{"id":614,"date":"2010-03-11T13:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2010\/03\/movie-review-gran-torino-2.html"},"modified":"2011-06-14T02:38:35","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T02:38:35","slug":"movie-review-gran-torino-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2010\/03\/movie-review-gran-torino-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review : Gran Torino"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/s907.photobucket.com\/albums\/ac276\/amodini\/?action=view&amp;current=gt1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Photobucket\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i907.photobucket.com\/albums\/ac276\/amodini\/gt1.jpg?w=640\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Gran Torino is a clich\u00e9d redemption tale, with Clint Eastwood playing the character of an abrasive, bigoted old war veteran. And while it might not be a pioneering film, because we\u2019ve seen it all before, it is still entertaining, partly because of Eastwood\u2019s charisma and screen presence (he\u2019s 80) and partly because we\u2019re all suckers for the well-worn formula where the bigot turns out to have a heart of gold.<\/p>\n<p>OK, so then Eastwood is Walt Kowalski, an unpleasant old widower, who\u2019s not got too many friendly words to say to anyone. He doesn\u2019t get along with his sons, and has a majorly racist attitude to the Asian family next door; he liberally spews words like \u201cgooks\u201d and \u201cchinks\u201d around. When Thao (Bee Vang) the Hmong boy next door tries to steal Walt\u2019s prized car, a vintage Gran Torino, as part of a gang initiation, and fails, loner Walt is forced to interact with the family. Thao\u2019s older sister Sue (Ahney Her) persuades cranky old Walt to come eat at a family gathering, and when Walt unintentionally helps drive away gang-members from the family\u2019s front-yard, he becomes the neighborhood hero.<\/p>\n<p>As a part of his atonement for trying to steal Walt\u2019s car, Thao, according to his traditionalist family, must come work for Walt for a week. In that time, Walt, already softened by Sue\u2019s friendly attitude, realizes that Thao needs his help . Will old cranky Walt be able to deliver it in time ?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gran-Torino-Widescreen-Clint-Eastwood\/dp\/B001KVZ6F2?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=amosmovrev-20&amp;link_code=bil&amp;camp=213689&amp;creative=392969\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Gran Torino (Widescreen Edition)\" src=\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?MarketPlace=US&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;WS=1&amp;Format=_SL160_&amp;ASIN=B001KVZ6F2&amp;tag=amosmovrev-20\" \/><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=amosmovrev-20&amp;l=bil&amp;camp=213689&amp;creative=392969&amp;o=1&amp;a=B001KVZ6F2\" style=\"border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;\" width=\"1\" \/>I\u2019ve never considered Eastwood a great actor, so it comes as no surprise that he overdoes it here. Eastwood\u2019s character Walt, is a nasty old man, atleast superficially, so Eastwood goes around growling at people in the film. Vang and Her who play the brother sister team next door aren\u2019t very good actors either, Her being the better of the two.<\/p>\n<p>This is an old-fashioned sort of film. Walt is an old-fashioned sort of a guy, not given to small-talk or niceties after his wife\u2019s death. He spends hours polishing his Gran Torino, and sitting on the porch chewing jerky and reading the newspaper. The film is like him, no frills, rather plain jane-ish when compared to other films. It tells a simple story, and although Eastwood loads it up with every trick in the book, this ham-handed look at goodness in people, leaves you all warm and fuzzy and hopeful.<\/p>\n<p>This film has violence and profanity and is unsuitable for kids under 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gran Torino is a clich\u00e9d redemption tale, with Clint Eastwood playing the character of an abrasive, bigoted old war veteran. And while it might not be a pioneering film, because we\u2019ve seen it all before, it is still entertaining, partly &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2010\/03\/movie-review-gran-torino-2.html\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":"","facebook_10233691416821117_190635594420624":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,68,66,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","category-english","category-hollywood","category-recommended"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"Gran Torino is a clich\u00e9d redemption tale, with Clint Eastwood playing the character of an abrasive, bigoted old war veteran. And while it might not be a pioneering film, because we\u2019ve seen it all before, it is still entertaining, partly &hellip; Continue reading &rarr;","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45CAb-9U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2103,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/2103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}