Gran Torino - 9.5/10 - Excellent movie. I would've given it a 10, but some of the supporting actors were pretty bad at times, especially whoever played Tao. But the overall story and Clint Eastwood made up for that minor detail. You really can't go wrong with a Clint Eastwood movie. I don't think I've seen one single film with him in it that wasn't great. And I haven't seen Bridges of Madison County yet, so that's still true. If anyone else has seen Bridges of Madison County, how about letting me know if it's safe to watch it, I don't wanna ruin my own opinion of him if it turns out to be a piece of shit.
I would rate that one probably a 3/10. I went to see it when it came out in theaters. I would've asked for my money back, but I would've felt wrong for doing it since I knew before it was halfway through that it was going to be horrible and should've walked out when I first realized that fact. At that point, I would've felt a little more justified in asking for a refund. But I actually sat there from start to finish, so I just accepted it and went home. That's kinda like eating a meal at a restaurant, cleaning your entire plate, THEN saying that it tasted like shit and refusing to pay the check. See, I do have a conscience despite what people may say.
a select few, like Sin City, deserve cult status)
I dunno about cult status, but Sin City did a great job of capturing the feel that Frank Miller was going for with that comic series. The whole black and white posterized look of the books was a stylized attempt at giving it a bit of a 50's noir feel, something the movie did an excellent job of. I know I've used the term "noir" a lot lately in describing movies, but Sin City probably captured that essence the best possible way. Protagonists that are the strong silent type with a murky past, tortured conscience, yet have a heart of gold. Inner monologues that are written pretty well and read even better to help tell the story without sounding forced, contrived, and cheesy. Even great movies like Kill Bill vol1&2 didn't do as good of a job at it.
I used to watch it like crazy, until my mom actually heard some of the shit Rik Mayall was saying when I was watching it one day and she threw the movie away .