The War with Grandpa | 2020 | PG | – 2.4.4

Why is “The War with Grandpa” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “rude humor, language, and some thematic elements.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of dropped pants scenes with partial nudity, a couple of implied teen kissing scenes, a man kisses a woman on the cheek, many scenes of practical jokes and antics with a few causing some injuries and hurt feelings, a bully picks on a teen boy and he gets his comeuppance, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When his grandfather (Robert De Niro) moves in, a boy (Oakes Fegley) is forced to sacrifice his bedroom, and he declares war to regain what is rightfully his. Also with Uma Thurman, Rob Riggle, Laura Marano, Cheech Marin, Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken, Juliocesar Chavez, Isaac Kragten, T.J. McGibbon and Poppy Gagnon. Directed by Tim Hill. [Running Time: 1:34]

The War with Grandpa SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A man climbs out a window, slips down a roof and dangles from a gutter where his pants drop (we see his bare buttocks and abdomen, with his crotch blocked by a planter) and another man inside the house screams when he sees him. A man shaves in a bathroom with a towel around his waist (we see his bare back, chest and abdomen) and when another man comes to the door, he turns around and his towel drops (we see his bare chest, abdomen and legs) and both men scream. A teen girl wears a short skirt that reveals her bare legs to the upper thighs in several scenes. A teen girl brings a pair of underwear into a teen boy’s room while he is on-screen with his friends and embarrasses him. A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage.
► A man kisses a woman on the cheek and they go on a date. A woman comes home and finds her teen daughter on a sofa with a teen boy and the teens stand up acting guilty (the girls says, “Nothing happened”) and the woman argues with her daughter about their rule that there are to be no boys in the house when she is not home. A teen girl and a teen boy are shown in her room after the wall is torn down by a fallen tree; she stands up and says, “Nothing happened.”
► A teen girl argues with her mother about “studying” with her boyfriend in several scenes and the mother is suspicious that they are not actually studying. Men talk about women wearing yoga pants and turn to look at them as they jog by on a path, saying, “Yoga pants are gonna be the death of me.” A teen boy says, “I’ve got a mustache coming in.”

The War with Grandpa VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A man checks out at a self-check lane in a grocery store and becomes frustrated when nothing works properly; he packs up his items and leaves the store setting off alarms and an employee chases him outside, grabs his arm and the man swings his bags at him and loses his balance falling to the ground; when the other man tries to help him back up, he kicks him repeatedly causing a scene and other people gather around yelling and throwing items at the employee (we see him splattered with food). A woman chases a teen boy, they run around a car, she leaps over the car and tackles the boy to the ground, straddles him and raises her fist at him as he winces and closes his eyes (she does not hit him).
► A teen boy opens the backpack of a younger teen and pours a bowl of chili in it, in front of others in a lunchroom. A teen boy throws a younger teen boy’s backpack into the garbage can. A teen boy is laughed at when he reads an essay, which was not the one he wrote. A teen boy and a man fish in a lake, where it is not permitted; they are chased by a park ranger and they speed their boat into the bank and speed away in a car. A teen boy opens another teen’s backpack and it blows orange goo in his face. A teen boy grabs a younger teen boy around the neck and rubs his knuckles against his head.
► A man reverses his car through a mailbox and it lands on the road. A man rides a one-wheeled skateboard and crashes into a table (he does not seem harmed). A man flies a drone in his room, he loses control and it crashes into the ceiling dropping bits of drywall on the floor and crashes into a lamp, breaking it. A drone flies out of control and hits a woman on the back of the head knocking her down (she is not injured). A teen boy says that he put hot sauce in his grandfather’s coffee and we see a woman drinking the coffee while driving; she spits it out and onto the windshield of her car, throws the rest of the cup out of the window and it splatters on a motorcycle officer when he pulls up next to her. A woman driving in her car is frightened when a snake slithers onto her shoulder and headrest; she throws the snake out of the car and it lands on a motorcycle officer, who pulls up next to her.
► A man on a ladder is shocked by a light string and falls back onto a bouncy house (he is unharmed). A man wearing a Santa suit is ejected from a chair that was booby-trapped and he falls hard on his face (he’s unharmed); a young girl says, “Santa’s dead.” A man collapses onto a Christmas tree, knocks it over and it lands on a grill, setting it on fire; a man tries to spray it with a fire extinguisher but sprays himself in the face, and a teen boy sprays it with water dousing the flames. A tree pulls out of the ground and falls into a house tearing down a wall and a man pushes a teen boy out of its way and becomes pinned under a limb himself. Three men surround a teen boy and take him by the arms to a dumpster where they lift the lid (we see gooey garbage) and push him in head first. Three men and a woman play dodgeball against three teen boys and a teen girl in a trampoline gym; we see them hitting each other in the head and one boy is struck in the groin (he bends over moaning), a man is struck in the back of the head and his false teeth pop out and bounce on the floor, and a man moans and bends over claiming to have “torn something” but it is a rouse; a woman throws a ball at a man when he says someone, “Throws like a girl.” A man tries to pick up a jar of marbles, it breaks spilling the marbles on the floor, and he falls hard (he recovers); the marbles roll away and into a floor vent. A record player spins very fast, flings the album off and it hits a wall and ricochets into a lamp, breaking it. A teen boy sends an R/C car into his grandfather’s room at night and it blares loud music while spinning around the room; the man tries to catch it and he falls out of the bed (he’s unharmed). A man applies what he thinks is shaving cream to his face; it turns out to be a fast drying foam sealant that leaves a shell on his face (we see him later with the shell removed but his skin is reddened); he punches himself in the face in frustration and another man overhears him and becomes concerned. A man swings a golf club and the head is thrown off crashing into a car window (we see a hole in the window). A teen boy puts toothpaste in cookies and when a man eats one, he spits it out. A man wakes up and finds a large snake in his bed, he jumps out of the bed and the snake slithers toward him; the man climbs out a window, slips down a roof and dangles from a gutter (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) before falling to the ground (he is not harmed). EMS speed to a house and enter the room of a sleeping man after his alarm button is pressed, unbeknownst to him; two men hold him down on a bed and prepare a hypodermic needle with a sedative. A man opens his bedroom door and it falls off the hinges; he then falls on top of the door (he’s not harmed). People grieve at a man’s funeral and one man’s phone rings loudly; he drops the phone into the casket and it ends up in the dead man’s pant leg, causing the man to open the casket lid and rummage around, lifting one of the legs of the dead man before managing to retrieve it; people seem upset and the widow faints. A man opens a can of soda and it sprays in his face. A boy sprays ketchup on a man’s pants and the man sprays mustard on the boy’s pants.
► A teen boy is upset when he finds out that a computer game that he has been working on for a few years has been destroyed. A teen boy’s desk, chair and bed all collapse on the floor of his room when the screws have been removed. A teen boy is chased by a bat in an attic room, and he runs into a beam and we see a bruise on his forehead later. Water drips through a roof and onto a boy’s pillow. A teen boy finds his favorite shoes painted bright colors and decorated with jewels and becomes angry. A man picks a teen boy up from school and they drive to a remote spot; the boy is nervous not knowing what’s going to happen (it all works out fine).
► A teen boy writes a declaration of war and puts it under his grandfather’s door. A man reads a declaration of war and tells another man, “This kind of aggression shall not stand.” A teen girl argues with her mother about “studying” with her boyfriend in several scenes. A teen girl and her younger sister have an argument. A teen boy argues with his sisters and tells them to leave his room. A woman talks to her father about his having lost his driver’s license and tries to persuade him to live with her family. A man talks about his wife dying and missing her in a few scenes. A teen boy is frustrated and argues with his mother and father about having to move out of his room and into the attic. A teen boy is sad and seems jealous when his grandfather goes on a date instead of spending the day with the boy.
► A teen boy yells at his grandfather and his younger sister when they sit down for “peace talks.” A man talks to his grandson about war and says, “Even if you win, everybody gets hurt.” A teen boy talks about his grandfather having “robbed that grocery store.” Teens entering a new school worry about being bullied and one says, “Nobody likes us.” A teen boy says that a girl is going to torture him (she’s his sister). A teen boy says, “I’ve got a mustache coming in.” Teen boys tell another teen boy that he needs to take his room back or it’s war. A man complains about being stuck in his daughter’s house. A young girl walks through a man’s room and says, “I like to look at other people’s stuff.” A man and his grandson write up rules of engagement for their “war” that include “no collateral damage,” and “no ratting the other guy out.” A nature show on TV refers to the “stakes being life and death.” A teen boy says that a man is using “psychological warfare” on another boy. A teen girl tells her mother, “Don’t blow a gasket.” A man says, “Fish and relatives stink after 3 days.” A teen girl says, “I hate you.” A teen girl talks about her younger brother’s “toe fungus thing” and that is very “contagious.”
► A man is shown in an ER with a bandage on his hand and knee. A man is shown with an ice pack and a bandage on his knee and he uses a cane in a couple of scenes. We see a very dirty turtle tank. A mouse nibbles on a wire that shorts out a desk lamp. A mouse nibbles on a string of lights that causes them to flicker.

The War with Grandpa LANGUAGE 4

 – 2 not fully enunciated F-words (“what the fu…,” and a woman says, “funning it up”), 2 scatological terms, 5 anatomical terms (1 in Spanish), 10 mild obscenities, name-calling (boring, idiot, idiotic, dramatic, kiddo, creepy place with all the spiders, unfair, bad friend, weak, small, dumb, not cool, crazy man, secret warrior, senior soldier, inappropriate, coward, insane, soul sucking corporate firm, stupid, old people, gross, dummy, animal, punk, little baby, wise [anatomical term deleted], spy, nimrod), exclamations (shhh, ah come on, shut-up, man up, oops, no, oh man, oh no, uh oh, epic, whoa, what the heck, what the…), 7 religious exclamations (e.g. Hallelujah, Oh My God, Holy Mary, Oh God, Holy Cow, I Hope To God). | profanity glossary |

The War with Grandpa SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man asks if a trampoline gym has a bar, and a woman pours liquor from a flask into eggnog at a children’s party.

The War with Grandpa DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Aging parents, death of loved ones, aspirations, friendship, family, sacrifice for family, inalienable rights, choices, losing sight of your dreams, jealousy.

The War with Grandpa MESSAGE

 – War is no game, and infighting in families can cause misery.