Gran Torino Quick Review
Gran Torino (Rated R)
Directed by and Starring Clint Eastwood
2008 Runtime 116 Minutes
Gran Torino, which may be Eastwood’s last film he says, is a near-masterpiece. The storyline of a hardened Korean War Vet who lives in a neighborhood and a time that has passed him by, is well-written and interesting. But Eastwood’s portryal of Walt Kowalaski as the hardened, bigoted neighbor in a city that’s run by gangs propels the movie to must-see.
Kowalaski really is a 78 year old Dirty Harry. It’s impressive to see the effect that Eastwood’s stature has on those around him..he strikes true fear into the gangs around the neighborhood. When he says “Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn’t have ***** with? That’s me. ” You shake your head in agreement.
Kowalaski is alone after the death of his wife and spends his days sitting around dying, and cleaning up his Gran Torino. His Asian neighbors are the object of his racial scorn, and this turns worse as the young boy attempts to steal his Gran Torino one night.
You can guess what happens next as he begins to understand life from another perspective and gets to know them better. But that is only where it begins, and the film explores a lot about family, life, love, and sacrifice that you wouldn’t imagine.
Gran Torino has very brutal and offensive language, so be warned. And maybe it’s worth it, maybe it’s not for the purpose of the plot. But seeing Eastwood in this role after a series of stunning career accomplishments is worth it, and as the real Eastwood reaches the end of his life, it’s sad to see this breed of human not around anymore, even with all their flaws. I wouldn’t cross him still.
Go see it.
* * * 1/2 out of 4 stars
My Bloody Valentine 3D Review
My Bloody Valentine (Rated R)
2009 – Runtime 1 hour 41 minutes
Cast: Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins
Review: Make sure you pay close attention during the opening credits, because they blast through a lot of history of the main characters using a 3D newspaper effect, and I was so busy going “ooo kewl” at the effects that I didn’t fully catch some pretty important history of the characters.
But then again, a 3D slasher flick a la the 1980′s hayday of slasher flicks (this film is actually a remake of an 80′s film) doesn’t really focus so much on plot. In that sense, My Bloody Valentine does a good job since it doesn’t totally discard the plot, and offers solid scares (especially in 3D) and what every good slasher film is expected to have in bulk – blood and boobs.
The plot revolves around an incident in a mineshaft where a dozen workers are trapped, and are found dead when they are finally rescued. Their deaths were not from the accident though, one of the miners went insane and may have killed them to save the oxygen. And for some reason I never figured out, it happened on Valentine’s Day.
10 years later (on V-Day) the killer escapes and goes on another killing spree, going back to the mine and (surprise) terrorizing some partying teenagers. In 3D. The rest of the film tries to piece together who it is and why it is and follows the teenagers years later. In 3D.
I saw the film in Real 3D, which (if you aren’t aware) is a far cry from the blue and red glasses days, and you get a sturdy pair of specs with no coloring at all. The image is really clear, in color, and the effects really do jump off the screen. While the film provides some pretty funny, sometimes neat, and often times disgusting, 3D effects, I felt they could’ve done a little more sometimes. But when they’re good…they’re good. A scene in an empty grocery store looking down the aisles is chilling.
Today’s horror flicks are “torture” types, where they focus the camera on the gruelling detail of sadistic murders, classic slasher flicks like this, on the other hand, offer gallons of blood, insane body part loss, and unrealistic murder that’s way over the top. That being said, there’s a number of distrubing death scenes, so beware.
Though the film is Valentine’s Day themed, it really makes no sense why, and it also makes no sense to see this as a Valentine’s Day movie. VDay sucks enough already without all this murder. If you like a decent horror flick, and are interested in 3D , go check it out in the theater. If not, it’s barely worth a rental price without the 3D as a slightly-better than average plot, a fair cast, and a number of decent scares.
1/2 out of 4 stars. (2 for the movie, 1/2 for the 3D)
Whining About the Papa John’s Bowl
Updated 1/3/09
Well, a poor performance in a lackluster bowl secured the Gamecocks second disappointing bowl performance in two years, with the years also being mediocre at best.
Here’s the commentary on the eye-closingly poor performance in the post season.
We might have had an excuse in last year’s Outback Bowl. For this one, there’s no explanation according to Ron Morris.
20,000 Gamecocks fans show up for the PapaJohn’s.com Bowl. Gamecocks offense doesn’t.
What more really can be said here, we didn’t even play the game. It was boring and humiliating. Again, as is customary for Gamecocks fans to say, we’ll get ‘em next year. Maybe our new Offensive line coach will help (yes, we did have an offensive line coach this year).
Well, it looks all but settled the Gamecocks will be bowlin’ at the Papa John’s Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama. Considering the mostly lackluster season we had, I should be grateful. And with the possibility of an 8-5 season rather than what could’ve been a 6-7 at worst, we should take it. See The State story here. Update: Or did things just get more interesting?
But, just like the stupid Papa John’s Pineapple pizza, I don’t have to like it.
Perhaps if I whine loud enough they’ll decide they don’t want us. Or at least I can get free pizza coupons for being an unhappy customer.
If you haven’t heard much of the Papa John’s Bowl, here’s a brief top ten overview of it…and why I don’t want it long time. This is a crappy list, I know. So is the bowl. But I’ll feel better afterwards.
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1) Last year’s game – Rutgers beat NC State.
Rutgers and NC State last year had a combined 3-11 record the first half of the season. In 2006, powerhouses South Florida and East Carolina duked it out for the golden pepperoni.
2). Technically the name is the PapaJohns.com Bowl. It isn’t even the pizza place, it’s just their website.
3) On the brightside, that empty corner might get more use if we’re playing. Oh wait, it’s in Birmingham. Yes, this is actually a photo from the official Papa Johns Bowl website. Perhaps Connecticut travels well?
4) It’s on January 2nd.
The only upside is that in previous years, it was on Dec. 22 and Dec. 29. Everyone’s still asleep on January 2nd from the New Year’s games, getting rested up for the BCS games. Mainly I’m whining because I’m going to have to take an extra day off work. (oh that’s a Saturday. Well…I drive really slow ok.)
5) USC will likely play the winner of the Connecticut-South Florida game. Assuming one of them scores by Jan. 2nd. Does the plot thicken and USC ends up playing a top 25 team??
6) Spurrier on the bowl inciting confidence - “But if it is Birmingham, that’s certainly fine with all of us.”
7) If we lose I’m going to punish myself with eating Papa John’s crust plain without any garlic butter sauce on it for a year.
8 ) It’s the lowest rated SEC Bowl tie-in. While Papa John’s may be better the next day, SEC leftovers aren’t so great.
9) Actually this is an upside, at least we’re not the cheaper half of the pizza bowl rivalry.
10) Another upside, if we end up winning, Clemson can save face and say they lost to the PapaJohns.com Bowl Champion Gamecocks.
Bonus – this also is a picture from the Papa Johns Bowl website. This bowl may be alright after all. Go Gamecocks!
