Eastwood knows how to make a movie

Rating: 7/10 (10 January 2009)

Clint Eastwood is without a doubt the biggest movie star since John Wayne rode off the stage.Eastwood has done it all and his latest movie shows that Eastwood went from being a great actor to one of the best directors Hollywood has ever seen.In this movie Eastwood stars and directs.
Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski,a retired auto worker,who is watching his neighborhood turn into a mixture of ethnic groups.Soon after his wife dies a group of Hmungs move into the house next to him.The Hmungs are a mixed Asian people who helped the US during the Vietnam war.Being a Korean war vet Eastwood has no liking for the Asians next door nor much of anyone else for that matter.He has two rather dopey sons who don't have much time for their old man and Kowalski ,being an equal opportunity hater ,seems to hate his own family as much as he does the blacks and Asians who are taking over his neighborhood.Kowalski's pride and joy is his 1972 Gran Torino that he helped build back in his days on the assembly line.
The Hmung family next door has two teenagers ,a girl and a boy,who are soon at the mercy of an Asian gang who attempts to recruit the boy and harass the girl.The gang also develops a liking for the Gran Torino.Kowalski gradually builds up a grudging respect for the Hmung family next door.But the Asian gang soon makes life miserable for Kowalski and his new friends and he decides if the family next door has any chance the gang members must be taken out of the picture.
This was a very good movie.Eastwood knows his stuff and it shows.As an actor or director he is among the best to ever appear on the big screen.He has a presence like no one since John Wayne.
The movie wasn't perfect by any means.The two young Asian actors were surprisingly bad at times.I'm a bit shocked that Eastwood would allow some of their scenes into the picture and a few of the scenes were a bit off ,such as the scene in the barber shop where Kowalski was trying to get the young Asian man to learn to talk 'like a man'.That just didn't ring true for a gruff old man like Kowalski.But still these small issues aside this was a very good film.
The ending was jaw dropping and totally unexpected and Eastwood used his own reputation to completely warp your perception of how this movie was going to end.I'll watch anything Eastwood directs and especially anything he stars in.While he may not hit the mark exactly on every film,who does,his body of work when it's all said and done will stand up against anyone in filmdom history,director or actor.
Rumor has it that this may be Eastwood's last role in front of the camera.I hope not ,he is still more fun to watch than any of the little teenybopper crap-heads who some people laughingly refer to as 'movie stars' these days.
But if it is his last acting role he ended his career with a very good film.Eastwood is one of the giants and we won't see his likes again once he wraps up his career.