New on DVD

New on DVD

Gran Torino
Rated R for language throughout, and some violence
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Director/star Clint Eastwood is a disgruntled Korean War vet named Walt Kowalski whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino in mint condition.  When the Asian boy from the house next door tries to steal it after being pressured by his cousin’s gang, the kids family makes him work off his debt to Walt to make it up to him.  As the racist Walt grows attached to the family he once hated, he becomes mixed up in a battle to keep the young boy out of his cousin’s gang and keep his family safe.  While I didn’t really like the film much as a whole – I understand why it was a runaway hit at the box office: people connected with Clint Eastwood again.  Clint is fun to watch, engaging, and you can’t wait to hear what his character will say next.  The rest of the film, however, is bad.  The acting by the boy and girl next door, as well as the pushy priest, is pretty darn horrible.  One of the things that might have contributed to the bad acting is that the directing job is one of Clint’s worst.  It felt like Clint didn’t rehearse the scenes at all and only shot one take.  Still, if you are just looking for a racist old comical coot and a story with a decent message, you’ll probably find it entertaining.  C+

The International
Rated R for some sequences of violence and language
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Clive Owen is in Interpol agent trying to expose a high-profile financial institution’s role in an arms smuggling deal.  As far as action thrillers go, there’s a decent tale here, but it’s been played before.  Owen’s character seems like a mix of all of his other thriller roles and Naomi Watts stars in a complete throw-away part.  I have liked some of director Tom Tykwer’s work, such as Run Lola Run and Perfume, but The International serves as a completely average and forgettable movie. C

Fired Up
Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, partial nudity, language and some teen partying
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
The two most popular guys in high school decide to ditch football camp in favor of cheerleader camp in the hopes of scoring with as many of the 300 cheerleaders in attendance.  Instead of making a complete parody of Bring it On and calling it Cheerleader Movie (I really hope this never happens), Fired Up goes for a much subtler parody, yet wittier concept.  Sure it’s stupid, silly, childish, and immature.  But it also provides some very big belly laughs and I found the leads, Nicholas D’Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen to be very charismatic and fun to watch.  While the unrated version would have obviously gotten an R rating, I am very surprised that the PG-13 version made it through the MPAA.  It’s a pretty vulgar film for teenagers to be watching.  B-