REVIEW: OLD DADS

3/5

Dad Day Afternoon. 

104 Mins. Starring: Bill Burr, Bobby Cannavale, Bokeem Woodbine, Katie Aselton, Reign Edwards, Jackie Tohn, Paul Walter Hauser & Bruce Dern. Director: Bill Burr. On: Netflix. 

Who says, you can't teach an old dad new tricks? Tell that to Bill Burr. The classic comedian with many a Netflix special ('Live At Red Rocks', 'Paper Tiger', 'Walk Your Way Out' and the 'Friends Who Kill' festival special comparing his friends), is making his directorial debut in 'Old Dads', which he also stars in for the streaming service. Think of it as 'The Hangover' that lasts a couple more years, meets the 'Daddy Day Care' franchise he had a dance-off cameo in. 'The King Of Staten Island' and 'Chappelle's Show' (with hair...I'm right there with you, buddy) star has already shown us how versatile he is when he made us cry in season 2 of the 'Star Wars' Disney + show 'The Mandalorian' after his welcome team-up in the first go round. Now the 'Breaking Bad' star may do it again (*hand with a Kleenex up*) when this dad must put a stop to his old ways with a new kid on the block. And if you get that reference, maybe you should too.

'Is This Anything?', asked Jerry Seinfeld last year in an autobiography of sorts that showcased all the jokes that didn't make his final set...and believe me, they're better than most comedians most stand-up work. Burr's brilliantly bruising style is also put on display here as he works out bits, new and old, like the Tom Sawyer bottle flip for you millennial C U Next Tuesday's. A man whose classic comedy was introduced to me by an Instagram algorithm of all things back when I was happy (yeah, I said it) and spending my nights laughing at his s### until gone 3 AM. When he's given a mic for an auction, he's not flogging jokes, he's just holding the whole room with his incorrigible irritability which is actually inspiring, especially in this day and age. As the snowflakes will feel right at home with Christmas coming like a 'Game Of Thrones' finale they still can't get over...even though they haven't seen it. Pricks! Yet, we've already said, Bill has more in his back-pocket and this isn't just a laugh a minute joke-a-thon. He also knows how to tell a story, like all great stand-ups, and put it on screen, off the stage, like only a good director can. He doesn't need his resume doctored by Captain America, like Emily Blunt's character in last week's Netflix movie 'Pain Hustlers'. He's just added another feather in his cap of rib-tickling career left turns.

This might be Bill's movie by all rights, but it's actually all about a big-three that makes 'The Hangover' wolf pack look like mutts. Burr also knows how to direct two modern greats of versatility whose formidable filmographies need no introduction, because their names do exactly that. Bobby Cannavale is just classic as always. And here he plays a man who wants to be so down with the kids he has no idea (like me) that that line is as tired and old as he is. With a neck that an 'Ally McBeal' lawyer would go for, still living off the one time he was confused with a certain singer who like 'Uncle Buck' needed to go downtown and have a rat gnaw that thing off his face, by the singer's own father. Bokeem Woodbine, who those in the know, know, how he is as criminally underrated as he is completely versatile is wonderful as the third king in this pack of Dad's. Especially at the strip-club ("oh, Barbara") and the dressing down he gets later like all those friends you simply can't text anything these days too, because they think they're getting tracked. Nobody gives a s### that I like basketball, and I'm going bald. 'Legion's' Katie Aselton, 'The Bold and Beautiful's' Reign Edwards, and the great 'Glow' of Jackie Tohn all put in work as the long-suffering significant others of these overgrown man-children. Whilst there's a cool and classic cameo from today great Paul Walter Hauser and legend Bruce Dern respectively. This movie might not be gender, or carbon-neutral, but it's not out of step, just out of touch. And guess what, it doesn't give a f###! TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'The Hangover', 'Daddy Day Care', 'Bill Burr: Live At Red Rocks'.