hapgilmore

This movie was AWESOME! Seriously, I don't know why some of you are being so hard on it. Clint was great and I thought the acting overall was good. Not to mention it is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time (its really hard not to laugh at Clint being the most bitter man alive). The ending was unexpected, yet very satisfying. Overall 3.75 out of 4.

NoirFan

Unexpected? Really? The ending was telegraphed from a mile away.

hapgilmore

Mercury&Solace

How about the ending was absolutely unnecessary.

You mean to tell me a local gang, one that the local police for sure know about, can shoot up a house in a drive by (attempted murder, possession of a deadly weapon) then kidnap, rape and assault a minor, and the police can't do anything until Clint gets blown away? What a fucking joke! Absolute and total inconsistency in the movie, the police at the VERY LEAST would have a warrant to search the gangs premises, found insane amounts of illegal guns, and of course all evidence of rape and assault. Did they even take the girl to the doctor? How about filing a report? Those fuckers would be in custody instantly, its not like they were hiding, they were AT HOME! LOL. After those 2 things, the police would have them in custody immediately. Period. Could have even saved Sue. Have we forgotten about all of this? Its all planned out shock value for the audience, any hack director could have done 100 times better than this. Please, this movie is a joke.

WHAT?!? WTF? Were we watching the same movie? The acting was laughable, and absolutely terrible. Looked like they pulled these actors off the street or out of some hack high school play. Clint was pathetic, his grunting and moaning in every line of dialog was terrible. Go watch a real movie with some quality acting than this tripe.

Daytripper

I'm so glad to see more posts like this. The whole time I was watching this film I just kept shaking my head and thinking "This is bad.....wow...this is really bad". I agree with your earlier post that Clint's movies over the years have been mostly hit or miss. For example, "MDB" was perfect in every way IMO. But this....this seemed like it was made by someone not even associated with that great film. As you (and so many others) have pointed out, the acting was just terrible. I can't solely blame the unknown cast who have clearly never had any training or possibly never worked before. They didn't have much to work with, with the equally awful screenplay. And Clint's performance didn't fare much better. Grunting, mumbling, snarling and spewing racial slurs.

Dr Mabuse

Why don't you learn to use the spoiler button?

This post is pathetic.

You might also pay a little more attention to a movie you are watching and you won't be in the dark about plot points.

stingermck

Actually your right:

Open casting calls for Hmong actors were held in Hmong communities in Detroit, Michigan; Saint Paul, Minnesota; and Fresno, California. None of the Hmong actors in the cast had acted in a film before except Doua Moua.

To me, this added some realism to it, but I liked the movie.

Sid Yobbo

A great film about the handing down of core American values from one generation to the next.

Eastwood is magnificent as the bitter old man reluctantly teaching the Hmong kid next door how to be a man. The acting by the non-pros is adequate while the actors playing the priest & the barber are fine & the latters scenes with Clint in fact provide some of the biggest laughs in the movie.

I'm not at all surprised that this is the no 1 movie in America. It's a snapshot of a real America & the blue collar working class characters are treated with affection, not disdain, or condescension, or smug superiority (see under 'Coen Bros' for that). What's interesting to me is that liberals will like it because they think it shows a racist learning the error of his ways, while conservatives will love Walt's blunt, no nonsense attitude & feel that this is a repudiation of the PC values that have smothered society. Hey, it's a movie with something for everyone!

All that aside the film nods to Eastwood's screen persona with several scenes intentionally evoking the Eastwood of the Leone westerns or Harry Callahan. The ending is typical Eastwood in the way it wrongfoots the audience. We may anticipate that Eastwood is going to die but the exact manner of his fate is a surprising & deeply touching one. As a capper to his screen career he couldn't have gone out better than this. When the final song starts to play & Eastwood sings a verse in character as Kowalski it proves so moving that it's almost impossible to hold back the tears.

10/10

hapgilmore

You are nitpicking something minor. Yes, the police should have played a bigger role, but does that ruin the movie? Not at all. Can you honestly tell me this movie did not engross you from beginning to end? I don't understand why everyone is being so hard on the acting, it all seemed fine to me. Bottom line is you can nitpick any movie, no matter how good it is if you really want to. Can't you just enjoy something for what it is?

Brent L

I liked that because it reminded me of the old neorealist film style quite a bit.

With the money it's making, I don't think it bothered too many other people.

steebo777

You obviously don't understand Detroit then (and this is set in Highland Park, so might as well be the D)

The police probably wouldn't even show up if called because they have so much going on and such a small police force. There wouldn't be a warrant for the arrest, and the rape victims unit might show up or might now. Basically, if you are ever in trouble in the D, the only way to get the fuzz to go anywhere is to say there's a fire (or a murder).

As for the acting, I didn't really enjoy anyone in the movie other than Clint. He made the movie to me and it was a total blast every scene he was in. Plus they had a ton of locations that I knew, inlcuding the barbershop I go to.

NoirFan

Unless you're an African-American.

Sanjuro37

Somewhere between the people calling this one of the worst movies they've ever seen and those calling it a masterpiece lies the truth. It's a weak film made thoroughly entertaining by Eastwood's performance (phoned-in as it may be) and his minimalistic direction. Not even close to great, but not "This is what you should be feeling right now" unlike MDB and Changeling.

Shannon Nutt

Yes, it's a pretty large and obvious plot hole, but you probably should have spoilered those remarks.

Mercury&Solace

Quit whining.

Your an idiot for coming into a movie thread that 7+ pages deep, for a movie that has been out for weeks and you haven't even seen the movie yet. You know damn well that people are going to be talking about the movie and plot points. Call me out all you want, it happens in every thread, I ain't the only one.

Yall need to get off of Eastwoods nuts, and really look at this movie, and quit looking at the fact that Eastwood is in it/directed it and that yall think he is is some sort of god that can't do wrong. I know, I know its the "thing to do" to love Eastwood, going along with and loving everything he does, and treating his stuff like Casablanca. This is a shock value movie only. Grab a classic acting icon, use a hot button issue, like racism, use some grossly misleading advertising that makes it look like the next Dirty Harry, and you can easily manipulate the mainstream crowd. Its mostly all shock with no substance. Ya there were a few good moments in the film, but very few.

The guys acting/direction record is spotty at best as I have mentioned. Any 2nd rate director could have handled this movie, and if you would have gotten a better actor, that doesn't grunt and moan all the time, like lets say, Robert Duvall, he could have done something decent with this material that was thin to begin with. This movie is the poor mans Crash, and that isn't saying much at all.

I can't agree or disagree as I don't live there, or ever been there. It may be like that or not, I don't know. Maybe this movie could have been a little better in terms of explaining these things, and why the police had little interaction in the movie. I mean, the police hung around when the priest told them something "might" happen, nothing even happened and they were there. Once again I can't comment on the area as I don't live there, but maybe this is an element that could have been added in the movie.

stingermck

Ok, but only since you told us to.

I still enjoyed the movie with or without someone telling me to to do so.

arminius

You sir are a Weeney.
But seriously, you do not live anywhere near a major city like NYC, LA or Detroit. Forget about the the Hmong did not file a complaint, which is normal for an immigrant community, there were no witnesses to anything. Shots fired and you think they would even make an arrest? Based on what, that you saw them. Its a movie, the cops didn't know it was them. And for what its worth the cast thought you have poor riting skilz.

Dr Mabuse

This little snippet sums you up rather completely.

If you practice, and keep trying, you may yet find yourself intelligent enough to figure out and use the spoiler buttons... when discussing a film that opened 3 days ago.

SethDLH

Really loved this movie

Sanjuro37

I thought it was fucking ridiculous when the dog took some bullshit energy pill and punched all those gangbangers. He doesn't even have fists! Amirite, Mercury?

Patman

"Bolt meets Gran Torino" I love it!

Daytripper

Wide. It opened on 12/12 limited.

hapgilmore

You know whats funny? Mercury and everyone else that doesn't like the movie are going to get real mad when great word-of-mouth carries the film to over 100 million and it goes down in history as a classic (not saying that it is, but most audiences are going to love it).

tbird2340

Shilex

I've talked to a lot of people around here who have seen it, and most people love it (even the ones I would have assumed wouldn't).

I'm really surprised considering how much I didn't like it. Usually my tastes are similar to my friends, but not in the case of Gran Torino. I am happy to see a film with major Asian characters popular at the box office, but I wish it wasn't this one.