Gran Torino

As the years increase, so does my respect for Clint Eastwood. This movie had a lot of things going for it – great writing, acting, story… I think the best part was the pace of the movie. There wasn’t some “Hollywood moment” where things changed for the movie’s hero; it was a real process.

Escape from Alcatraz

Interesting how low-budget this seems. There’s virtually no score and the lighting is really pretty bad. Yet, it does work. I couldn’t help thinking if this was made today, how much more they’d make our hearts leap – thinking they were going to get caught again and again and again in an emotional roller-coaster. From that aspect it was a little refreshing. That lack of constant tension made it a bit more real.