Walking into Gran Torino, I was expecting an average movie that would attempt to show that Clint Eastwood could still be an action hero and kick ass. Well I saw that Clint Eastwood can still act and direct to close to perfection at the age of 78, but this was so much more then the gritty action movie I was expecting to watch. Its an unexpected must-see of racism and people changing for the better. It’s was much better than I was expecting it to be.

Gran Torino is the story of a bitter old man named Walt Kowalski who just lost the only person he ever truly loved. He’s an enraged bigot and a war veteran. He’s the last american living in his neighborhood and doesn’t like it. He uses offensive stereotypical names throughout and doesn’t let up. He ends up befriending a few of his neighbors and learning that there’s more to life than lonliness and hatred. Throw ina 1972 Gran Torino and a gang whose leader is related to one of the chinese neighbors, and what you’ve got is a fantastic movie.

Clint Eastwood was absolutely spectacular in this film. I loved every moment he was on screen, which was 95% of the movie. I pray that this, even though it was a great movie, won’t be his last movie. If its not too much to ask I also pray he would do just one more western, that would be amazing. If there’s one complaint I would make about this film it would be the acting. Aside from Clint Eastwood being amazing as usual, the rest of the cast was a bunch of mediocre no-named actors. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with no named actors, they sometimes can add to the realism of the movie, but the least you could’ve done is picked some good ones.

That was the only con out of a lot of pros. What was so enjoyable about Gran Torino, was while is was a very emotional and dramatic tale race and the good that can shine from the darkest of places, it also had a lot of comic relief. There were many moments that made me laugh out loud. It wasn’t the racist jokes that were funny, it was the arrogance of the character that was funny. It was the way Walt treated everybody especially his friends. All and all Gran Torino was a great watch and I can’t wait to enjoy watching it again.

Grade: A-