Review: 'World's Greatest Dad'


Robin Williams is the world's greatest dad.  No, that's not a typo, he really is the world's greatest dad.  See the movie poster?  Well, then it's true.

Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, a unsuccessful writer whose books have been rejected for publishing many times.  He is also an English teacher whose poetry class isn't that popular.  His son, on the other hand, is even less popular.  He is a total nutcase who is obsessed with watching porn, under achieves and always gets his way, no matter what!  Lance's son, Kyle, is played by Daryl Sabara.  That name not sound familiar?  You ever seen Spy Kids?  You know the brother and sister duo in those movies?  Yeah, he's the brother!

Lance tries and tries to bond with his son but his son could care less about bonding. He cares about another type of "bonding"... see what I did there?   One night, Lance, after a night out with Kyle and his noncommittal fellow teacher girlfriend Claire, he finds that Kyle has accidentally killed himself from autoerotic asphyxiation.  Upon seeing this, Lance stages the death to look like a suicide.  He then types a suicide note on Kyle's computer.  No one really cares about the death... until the note gets published at the school newspaper.
Students love the note and start to like Kyle after death.

Lance, liking the new attention, keeps the gig up by publishing the new found journal entries by Kyle, even though Lance, himself, wrote them.  His son becomes more popular after death and Lance enjoys the new attention he has always wanted.

I find this movie to be hilarious in every way.  The jokes are blunt and the acting is pretty good.  Robin Williams is fantastic as always and a bright spot but the real winner in the movie is Daryl Sabara.  Every time he speaks in the film, you just can't keep your eyes off him.  He is really funny.

I highly recommend this film but if you don't like crude or perverse humor, you may not like this as for the first half of the film, that's where most of the humor comes from.  The second half of the film is more drama and serious but it balances really well.

Overall, a great movie.  One of Robin Williams' best performances and the ending is so satisfying.  Go watch it... or you'll turn into a ghost. (though being a ghost may not actually be a bad thing)