by Matthew Gammond

 Yes, you read that right. This really is a Hit Stop feature. I hate this movie.

Gran Torino is a much-loved film amongst my circle of friends and I have no idea why. It came out in 2008, but I only got round to seeing it earlier this year, and I’m thankful I put it off so long. This is a movie that stars and is directed by Clint Eastwood, which for the most part is Hollywood gold. His films always receive a positive critical response and I agree with a lot of the reviews – I’m a massive fan of Million Dollar Baby, for example.

by Matthew Gammond 

It’s always hard to discuss a tragic real-world event, and it’s harder still to make a movie about one. Of course, lots of true life disasters have made their way to the big screen, often with mixed results, but for my generation there is one event (or date, rather) that is at the forefront of our minds when we think of tragedy – 9/11.

The 13th anniversary has just passed by and as usual the television channels were flooded with news coverage, tributes, documentaries... and movies. Despite the world thinking that making a film about the events of that September morning was in bad taste, we got a few anyway, proving that studios didn’t believe the subject was to lie in a perpetual state of ‘too soon’. And despite still getting emotional when I think about what I saw that day, I’m glad films were made about it.