‘The War With Grandpa’ Blu-Ray Review – A Harmless Family Comedy For These Serious Times

Sixth-grader Peter (Oakes Fegley) is pretty much your average kid—he likes gaming, hanging with his friends and his beloved pair of Air Jordans. But when his recently widowed grandfather Ed (Robert De Niro) moves in with Peter’s family, the boy is forced to give up his most prized possession of all, his bedroom. Unwilling to let such an injustice stand, Peter devises a series of increasingly elaborate pranks to drive out the interloper, but Grandpa Ed won’t go without a fight. Soon, the friendly combatants are engaged in an all-out war with side-splitting consequences.

For in-depth thoughts on The War With Grandpa, please see my colleague Dom Fisher’s review from its original theatrical release here. 

Video Quality

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment brings The War With Grandpa to Blu-Ray with a stunning 1080p video presentation. The image is clean with the bright color palette popping off the screen. The film employs nice splashes of bold colors within the production design and clothing, which makes for a very striking image. The black levels are appropriately deep and inky with no discernible digital noise. The flesh tones are natural with a magnificent amount of detail present in close-ups, especially. The presentation provides a significant amount of depth on display, especially in the interior shots. The production design from the classrooms to the electronics store, along with the fabrics of clothing, provide crystal clear textural details. This is as solid of a presentation as any modern movie should deliver on Blu-Ray.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray comes with a stellar DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that recreates the settings perfectly. Dialogue is the driving force of the film, and it always comes through crisp and clear without being clipped by any competing sounds. There is very little in the way of action sequences, but the environmental sounds of the world engage the surround speakers in a really pleasing way. Ambient sounds are precisely placed in the rear channels. The music in the film fills the speakers in a wonderful, well-balanced way. There are a few exaggerated moments in the film, such as a furniture collapse, that engage the low end in a really pleasing manner. The audio track is not pushed to the limit with this content, but it nonetheless proves to be an excellent sounding presentation for this feature.  

Special Features

There are no special features provided on this disc. 

Final Thoughts

The War With Grandpa is not high art, but it plays way better than you might expect from the marketing materials. The movie is really silly, but it has plenty of heart to go along with the humor that makes this one a nice option for those looking for a bit of escapism. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray with an A+ audio and video presentation, but no special features to enhance the package. This will not rank as the best film in the filmography of any of these talented actors, but it is a harmless feature that might just put a smile on your face for a couple of hours. 

The War With Grandpa is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital. 

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.

Dillon Gonzales

Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.