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Saw Gran Torino yesterday and I couldn't agree more. Mystic River and Letters of Iwo Jima were my favorite movie of their respective years. I hear this movie is supposed to be funny but I did not laugh once. Clint delivers all the jokes poorly. And that growling thing and turn of the head for 10 seconds was all wrong. To see the problem in the movie is to see the "I'm going to teach how to be a man" scene. It should be funny but it's not. The movie is tone deaf, clumsy and poorly directed and poorly edited. I can see why critics like it; it's because of those three minutes before the end that should be end but gives way to the other end that shows why this is a razzie contender. It looks like the movie is revisionist and that might have been the intent but you do not reward intentions when the movie is poorly written, poorly acted (that kid is bad. I know he's never acted but he is never convincing, not once), poorly directed; Eastwood deserves the worst actor of the year (he does), tone dear and badly edited by a man who in this movie shows his age. There was a good movie to be found here. I kept thinking of how this movie could have been a 21st century Shane but it needed another director and star.

Anybody with eyes can tell certain critics give Clint Eastwood a pass for merely existing. As evidenced by your review samples from Flags of Our Fathers, a movie that has since been appropriately forgotten.

I realize I sound like a broken record a la Chucky's name-checking shtick when I bag on Kenny T.; And I certainly hope it doesn't imply any disrespect of Clint, who is an icon to me, or his films. But K.T.'s hushed, overly earnest, awe-filled, borderline stalkery appraisals of every Clint film are some of the best comedy going.

In his Torino review, Turan actually says that when Clint directs a movie, "ALL BETS ARE OFF." Then he goes on to quote TINA TURNER; I wouldn't be surprised if his editors have had to dissuade Kenny from publishing a book of Clint-inspired poetry as a Sunday Calendar suppliment. When Turan's reviewing a new Clint flick, I just picture some cartoon where there's little hearts floating around his head accompanied by harp music, and his cheeks go red.

"ALL BETS ARE OFF"? Again, Clint is one of my favorite directors, but as always, Turan makes it sound like C.E. is the ONLY game in town when it comes to adventuresome, sophisticated adult entertainment, and "all bets are off" implies he's doing devastating avant-garde shit; Yeah, that Clint is a regular Godard or Antonioni or Warhol, pulling all those left-field moves are switching up the medium.

All the more frustrating when long-time LAT readers (ie, sufferers) might remember that embarrassing ALL THESE NEW FILMMAKERS ARE TOO PRECIOUS AND TRICKY AND VIOLENT FOR MY OLD ASS epic op-ed piece Kenny T. did a few years back, in which he wrote off AN ENTIRE GENERATION of directors.

I may have to revoke the lifetime free pass I gave to Turan for trying to take down Titanic.

Sadly, he's not the only one. I respect Dargis a lot and it's sad to see her falling for his shit over and over again.

These people are writing like they're trapped in a cage together, and the one who drools out the most sycophantic hyperbole will be let out.

Who's trying to tip Clint for the Razzies?

I just saw the movie, and I thought it was fine. Not a masterpiece, but I think all the 'it's a surefire Oscar winner' talk is hurting the movie. It's simply a good, simple, fun movie. Taken in that vein (and with no expectations), I kind of enjoyed it. I think had it been released in February of 2008, instead of December, the positive reviews would have been muted and the harsh negative reviews wouldn't have been so biting.

I do love how Eastwood gives us priests who are completely intelligent and thoughtful human beings, regardless of whether they disagree with the main character's actions in a given film.

I agree with you Scott. It's a fine film. There's absolutely nothing original about it, but it's done well enough and it's enjoyably diverting. It's kind of like watching a sports movie, you know exactly how things are going to unfold and yet you still wind up rooting for your team to win. And that's what Gran Torino is; it sets the gang members up as the bad guys and we want the good guys to win. As long as Clint gets you to want to see the family next door succeed and the gang to fail, then it's done its job. And I think it did its job.

It's a film that has absolutely no business being nominated for awards, but was definitely not something I was dying to leave. Although Clint singing over the end credits is an unbelievable embarrassment.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given my recent defense of Eastwood elsewhere on the blog, I'm in the pro-Gran Torino camp. There may not be, as Noah say, anything original about it (except perhaps the glimpses of Hmong culture) but having Eastwood on board automatically gives it a resonance in relation to the rest of his career, especially regarding violence. Granted, the Dirty Harry baggage cuts both ways, and I'd love to have seen how the material would've played in the hands of someone like Paul Newman. The film is further compromised by Bee Vang's inexperience (like many non-actors, he's better with the subtle stuff than the big moments), but the pluses outweigh the minuses for me. It's an old man's film about an old man, so even its ragged rhythms and unvarnished look feel right to me.

Gran Torino ruled, and if the mostly-older crowd that was BAWLING at the end and giving it a huge ovation was any indication, Dave is letting his personal dislike blur the pretty obvious fact that this will go over BIG-TIME with the Academy.

Also, Poland, how dare you? The detractors on this one must have ice in their veins, because no matter how old-school, cornball, or unlikely GT seems, it works. If absolutely nothing else, the opening HOUR of Clint growling and drinking and throwing out a million and one insult lines never got tired for me, or for the audience; Yes, the beats are kind of predictable (up to a point) and I'll grant that the "Mr. Miyagi" (ha!) section Poland alludes to is kind of a lull.

And none of it is believable in any way as an sort of realistic depiction of youth violence; Obviously the gang could have and probably would've gone after Clint and the kid at the 17-minute mark in real life. Then we'd have no movie.

But viewed both as a touchingly square, almost '50sish melodrama, and as a logical, sometimes indulgent, sometimes devastating, but always impassioned and valid (perhaps?) final comment on Clint's screen persona of 40 years... It's every bit as vital and poetic and bluntly revealing as a great Woody Allen film.

The kid and the priest are fine; I've seen a lot of hostility toward the actors, but both seemed pretty naturalistic to me. The sister was a charming actress who played off Clint beautifully. I also agree with Mendolson that even to a secular viewer, it's intersting how in this and M$B how Eastwood is taking matters of faith seriously and presenting priest characters that aren't monsters or cartoon villains.

Stern's cinematography is typically fine, a little understated but handsome... kind of back to his "Blood Work" look after the sepia desaturation of Clint's last few period flicks and the heavy blueish grain of M$B and Mystic River.

Easily in my top five for the year, and for a lifelong Clint fan just a perfect mix of his older "Bronco Billy"-era quirkiness, popcorn action rhythms, and "Bridges"/"Unforgiven"-style myth deconstruction.

In other words, they should've just called it "Gran TORINOWNAGE."

Thoroughly random post of the night:

On the "Gran Torino" tip, I watched "Absolute Power" on DVD for the first time in ages today.

Why didn't they just make the Hackman character some evil billionaire or lower-level politician? Would've instantly solved half the movie's insane credibility problems.

Anyway, that moves along nicely enough for about the first hour, and I'm thinking maybe I've been mistaken in ranking it on the lower end of Clint's filmography all these years. Then midway through, Clint evades detection at a police sting by turning up in a ludicrous INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU TRENCH and WIRERIMS and FEDORA, the jacket clearly concealing about eight layers of padding, and I hit the deck.

Finally saw "Grand Torino" last night and agree with Noah and Scott completely. The film's just a fun movie with a little message tacked on to make ya think. They should've released it away from awards season because if it gets nominated, that's a lose-lose.

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