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Average User Score: 8 (55 sources)

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holabendez

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Going into the movie all I knew was it was a film about an angry old man who learns to stop hating Asians. Turns out the movie is about an angry old man who learns to stop hating Asians, but damn it's a good film. Clint Eastwood plays the best...
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Going into the movie all I knew was it was a film about an angry old man who learns to stop hating Asians. Turns out the movie is about an angry old man who learns to stop hating Asians, but damn it's a good film. Clint Eastwood plays the best grumpy old man ever, and his sneer and growl is perfect. I was surprised how much I liked it.

Top film. Five stars. Should've picked up a best film Oscar nomination, if not the whole thing.

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Posted jun 10, 2009 4:34 pm pt

faCt24

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I liked Clint Eastwood but man this movie made me a fan of his movies forever. The ending was beautifully written. The movie shows the life of an old man who live in a bad neighborhood. I could relate a lot to certain situations in the movie so it...
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I liked Clint Eastwood but man this movie made me a fan of his movies forever. The ending was beautifully written. The movie shows the life of an old man who live in a bad neighborhood. I could relate a lot to certain situations in the movie so it made it easy to keep watching. The movie goes into racial barriers that are in our culture. In the end he needed his neighbors and his neighbors needed him.

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Posted feb 8, 2009 1:06 pm pt

mackski

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I was so excited to see this movie this past weekend because I have only heard great things about it. I loved this film. It exceeded all of my expectations. The story was just so amazing and really hit home in many ways. I can't imagine anyone...
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I was so excited to see this movie this past weekend because I have only heard great things about it. I loved this film. It exceeded all of my expectations. The story was just so amazing and really hit home in many ways. I can't imagine anyone but Clint Eastwood playing Walt Kowalski as the crusty old white guy. This is the best movie I have seen in the past year or two.

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Posted jan 26, 2009 11:11 am pt

killernitty

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The movie was just a slice of how America is at this point. Where a portion of all Americans still try to embrace the old culture while the new combats for it's own identity. We not only have a difference in culture but sex, age, morals, etc...I...
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The movie was just a slice of how America is at this point. Where a portion of all Americans still try to embrace the old culture while the new combats for it's own identity. We not only have a difference in culture but sex, age, morals, etc...I enjoyed the movie and Clint still has it as a writer/director.

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Posted jan 22, 2009 11:08 pm pt

vatterott

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Gran Torino

When I think of Clint Eastwood, I see an old, hurt, and eventually decaying man. Million Dollar Baby gave me that picture. I guess you could say that I am experiencing Déjà vu, because Gran...
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Gran Torino

When I think of Clint Eastwood, I see an old, hurt, and eventually decaying man. Million Dollar Baby gave me that picture. I guess you could say that I am experiencing Déjà vu, because Gran Torino seems to be an echo of that same character psyche (though I have not seen Million Dollar Baby for a while, I do hope I am right in this). However, this echo is by no means fading. Sure he is playing the same character. Practice does make perfect, and boy does that saying come into play here.

The acting, closely seconded by great lines, is what makes Gran Torino. Going into the theater I expected drama from the start (there is plenty to go around, do not be worried), but was caught off guard to be laughing quite a bit. The humor is mostly creative names for Walt’s Hmong neighbors, and other memorable qoutes that make Clint Eastwood a big potty mouth. His constant frustration and deep emotional pain is ultimately what makes this happen. So far this may sound like a bit of a laugh festival (which it kind of is, I guess), but I will rudely interrupt you to state that my heart was thumping throughout the movie. My mind was going too; foreshadowing literally states the climax in vague terms. I almost feel like the movie was not serious enough. Gangbangers do play into the plot, but for large portions of the movie, jokes about manhood lighten things up---dangerously close to too much. Intensity does come about, mostly from plots that temporarily take a back seat. The dialogue adds to both sides of the equation. I would laugh and get excited for some ass kicking simultaneously, making for some temporary joy and lacking some lasting satisfaction.

From what I gather in whiffs and random articles in magazines and the internet, Clint Eastwood is known for thrusting terrific lines through gritted teeth. This happens plenty of times (old? Not really). There are many bodacious lines, all of them executed with that familiar “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have messed with? That's me.� kind of BAMFness. I know I haven’t mentioned the plot at all, but the acting and writing fits perfectly into the context of an already great story. By the end of the movie, the heart that is deep within Walt is visible, through event and symbol. It is ironic that throughout the movie, Walt can maintain everything in his house except himself. Maybe that is his conscience decision, or maybe not. I heard somewhere that lots of great stories have ambiguous endings.

Gran Torino, probably like driving the car itself, never gets boring. A teeny tiny breath of predictable air is cleverly inserted into the movie (actually, it cancels itself out!), leaving space for thought as well as taking up a bit. Without a doubt Clint Eastwood is the carrier of this film. The other young actors deserve their time on screen, especially the witty Sue. I can’t help but feel like the other actors deserve less shadow cast on them, but at the same time feel grateful that they did not carry the film themselves. What Gran Torino does best, is really what Clint Eastwood does best: Entertain with a badass lead, regardless of age (which makes it all the sweeter). As I grow up and eventually grow old, the image that will come to mind when I summon my memories of Clint Eastwood will be this: Old guy, fearsome acting, and dirty insults. I love it already.

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Posted jan 19, 2009 1:20 am pt

smile-n

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This movie was "amazing" in so many ways. Each of the actors ALL perfectly chosen, This film was able to capture all your emotions. Clint Eastwood deserves an award for this movie/performance. The way it makes you feel and how each...
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This movie was "amazing" in so many ways. Each of the actors ALL perfectly chosen, This film was able to capture all your emotions. Clint Eastwood deserves an award for this movie/performance. The way it makes you feel and how each persons life changed another when they needed it most...
This will forever be one of my all time favorites...

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Posted jan 11, 2009 12:17 am pt

bourne36

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I watch this movie last night, and it was incredible. If your Clint Eastwood fan you well love this movie and him. The supporting cast is also good and who knows Clint might get a oscar nod for this role

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Posted dec 22, 2008 10:46 am pt

• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  91
  A movie at once understated and radical, deceptively unremarkable in presentation and ballsy in its earnestness. Don't let the star's overly familiar squint fool you: This is subtle, perceptive stuff.

  by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Read Full Review »
• [+] Village Voice
  
  90
  Above all, it feels like a summation of everything he (Eastwood) represents as a filmmaker and a movie star, and perhaps also a farewell.

  by Scott Foundas | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  90
  Perhaps the best thing about Schenk's script is that it enticed Eastwood to end his self-imposed acting hiatus and bring his one-of-a-kind aura back to the screen.

  by Kenneth Turan | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  90
  Mr. Eastwood is also an adept director of his own performances and, perhaps more important, a canny manipulator of his own iconographic presence.

  by Manohla Dargis | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  89
  Eastwood finds the humorous aspects of the character as well, no more so than when the appetite of the widower who lives on beef jerky and Pabst Blue Ribbon becomes the center of attention among the Hmong women cooks.

  by Marjorie Baumgarten | Read Full Review »
• [+] Miami Herald
  
  88
  The movie is supremely entertaining -- and often hilarious.

  by Rene Rodriguez | Read Full Review »
• [+] Rolling Stone
  
  88
  A lifetime in movies runs through this prime vintage Eastwood performance. You can't take your eyes off him. The no-frills, no-bull Gran Torino made my day.

  by Peter Travers | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Post
  
  88
  It's also a terrific, career-capping role for Eastwood, who claims he's now retired as an actor. He shows off his comic chops more fully than in any film since "Bronco Billy" more than a quarter-century ago.

  by Lou Lumenick | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  88
  Stars Eastwood as an American icon once again -- this time as a cantankerous, racist, beer-chugging retired Detroit autoworker who keeps his shotgun ready to lock and load. Dirty Harry on a pension, we're thinking, until we realize that only the autoworker retired; Dirty Harry is still on the job.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] Wall Street Journal
  
  80
  It's a meditation, as affecting as it is entertaining, on the limits of violence and the power of unchained empathy.

  by Joe Morgenstern | Read Full Review »
• [+] Washington Post
  
  80
  If you can survive the F-bombs and the near-constant ethnic invective, Gran Torino is not to be missed, if only as the gutsy, thoroughly unexpected valedictory of an icon fully willing to spend every bit of his considerable capital.

  by Ann Hornaday | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New Yorker
  
  80
  The movie was not written for Eastwood, but it still seems to be all about him--his past characters, his myth, his old role as a dispenser of raw justice.

  by David Denby | Read Full Review »
• [+] Empire
  
  80
  Simply terrific, enormously watchable and an absolute must for all Eastwood fans. Gotta say it: this film will make your day.

  by Angie Errigo | Read Full Review »
• [+] Christian Science Monitor
  
  75
  This is Eastwood's first acting job since "Million Dollar Baby," and his range, like his raspiness, is fairly one-note.

  by Peter Rainer | Read Full Review »
• [+] Portland Oregonian
  
  75
  Gran Torino amounts to one more elegiac movement in Eastwood's astonishing late-career symphony.

  by Shawn Levy | Read Full Review »