Entertaining Movie, Anticlimactic ending

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2009)

I have to agree with some posters that this film (especially on IMDb it seems) is overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's very entertaining, the acting (at least from Eastwood) is believable. It's funny and fresh. The storyline is not entirely unique but it's fresh given that I don't think I've ever even heard of the Hmong people much less seen a movie surrounding their culture. So in that sense, the movie works, it has a lot of good characteristics.
But classic? I'm just not there yet. It's missing something. The plot is not fleshed through enough and the ending is disappointing. It simply does not deserve to have ratings similar to a "Shawshank Redemption" or "Rocky" or whatever, it is not that caliber of film.
So I say go see it, you'll leave feeling entertained and you'll probably be thinking about a lot of the subtle and overt messages in the movie--which means it did its job. But don't go in expecting it to be the "greatest" or whatever silly adjective that has been used to describe it. "Greatest" it is not. "Good" yes.