When the PR buildup doesn’t match the product
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I heard a lot of great things about the Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Torino. It was rated highly on Netflix, so when the DVD arrived in the mail this week I was very excited about watching it finally. The PR buzz around it has always been extremely positive.
So you can imagine how bummed I was sitting through what I found to be a very slow-paced movie, with (in my mind) not-so-credible acting from good old Clint, and not-so-credible plot development either. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but that was not so credible either.
I go to a lot of movies where there is pure suspension of disbelief, including horror movies. I posted about this for ValleyPRBlog recently. But Gran Torino was different. This was a movie positioned as a drama, and one that was supposed to leave me feeling satisfied.
Ever bought an item based on the expensive packaging, only to find the contents were not quite up to expectations? Sometimes PR can be misleading. Or maybe I’m just a hard-to-please movie customer.
I know what you mean. All movies are hyped to no end. Generally most movies are bad. Hollywood is lazy and over paid. There fore it is a crap shoot. My wife and I like to rate movies with a five star rating. Most tend to be 3 star which means it was OK but wouldn’t want to see it again. Gran Torino was a 3. I thought it was a nice story but you are right. Clint needs to retire.