This Really Needs To Get Off The Top 250 NOW!

Rating: 1/10 (14 January 2009)

In real life, I give this movie a six out of ten, but as mentioned in the title, I want it off the Top 250. Was this film good? Yeah, it was, in a made-for-TV-movie-unleashed sort of way. Was it nearly as deep as it tries to pass off as? Hell, no.
Before everyone goes off on this movie being all deep and meaningful, let me remind you it has all been done before, and it has been done better. Better movie exploring racism and the banding together of races in poor neighborhoods? How about Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing"? Better movie about old men teaching a boy about how to become a man? Does "Secondhand Lions" ring a bell?
My main problem with the film is this--no one is surprised by the turn of events. No one is surprised by the grumpy old racist man. From the very beginning of the film it is one long string of predictable events. Oh, there's a racist old man who fought in Korea. Hey look! There's a family of Asians living right next door! Hmmm, the kids cousin is in a really funny looking Asian-wanna-be-tough gang. I bet that will be trouble. Oh, the boy has to go work for the old man? They will probably become best buds and when the old man drops dead, as they always do in movies, he will leave him the car. Let's see...thirty minutes in, and I know the whole movie. The true irony is that in the movie Tao asks Walt if he should watch paint dry, which for a large part is what this movie was like (did that stop me from crying? Of course not.) How about that?
And on the note of symbolism--stigmata is not original. If anything it is overused and used improperly. *Cough, cough* Sorry old man, but you are most certainly not Christ.
On the note of Top 250--It's embarrassing. The fact this movie is outranking truly amazing films such as: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, On The Waterfront, High Noon, The Green Mile, Donnie Darko, The Deer Hunter, Snatch, The Graduate, V for Vendeta, Harvey, The African Queen (the fact it ranks above ANYTHING with Katherine Hepburn should be evidence enough), Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Bonnie and Clyde, Little Miss Sunshine (better old man movie), and The Philadelphia Story, is a blatant embarrassment to American taste in film. HAVE RESPECT FOR THE CLASSICS, PLEASE! Are these films all great movies that will withstand the test of time for ages? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Will Gran Torino last through the week? I SURE HOPE NOT!