Gran Torino
Clint Eastwood says this will be his last film as an actor (though he also directed it, and he plans to keep on doing that for a while yet). It's a shame because he's still a great screen presence.
As Walt Kowalski, an embittered Detroit widower and Korean War veteran, he's fast forwarded Dirty Harry to his near-dotage. He may have been good once, but life has ground him down, and now he doesn't care for anyone or anything except his 1972 Gran Torino car, which he keeps in pristine condition.
Racist Walt certainly doesn't care for his Hmong neighbours, but when their teenage son tries to steal the car as part of his initiation to a street gang, Kowalski catches him red-handed and ends up unintentionally defending him from the gang, receiving the unwelcome adoration of his neighbours.
In other hands, the story of Walt the unlovable misanthrope, gradually finding a way to accept the world as it is and not as he would like it to be, could have been mawkish, but Clint keeps it taught, tight and believable, never slipping into easy sentimentality. If this really is his last bow as an actor, it's a worthy one.
The Blu-ray has an excellent full 1080p transfer with vibrant colour and impressive audio (though some of Kowalksi's growled utterances are still more or less unintelligible) and HD extras include Blu-ray-only The Eastwood Way, showing the background to the film, and a couple of car-centred docs, as well as access to BD-Live.
