Don’t Mess With Grandma/(Sunset Superman) (2024)
a review by Evan Landon
“The night has a thousand eyes
But he moves in only places
Where the eyes can never be”
Dio
Obviously, this ripping song from 1987 was the inspiration for the original name of this 2024 indie action comedy from writer/director Jason Krawczyk of He Never Died fame, which I did a review on that one a few years ago, if you wanted to check it out. They did have to change the name of it to Don't Mess With Grandma, even though the main character calls her “Granna”, but that might be because Dio would only let them use the song during one of the big fight scenes and not the title of the film.
In this story, a man named Jasper goes to see his grandma at her badass house in the middle of nowhere that has been staked out by a gang of thieves that want to steal from her house. It turns out Jasper is an ex-army ranger and you bet your ass he ain't putting up with that shit, so this one man army teaches them a lesson!
The writing is batshit insane. The plot does not make a lick of sense, as well as whatever choices the characters make, like why doesn't he want his grandma to know the house is being invaded? I also thought the gang's intentions were a little muddled, so I was a little let down that it was not something deeper than the vague reason they give. The banter between all of the characters is probably my favorite part though because it all comes out so naturally between the characters. That is also a testament to the actors who are complete unknowns aside from Michael Jai White, who is moving just a little bit slower than when I last saw him in Black Dynamite, and a completely unrecognizable Billy Zane as the gang's leader. Also, great job from Jackie Richardson as Granna Terwilliger (if you get the reference of the surname, you rock) and a pitbull who I hope is not Cooper the dog that they dedicated the movie to in the credits.
The music is pretty on point, not just with the Dio needle drop, but with the scoring by Jack Graubard and music supervisor John Finegold that really captures the overall feel of the movie. The film editing is very good too, so it looks and sounds much more expensive than it actually was and that is incredibly difficult to pull off even when you do have the budget for it, which was $1.5 million. Since it is a Tubi original, that is where it went and that is where stays, so that is place to watch it.
For a movie that makes a lot of strange decisions with glaring plot holes, it is better to just turn your brain off and enjoy it as much as the cast making it did. You can definitely tell they had a great time and that bleeds through the screen.
There is not much gore, except for the only death in the movie where Michael Jai White sings Dio's “Holy Diver” to ease the prowler’s passing in a blood-covered bathtub. That is what kind of movie this is. Don't dig any deeper.
2.5 Out Of 5