Gran Torino (2009) • USA

I tried three times and couldn't get past the first twenty minutes, or so. The setup, the writing, is so immature and clichéd I couldn't take it. No creativity, no nuance, no respect for the audience. I was thinking ... if I get past the funeral opening, where a pierced belly button is used to set the stage for generational gap, and two sons have a discussion about their father in that way people never talk except when they're characters in movie providing background on another character ... I might be good to go. Sometimes directors shove too much down your throat at the beginning of a film so they can get on with telling the story. But the hits just kept on coming.

I'm not saying this is a bad movie. To be clear, I'm saying I found the first act so insulting I couldn't go on. So, technically, I can't say.

2 comments:

  1. Glad I saw this semi-review or demi-review. It's on the list of new films, Nick and I are scheduled to see. So, wait for the HBO run.

    I will probably end up humoring him by going with him, since he pays for 80% of the movies we go to. And he's my only real (as opposed to virtual) male friend. Larry has become virtually virtual since I've only seen him once in the last twenty years or so.

    Anyway thanks for the warning about this movie.

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  2. If you want a second opinion, Zack Mosley, over at strip nude for your killer, actually watched the whole movie.

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