Dirty Grandpa – UHD Review

2.5 Stars The greatest gift a grandson can give his grandfather is a hot college girl who wants to have unprotected sex with him before he dies.

Jason Kelly (Zak Efron) is tasked with bringing his recently widowed grandfather Dick Kelly (Robert De Niro) home to Florida. Jason is already uptight over his imminent nuptials to fiance Meredith (Julianne Hough) and work pressure from dad David (Dermot Mulroney), but reluctantly agrees. It becomes immediately clear that Dick isn’t taking his mourning too badly, he’s single and totally ready to mingle. What should be a quick drop off becomes a multi-day bender mixing Jason up against a friendly dealer Pam (Jason Mantzoukas), beefhead lacrosse bros, and other local weirdos. Dick becomes entwined with sexpot Lenore (Aubrey Plaza) while an old acquaintance, Shadia (Zoey Deutch), has Jason rethinking his life choices.

Dirty Grandpa (2016)
Released: 22 Jan 2016
Rated: R
Runtime: 102 min
Director: Dan Mazer
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza
Writer(s): John Phillips
Plot: Right before his wedding, an uptight guy is tricked into driving his grandfather, a lecherous former Army Lieutenant Colonel, to Florida for Spring Break.
IMDB rating: 5.9
MetaScore: 21

Disc Information
Studio: Lionsgate
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 2160p HEVC w/HDR
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio: Dolby Atmos, English 5.1 DD, Spanish 5.1 DD
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Rating: R
Run Time: 1 Hr. 40 Min.
Package Includes: UHD, Blu-ray, Digital Copy
Case Type: Keep Case
Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 06/12/2018
MSRP: $22.99

The Production: 2.5/5

For a film called Dirty Grandpa there isn’t a whole lot of dirt here other than beach bodies and flirty talk.  DeNiro really puts his 40 year reputation on the line in one scene early in the movie and Efron’s nearly nude dancing can’t even be considered in the realm of titillation.  Midnight Run 2 this is not.  Consider it a buddy film with a few outrageous incidents, but not an end to end riot.

There are a few laughs here and there, mostly from Tan Pam (Mantzoukas) and Adam Pally’s unhinged Cousin Nick.  But it’s not enough to sustain the film and it’s a bit flat during the character development.  A chase sequence and a wedding that echoes the end of Crocodile Dundee both fall short.

Video: 4/5

3D Rating: NA

So Dirty Grandpa ships as a Dolby Vision UHD.  Why?  I have no idea.  There are very few scenes that make tremendous use of HDR.  There’s a number of night scenes and they are well represented with minimal noise.  The rest of Dirty Grandpa looks fine for a modern release with plenty of detail especially in the Florida outdoors.  Beaches and golf courses shine.  I didn’t notice any haloing or other effects, but I didn’t go pixel peeping for them either.  Overall it looks fine, but nobody out there is pining to use Dirty Grandpa as any kind of reference material.

Audio: 4/5

Yep, Dirty Grandpa has been re-mixed for the home in Dolby Atmos.  There’s 3 scenes where this make sense, 2 of them are in disco halls and the other is a beach concert venue. The music pumps nicely in these scenes.  Otherwise Atmos is totally wasted and there are no significant uses of audio rising above the standard 2d sound plane.  It checks the box but doesn’t earn any high marks.

Special Features: 3.5/5

On the UHD we have:

  • The filthy truth: Making Dirty Grandpa featurette – decent
  • The art of seduction – FUNNY
  • Daytona Heat about the cops Finch (Mo Collins) and Reiter (Henry Zebrowski) – (totally skippable)
  • I got nothing to hide – a look at Pam – decent
  • Gag reel – decent

Apparently the bluray has an audio commentary from the filmakers with no shame, but I didn’t spin that up.

Overall: 3/5

Dirty Grandpa is mildly amusing for its run but never hits anything memorable.  Even the titular dirtiness is a bit of misdirection.  If seeing DeNiro briefly debase himself or seeing Efron party in the nude is your thing, maybe you will dig it more than I did.

https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Grandpa-Blu-ray-Robert-Niro/dp/B07C9QR83J

Sam is both a moderator and reviewer at Home Theater Forum and is the voice behind Home Theater United, the Home Theater Forum Podcast which he started with cofounder Brian Dobbs. Sam has long advocated modest, best “bang for the buck” theater components and is loving every minute of this golden age of home audio-visual magic. Sam is a software engineer, a former volunteer firefighter, a current planning commissioner, leader of a large board gaming group and the personal servant of two tuxedo cats.

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Colin Jacobson

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Apr 19, 2000
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I’ve had way worse, but this coulda been better!

Yeah, I agree. "DG" is a bad movie but it's not quite as terrible as its reputation indicates.

De Niro actually shows more life than one would expect - he's stuck in awful situations, but he looks like he's enjoying himself.

And Aubrey Plaza goes a long way to redeem her scenes.

Is it a "D-" movie? Yup, but given that we all expected "F----", that's an improvement! :D
 

skylark68

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Never been a fan of De Niro and the title alone puts me off this film, plus the terrible reviews it received. I assume he made it for the money. The only film of his I have on disc is The Untouchables.

Yeah, same here. Untouchables is it.

I've seen Taxi Driver, Once Upon A Time in America, Godfather II, Goodfellas, Casino, Deer Hunter, etc. and he's mostly a one trick pony. I know lots (most?) of people think he's among the greatest but he's one of my least favorite pre-eminent actors of the last 40+ years.
 

Colin Jacobson

Senior HTF Member
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Never been a fan of De Niro and the title alone puts me off this film, plus the terrible reviews it received. I assume he made it for the money.

That's a common assumption, and a logical one, but like I alluded above, he really seems to be enjoying himself in this one.

Maybe he thought it'd be a fun little movie?
 

titch

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Kevin Oppegaard
I assume he made it for the money.
I love the story in the tabloids of him blaming his wife.

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture...itty-movies-because-wife-spends-all-his-money
dtjzks_vlpxtuhh5bbqqtaoacfbjzp5z8a5ybiubwlw.png.jpeg
 

Malcolm R

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You have to believe that out there, somewhere, the studio just knows there is a group of people thinking, "You know, I'd really love to upgrade to 4K, but there just aren't really any need-to-own titles yet in that format. If only they'd release more films like Dirty Grandpa and National Lampoon's Van Wilder in 4K, then I could justify making the investment in this new format."
 

titch

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