Bedtime story
December 25th, 2008 | by shipsintheedge |Holiday Box Office: Lotsa Good Stuff & Some Utter Crap to “Balance” It Out
By Debbie Schlussel
Because of a snowstorm, I did not make it to a screening of “The Spirit,” and missed “Bedtime Stories” because it screened at the same time as “Valkyrie.” Will see the first showing of Bedtime Stories in the morning and add the review here by Noon.
* “Gran Torino“: Although Clint Eastwood long ago veered away from Dirty Harry in favor of more politically correct films with anti-war and pro-euthanasia messages, it’s fitting that this is likely his last film as an actor. Although he plays Walt Kowalski and not Harry, Eastwood has come horror movies full circle to the kinds of films that made American audiences love him and pay to see him act on the big screen.
And it’s got a lot of great things about it: the bad guys get their due (with a “peaceful” twist), a man who is cynical about religion finds G-d, and it’s a-laugh-a-minute funny on top of it. Politically correct, this movie is not.
In this–as with the Dirty Harry movies–Clint Eastwood tells the bad guys where to go in many scenes. There are no “Go ahead, make my day”s or “Do ya feel lucky?”s. But there’s plenty of dialogue just like it.
Eastwood’s Kowalski is a 78-year-old recently-widowed army veteran. He’s tough and doesn’t take guff from anyone, especially his ungrateful, spoiled children and grandchildren, of whom he’s not fond. He rightfully sneers when his granddaughter wears a belly shirt to his wife’s funeral in church. Kowalski’s openly racist and bigoted and insults and mocks pretty much every single ethnic group you can think of (except, interestingly, Muslims and Arabs–gee, I wonder why). He also doesn’t like the fact that his neighborhood has been taken over by Hmong (Vietnamese and Laotian) immigrants.
(If there’s any fault with this film, it’s that it takes place in Michigan (as a tribute to the place it was shot–metro Detroit). There are few Hmong here. As a one-time Wisconsin resident who worked with the Hmong in Madison, I know well that their area of popular concentration and the area where there are problems with Hmong gangs is Wisconsin, where the film was originally set.)
Kowalski has a prized possession that everyone wants–his beautiful classic Gran Torino. He catches the young Hmong download comedy boy from next door, trying to steal it. Soon, Eastwood takes the boy under his wing, and slowly learns to appreciate his Hmong neighbors. But the boy is being heavily recruited by a violent Hmong gang, which terrorizes the neighborhood.
Gun control is, happily, not practiced in this movie. Walt is ever-present with rifles, pistols, you name it. They help ward off crime. And while Kowalski is skeptical of the Catholic Church and repeatedly fends off the young, peacenik priest who pesters him to go to confession, Kowalski eventually appreciates the need for spiritual sustenance in a moving way.
One of the year’s best, this movie is a can’t miss, but it’s far too violent for young kids. For teens, it is okay.
FOUR REAGANS PLUS
* “Marley & Me“: This is a fun, cute, hilarious, lighthearted movie you can take your whole family to see. Yes, the ending is sad, but not too sad for kids. Based on the best-selling book of the same name, the movie follows a couple of newspaper reporters from their snowy wedding night in Michigan to becoming the parents of three young kids, all while they experience it with their dog, Marley (named after Bob Marley).
The husband, Owen Wilson, is troubled that he’s given up his dream to become a famous investigative reporter for the New York Times, to become a columnist for a major Miami newspaper, writing a lot of co …
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