Gran Torino

In a small town, the weeks between Christmas and mid-winter can be a delight, entertainment-wise, before they virtually shut down to the cinematic equivalent of the Dead Sea. In December, the studios have put forth their final movies for the award push, and they eventually trickle out to the hinterlands. So we have had occasion to view quality movies at bargain prices, which here are $3 matinees and senior rates (over 55) and $5 full-price.

In November, I rejoiced with having seen Slumdog Millionaire and Australia. The latter, alas, did not hold up at the box office, which I think is a real pity, and the former has not made it to the small town screens as I had hoped it would. They would both have made the top rating on my movie rating scale:

Worth full price
Worth matinee
Rent it
Free TV
Don't you have anything better to do?

Regrettably Marley and Me has to go into the Rent It category. Yes, I cried, but really, not a strong movie. I could stretch it to be worth a matinee if it were reasonably priced. Bride Wars would be in the same category. As an aside, if you watch the trailer closely, there's a scene where one of our 'heroines' devastates the other's wedding dress. Not in the movie.

On to better pickings: We liked Valkyrie, the Tom Cruise opus based on a true story of a plot to assassinate Hitler. I don't know how well it's doing at the box office, but the History Channel show about the attempt interspersed with how/why the movie was made helped our understanding. Strong matinee to Full Price.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is well done and worth the full nickel, I think. It made me want to find Fitzgerald's short story and read it.

And then there's Gran Torino, the latest from Clint Eastwood. Full price value. I was surprised to see it here, thinking (obviously mistakenly) that it would stay with the big-city theaters. But it sold out here twice this weekend. If this doesn't have Oscar written all over it, I don't know what does. I hope it opened in December somewhere so it's eligible.