how is this ranked so high

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2009)

I had no intention of watching this, but my friend called me up and asked me if I wanted to watch it. I must say that I do not know why people love Eastwood's movies so much. I felt as if it was just not put together well. Maybe that is not the best way of putting it, but I would definitely say that he has no originality and does not bring anything new to the table as a director. To me it seems as cookie cutter as one can get with movies of this type. I felt as if the acting was terrible, but there were moments when I thought Eastwood was good, but not enough for me to think that he did a good job with the movie. I do not think that the script was all that strong to begin with and the dialog was a weak as it could get. I know the movie is about breaking views about stereo-types and prejudice and crap like that, but it did not resonate at all. I found myself laughing at a lot of racial slurs and I do not know if that was intentional, but it took away from the seriousness of the movie for me. Being a minority growing up with a lot of racists in my life might have skewed my view on this, but I do not think this was a realistic progression for any of the characters. This movie is as formulaic as it gets from the script to the music choices to the acting. Nothing unique about this movie to make me want to rate it any higher.