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.
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/B07C9QR83JSam 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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