The characters here are all clichés, and 'Grandma's Boy' is yet another vehicle for a wimpy Lloyd to make a hero of himself, which becomes a bit tiring when you've seen it numerous times before. And as often seems to be the case, achieving it relies on brainless violence (in this case an extended punch up finale). It's a shame this is resorted to, because he is more than capable of coming up with funny gags, and there are quite a few sprinkled throughout here (the facial expressions as Lloyd accidentally eats mothballs, yet tries to hide his distaste from the girl he wishes to impress, is hilarious). To be fair, it also features the exact same story template as his more acclaimed 'The Kid', yet comes five years earlier.
When a killer tramp is loose in a country town, all the men must go out to try and catch him. Lloyd becomes separated from the group, and in one of the funnier sequences, has his confidence completely shattered after a series of mishaps in a barn. His Granny, who raised him from childhood, gives him a good luck charm that helped his grandfather, and with this in hand, Lloyd suddenly has what it takes to capture the tramp.
I won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen it - but this good luck charm is a double edged sword as a story telling device. On the one hand the twist at the end is entirely predictable, but on the other, it does provide the violence some thematic depth it otherwise lacked. And who knew mutton chops would suit Lloyd so well!
If you've seen many silent comedies, there is nothing terribly original here, but it was only his second feature, and there are certainly flashes of the talent on display that would be better harnessed in not-to-distant features such as 'Safety Last', 'Why Worry?' and 'The Freshman'. The sentiment of this film - the sweet country air, the homeliness, the lovable Granny, and our poor hero - was also to its advantage.
Some are also commending it for being a coherent story in an early stage of cinema, but this was not unusual for the time. There were many films of this length being made by 1922, and pretty well all of them were coherent, while gag based comedies had been around for many years prior, albeit mostly in the shorter two-reeler form. 'Grandma's Boy' is actually quite a simple story. It's not unlikeable, just lacking the cleverness of the best comedies.
When a killer tramp is loose in a country town, all the men must go out to try and catch him. Lloyd becomes separated from the group, and in one of the funnier sequences, has his confidence completely shattered after a series of mishaps in a barn. His Granny, who raised him from childhood, gives him a good luck charm that helped his grandfather, and with this in hand, Lloyd suddenly has what it takes to capture the tramp.
I won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen it - but this good luck charm is a double edged sword as a story telling device. On the one hand the twist at the end is entirely predictable, but on the other, it does provide the violence some thematic depth it otherwise lacked. And who knew mutton chops would suit Lloyd so well!
If you've seen many silent comedies, there is nothing terribly original here, but it was only his second feature, and there are certainly flashes of the talent on display that would be better harnessed in not-to-distant features such as 'Safety Last', 'Why Worry?' and 'The Freshman'. The sentiment of this film - the sweet country air, the homeliness, the lovable Granny, and our poor hero - was also to its advantage.
Some are also commending it for being a coherent story in an early stage of cinema, but this was not unusual for the time. There were many films of this length being made by 1922, and pretty well all of them were coherent, while gag based comedies had been around for many years prior, albeit mostly in the shorter two-reeler form. 'Grandma's Boy' is actually quite a simple story. It's not unlikeable, just lacking the cleverness of the best comedies.