FilmSnobReviews

Title: About My Father
MPA Rating: PG-13
Director: Laura Terruso
Starring: Robert De Niro, Sebastian Maniscalco, Leslie Bibb
Runtime: 1 hr 30 mins

What It Is: Sebastian (Maniscalco) grew up with a cheapskate for a father. This man, hairdresser extraordinaire Salvo (De Niro) is a hard man. Now as Sebastian grows and is a whole man now he is still sort of stuck in the ways he was taught by Salvo. Now he wants to marry his long time girlfriend Ellie (Bibb) and intended to do so over the Fourth of July weekend…the only issue is Salvo being Salvo over this, rather special weekend.

What We Think: This film is a comedy of some sort. You would not know that because it is not funny. De Niro is sullying his legacy at this point and whatever Sebastian Maniscalco’s schtick is during his standup…maybe keep it there. Maniscalco is a somewhat charismatic fella, but he can’t hold this entire film together and De Niro is really just sleepwalking through this. Leslie Bibb is here as is Kim Cattrall. There’s a very good cast assembled here and speaking frankly it deserves a much better piece. Laura Terruso deserves better. I liked her previous feature Work It. I most assuredly do not like this film, sadly.

Our Grade: D, We gotta stop doing this to Robert De Niro man. The biggest issue with this film…that make no mistake I DO NOT want anyone to watch, is that it fails at the one thing it wants to do. Make me laugh. It is a technically devoid comedy that lacks good writing and doesn’t have a performance one would call “standout”. I think I’m just tired of the lowest common denominator in regards to comedy. With that this stinky piece does not deserve your time so…skip it.