Lucky Grandma Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Lucky Grandma Blu-ray Movie Review

An outstanding dark comedy gem that cements director Sasie Sealy as someone to watch

Lucky Grandma is a must-see action-comedy with surprising thrills throughout the entire zany thrill ride. The surprisingly entertaining under-the-radar gem features a knock-out lead performance by the great Tsai Chin (The Joy Luck Club). A girl power movie executive produced by Melvin Mar (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level), Lucky Grandma is one of the best indie-spirit action-comedies that I've seen in years.

Grandma (Tsai Chin) is in for a surprise. The bad-ass grandma is having the time of her life when she wins big at a casino. Yet the great fortune windfall is followed by a greedy gang of ruthless gangsters hoping to steal her cash. Attempting to thwart their attempts to take-her-out, Grandma enlists the help of bodyguard Big Pong (Hsiao-Yuan Ha). Can Grandma survive to see another day or will the gangster henchmen be victorious?

Lucky grandma? More like... badass grandma.

The success of Lucky Grandma rides entirely on the shoulders of leading lady Tsai Chin. The talented actress manages to bring a sense of bad-ass cool to the leading role. An outstanding role for Chin, the actress delivers a fantastic performance that demonstrates her great comedic timing. There is a sense she has total control over her role. Chin manages to make her character memorable and entertaining from beginning to end. Her performance elevates the material and helps the film excel as a must-see action-comedy gem.

The production has a number of noteworthy merits. The costumes by Aubrey Laufer (Fits and Starts, Grand Army) are effective and fit the characters and their styles well. The original music score by composer Andrew Orkin (The Boy from Geita, According to My Mother) adds to the dark comedy undertones and the action-packed fun. The cinematography by Eduardo Enrique Mayén (All Saints, Alpha Alert) gives the film a bright, colorful, and vibrant style.

The film is commendable for giving a voice to an under-represented group in cinema. Not only is the film a female-driven feature, the focus on Asian Americans is appreciated. Lucky Grandma is all the more impressive for bringing a diverse story to the table. The film was partially produced as part of a project to bring diverse stories to the screen (in collaboration with Tribeca). The film does a great job telling the kind of story one normally wouldn't expect to see in cinema. I hope more stories with this kind of diversity and compassion are produced in the future.

Co-written and directed by Sasie Sealy (The Elephant Garden, Love in New York), the gifted director impresses with her exciting feature-film debut. Having worked on a number of noteworthy television series and shorts beforehand, the filmmaker seamlessly transitioned to feature-film territory with this film. Lucky Grandma has a amazing sense of style. The film is full of action, heart, and humor. The screenplay was co-written by Angela Cheng (Guessing Game, Wicked Desire) and the efforts of both writers gives the film a sense of comedic style that is unique. Telling a story that is not-so-common in cinema, the grandma-as-hero concept is perfection. This is a great story with a strong female character. If only more filmmakers told stories like this one. A must-see gem.

Lucky Grandma Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, Lucky Grandma is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. This was a surprisingly impressive and satisfying presentation. Though the feature-film seems to have been produced on a somewhat modest budget, the visuals are impressive. The Blu-ray features a high-quality encode which showcases the film in the best quality the format has to offer viewers. The presentation is sleek and crisp. There were no compression woes to distract from the viewing experience.

Lucky Grandma Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release features two lossless audio options: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Lucky Grandma is in Mandarin, English, and Cantonese with optional English subtitles. The film has a surprisingly robust surround sound track. The track surprised with a lot more punch and great LFE performance that expected. The action scenes have a real sense of depth to them and that was something that brought the filmmaking to life: a fun, action-packed, and engaging sound mix. The dialogue is consistently crisp, clear, and easy to understand. When the film does use subtitles, the subtitles were well-done and don't have any distracting spelling or grammatical errors.

Optional English SDH subtitles (for the deaf and hard of hearing).

Lucky Grandma Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Behind the Scenes Featurettes:

Asian Influence (HD, 5:12) explores the Asian-influence of the film.

Why is this Important? (HD, 1:52) focuses on why telling these kind of diverse stories is so important to the future of cinema.

Unfiltered with Tsai Chin (HD, 3:15) is an interview with the lead actress of Lucky Grandma.

Meet the Characters (HD, 2:32) delves into the characters that make up the quirky action-comedy.

Tribeca Premiere (HD, 1:32) showcases the premiere event for Lucky Grandma.

Supporting Underrepresented Stories (HD, 1:30) further delves into the importance of diverse roles and productions in cinema.

Women in Film (HD, 2:22) explores the significance of having features made by and starring women.

Lucky Grandma Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:43)

Lucky Grandma Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was enormously surprised by how delightful Lucky Grandma turned out to be. The film is a great action-comedy with a tremendous lead performance by Tsai Chin (The Joy Luck Club) at the heart of the film. The story explores a strong female character in a unique and compelling way. The concept was great. The production was similarly impressive and well-mounted. As the feature-film debut of the talented director Sasie Sealy, I was extremely impressed. I hope to see more films from the director in the future. The Blu-ray release features an assortment of extras and a strong video- audio presentation. Highly recommended.