Grumpy Old Men – Blu-ray Disc Review
July 9, 2009 – 6:14 AM --- by: Justin SlussTags: Ann Margret, Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah, Donald Petrie, DVD vs. Blu-ray Screenshot Comparison, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Pollack, Walter Matthau, Warner
has an average rating of 6.7 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 25gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 2.0 & Dolby Digital 2.0
only includes the Trailer…
– 
– 1993
– 104 minutes
– Warner
– 
Overall Verdict – Fans Will Be Pleased
Buy it for $18.99 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Justin Sluss —
The Movie Itself was the second repairing of the two late-great comedians / actors Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau who originally became an unforgettable comedic duo in the 1968 film adaptation of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple“. The film was written by Mark Steven Johnson who went to later on write and direct two comic book movie adaptions, “Daredevil” and “Ghost Rider“. The film was Directed by Donald Petrie.
“John Gustafson” (played by Jack Lemmon) and “Max Goldman” (played by Walter Matthau) are lifelong neighbors and were originally childhood friends but for the last five decades or so the two have been in a bitter feud. The whole thing that sparked the “feud” between the two was as you would expect, a fight over a woman that both men were attracted two. That woman was the wife to one and the other found a wife as well but both now (present time) have passed away and our two former childhood friends are both living at home alone.
This does bare some similarities to the comedic duo’s original pairing “The Odd Couple” but is nothing at all like that film as it is really more a mix of comedy (rivalry) and romance (which again, triggers rivalry). The romance, center of attention and female that comes into the mix comes from a new neighbor that moves in across the street from John and Max. Attractive widow “Ariel Truax” (played by Ann-Margret) moves to the small snowy Minnesota town from what we expect was a much bigger city. Her unusual antics and obvious beauty soon gain the attention of both John and Max as they spy on her across the street, instead of spying on each other in their usual routines of bickering one another.
During the day the guys like to go ice fishing where you’ll always see John’s father “Grandpa Gustafson” played by the late-great Burgess Meredith who always has something absolutely hilarious to say. A bit of the movie unfolds at the place where the guys ice fish but for the most part it unfolds at the homes of our two main characters.
Joining the cast of characters (co-stars) are Max’s son “Jacob” (played by Kevin Pollack), John’s daughter “Melanie” (played by Daryl Hannah) and bait shop owner “Chuck” (played by the late Ossie Davis).
Overall, looking back on “Grumpy Old Men“, it was almost as good as the original “The Odd Couple” film adaptation and the sequel to this, “Grumpier Old Men” which I actually prefer to this. It’s definitely a film that is sure to leave anyone laughing, especially those who have seen old men bicker like this in real life. Tons of laughs to be had and even a love story too.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the VC-1 codec on a BD-25 (25 gigabyte single layer Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
DVD vs. Blu-ray Screenshot Comparisons
First of all as you’ll notice above, the fact that this is actually in a 16:9 (Widescreen) aspect ratio on it’s Blu-ray Disc debut is a huge improvement in comparison to the previously available DVD release which was only in a 4×3 (1.33:1) aspect ratio. The image quality too is an extremely huge improvement in comparison to the previous DVD release. Detail in close-ups is pretty darn impressive now and the overall presentation looks good. The black level is solid, fleshtones are accurate and the color palette is vibrant at times, especially because of snow. Overall, I think fans who previously owned this on DVD or VHS will find it as a huge improvement (as stated above), enough to earn it a solid “4 Star Rating” for video quality on this Blu-ray Disc debut.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in both a new Dolby TrueHD 2.0 lossless mix and the previous Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix from DVD release. It may come as an unpleasant surprise to some that this did NOT receive a 5.1 Surround mix but I do the news here and saw the press release many months prior to it’s release and was not surprised by the sound configuration. I was however surprised a tad bit by how decent a job the new lossless TrueHD 2.0 Stereo mix did. Dialogue is delivered perfectly throughout and never requires any volume adjustments. The film has a few bits of music, namely during the intro (title sequence) where we get the old song “Heat Wave” performed by Ella Fitzgerald which sounds lovely. There’s obviously nothing here that is going to really “blow you away” or anything but it definitely does the film justice and gets the job done. This earns a decent “3 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. Kudos to Warner for actually giving it a TrueHD track regardless of it lacking a 5.1 mix.
Bonus Materials are Standard Definition video quality and in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound @192kbps.
- Theatrical Trailer” is the ONLY bonus material included and no surprise, it’s presented in just Standard Definition video quality.
Overall, the bonus material we get here is nothing new in comparison to the previous DVD release and is actually a bit disappointing. Both stars of the film are now no longer living so a retrospective from them was obviously out of the question but still this seems to really need some real supplemental material of some sort other than what little we get below.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
One Response to “Grumpy Old Men – Blu-ray Disc Review”
“Genuine imitation leather”
Walter Mathau knocked it out of the park as did the entire cast.Just a nice warm movie to snuggle up to anytime of the year.
By Gerald Orr on Jul 9, 2009