With over 50 years in front of the camera, and over 30 years behind it, Clint Eastwood's dynamic ability to entertain audiences worldwide has yielded the 79-year-old icon many Oscar statues. Today, Warner Brothers is releasing his latest film '
Gran Torino' on Blu-ray, and one that surprisingly didn't receive any Academy Awards nominations despite holding the #77 spot on IMDB's Top 250 films of all time.
In the film, Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran who has grown increasingly irritable as he watches the world around him fall into disrepair. Even his own neighborhood has become a source of irritation, with his sole source of joy coming from his immaculately maintained 1972 Ford Gran Torino. When a failed theft of the car results in his Korean neighbor becoming culturally indebted to his service, Kowalski's misconceptions of the world begin to erode as he finds a friend in an unlikely source.
Warner Brothers delivers another outstanding video and audio presentation, though they appear to be holding back on the supplemental material for special edition down the line. As Staff Reviewer Martin Liebman points out, "Though the disc features a strong video transfer and a lossless soundtrack that reflects the low-key tone of the film's sound design, it offers only a few filler supplements that only serve to stir the appetite for more in the way of quantity and substance. Nevertheless, the film comes first, and no doubt this one is exceptional."
Also out today from Warner Brothers is '
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Ultimate Collectors Edition', a film which documents the famed music concert of 1969 in Woodstock, NY. Possibly one of the greatest collections of musical talent ever assembled, Woodstock features concert footage from the best artist of the era, many of which who are no longer around to share their talent. My only reservation about this release is the inclusion of the ridiculous box, and everything included there-in, which drives the price over twice that for most new releases. That, fortunately, is a problem quickly remedied by
importing the UK version (also released by Warner and essentially the same discs) which is $20 cheaper even after paying for shipping to the US.
Sony brings the Clive Owen and Naomi Watts thriller '
The International' out today, while Paramount rounds out the bunch with the catalog releases of '
Fatal Attraction' and '
Indecent Proposal'.
For a complete listing of all the Blu-ray titles released today,
click here.