Sometime reviewing movies is easy — you just have to manage your expectations and know what you’re getting into.
Before I saw a single frame of “Old Dads,” I knew it was a passion project of comedian Bill Burr, who directed, co-wrote, and stars as Jack, one of three Generation X fathers in southern California trying to navigate a world of Millennials, including their younger wives.
His best friends, with whom he created a company that makes throwback sports jerseys and also became parents late in life, are played by the always-reliable Bokeem Woodbine and Bobby Cannavale. They have sold their firm to a twenty-something for whom they now work, and his decision to pivot the business and fire anyone under 35 throws them for a loop. But that’s the least of Jack’s troubles. He also butts heads with his wife (Katie Aselton), the principal of their son’s preschool (Rachael Harris), and other hyper-sensitive people who treat him like a neanderthal — which, in some ways, he is.
I won’t go into the details of Jack’s adventures, with and without his pals, some of which play like old comic tropes (of course they end up in a strip club!), but they fit Burr’s persona to a T. I found myself laughing out loud several times at both the inappropriateness of what’s said — as well as the reactions of the easily-triggered people in their lives.
As a sixty-five-year-old father, I won’t quibble with three guys around fifty considering themselves “old.”
But I will say “Old Dads” met my expectations. It’s not a great movie nor a lousy one. Jack and the others are far from role models. But the chemistry between cast members (particularly Burr and Harris) crackles, and I enjoyed myself — particularly a cameo late in proceedings by a Hollywood legend as the guys’ Uber driver.
I give “Old Dads” a 7 out of 10. Now streaming on Netflix.