Viewed in
2009
Premise
Clint Eastwood is a cranky old vet in the ghetto who somewhat befriends his Asian neighbors.
Who should watch
Clint Eastwood fans.
Thoughts
While not a masterpiece, I was still emotionally satisfied by the great Eastwood.
The first thing was I was surprised by how incredibly funny the first two acts of the film were. Be warned of a ton of racial slurs throughout the film. Somehow the story managed to not make him a racist, but a sympathetic character with racist quirks. It's a fine line. My favorite line was when his Asian neighbors invited him to their party and promised lots of food, and he muttered 'Just don't touch my dog'.
Granted that it was Nick Schenk, not Eastwood who wrote the screenplay, but I would be curious how an Eastwood comedy would be like. I laughed a lot, not just at the racial jokes. Each character had their own voices and were quite memorable, especially Thao and Sue.
About an hour into laughing and loving these characters, I recalled being suckered into the same trap in 'Million Dollar Baby', when I got hit with an emotional hay maker that left me bawling. I meant that as a compliment. My awareness might have affected the last act for me; there were some crucial scenes that did not hit me right, until the climax, then I was shedding tears again.
You cannot go wrong with this surprisingly hilarious (mostly), but ultimately memorable film. By the way, as an Asian myself, I totally loved the scene where Asians just piled food on Eastwood's plate non-stop like a waterfall.
What I would change
See Spoiler section.
Spoiler!
Again, this might be because I was bracing for the emotional turn, but I felt nothing during the gang attack aftermath, nor Eastwood locking up Thao to protect him. I thought the actors were fine, because they were absolutely the perfect cast during the rest of the film. So strangely enough, I would change the directing in those crucial scenes. Thought I do not know how I could have made them more emotional.
