finish his work.

The next day, as Eddie guests arrive, Frank is overwhelmed by the number of people who show up. However, when one of the guests offers him money to watch her mother, Frank comes up with the idea of opening a recreational center for the elderly within his house in hopes of obtaining the money to pay for the house. Despite apprehension from his wife at first, she eventually agrees. They put up flyers at various locations advertising the opening of the center, to which various elderly people show up to. Frank sets them up with snacks, beer, games to play, and the tv remote for the day while asking them to only bother him in an emergency. As Frank is upstairs getting ready to write, he is bothered by one of the elderly people who asks where the washroom is. Throughout the day, one of the residents shares her candy with everybody, (unaware that it is drugs,) and they begin to hallucinate upon eating it. This eventually leads to them getting hungry which results in issues when they blow a fuse in the kitchen and then leave the popcorn they are making in the microwave too long resulting in the smoke alarm going off. This summons Frank who cannot figure out how to turn the alarm off and he eventually falls off a ladder while one of the other residents is able to turn off the alarm by hitting the reset button.

It soon becomes clear to Frank that he can no longer accept Eddie staying there and at one point, he suggests to his wife that they make other living arrangements for him. This comes after a social worker tells them they must obtain a city certificate to allow his house to remain a recreational center in a call back to the previous film. Upon going to city hall, they learn that it would take 18 months for the certificate to be valid after applying for one, forcing Eddie to buy an existing license from Charlie Hinton who had a day care center that was foreclosed 20 years ago, (although he is not played be Eddie Murphy in the film.) He offer to sell Frank and the gang the existing one he has for $2000.00 which Eddie uses his recent social security cheque to pay for.

After the social worker once again tells them they must go to court to validate the permit, Eddie over hears Frank ridicule his wife for allowing Eddie to stay there as that was the reason he was unable to finish his writing as well as the reason who he found himself in $50,000.00 worth of debt. This angers Eddie who says that he was the one bought the certificate for them and then reveals he is actually broke, having lost all of his money to an internet scam. Frank, having believed he was rich apologizes to Eddie and Eddie says that his financial restraints were what caused him to accept the offer to stay with them.

It is also revealed throughout the film that Eddie has bouts of blacking out and sometimes forgets where he is and that his wife had already died. He sometimes spoke as if he was talking to her throughout the film.

The end of the film sees the group attending a court hearing where Eddie is able to use his knowledge of the judicial system, (despite blacking out once during his speech,) to allow “Grand Daddy Day Care” to remain open.

The ending scene shows a party involving the residents, (including Eddie,) at Frank’s house to celebrate the launch of “Grand Daddy Day Care.” When his wife asks him if he will still pursue his book, Frank replies that he has a new book to write.

The scene then cuts back to the beginning of the film where Frank is finally writing his story which is a story about how “Grand Daddy Day Care” came to be with all of the residents being involved in the story.

The final scene of the film shows that Frank is now a published author and is seen signing copies of the book as the credits roll.

As this is a relatively new movie to me, there wasn’t much to go on. I will say that at first glance, the movie didn’t seem like much to me as it depicted too many elderly people and I thought the plot would be stale. However, after seeing the way Eddie acted in the movie, I do believe it was a good movie.

I also have to give the movie credit for having a problem conflict, one that wasn’t just solved in the scene prior to when it initially occurred, but rather, it was spread out throughout the movie unlike it’s predecessor “Daddy Day Care.”

I would recommend it as it is a good movie.

Movie rating: 5 out of 10