Clint Eastwood’s “Gran Torino,” aka, “Hey, Get Off My Lawn, You Friggin’ Korean Kids!” has itself a trailer and god, this is the thing everyone’s flipping over and expecting to earn multiple nominations, including some predicting a Best Actor nomination for Eastwood? Apple’s got it here.
From we get from this trailer, Eastwood’s doing a caricature of every grumpy old man in America, with his trade mark scowl, but this time to hilariously exaggerated effect (see the photo). No, really. Eastwood (who also directs here) even growls at one point, armed with a shotgun, “get off my lawn!” We’re not kidding.
Opening Dec. 17 in limited release in “Gran Torino,” Eastwood plays a disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski who sets out to reform his whippersnapper neighbor, a young Hmong teenager who tries to steal his most prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino. He resents his neighbors and dislikes their presence, but hey, redemption comes when Eastwood and the boy bond and they both show each other to look past their indivdual biases. Argh!! C’mon!
Regardless of what we think this has Oscar-bait written all over it. Redemption tales of grumpy old men? The Academy loves this stuff. Wait, maybe this is Eastwood’s last acting performance he says? Yup. “Yeah, it’ll probably be my last,” Eastwood told USA Today. “I’ll be drummed out of it after this one.”
All the more reason to celebrate him one more time, no? Sorta, he’s kinda kidding, but notes there’s not that much left for him. “It was fun [acting in ‘Gran Torino’]. But I’m not destined to do too many more [acting turns]. I’ve been happy doing the ones I haven’t been in.”
Whatever, that probably won’t matter for his chances. It looks really cliched to us, but that’s never stopped Oscar before.
The whole premise is rather ironic too, considering his recent beef with Spike Lee who accused him of unfair racial depictions. Eastwood shrugged off Lee’s comments and what does the logical old white dude do then? Make a film where he chases and beats up Asians? Funny, huh?