Walt Kowalski sure is a gruff, old sonuvagun. The Korean War veteran and former Ford assembly line worker is a chain-smoking, Pabst-drinking, old guy that grunts whenever witnessing things that ain't like they used to be. Which, for a racist, old-school coot like Walt, is pretty much everything: grandkids wearing football jerseys to funerals (his beloved wife just passed away), navel rings, Asian immigrants populating his old, formerly blue-collar, white-as-snow Detroit neighborhood.

Clint Eastwood sure is capable of playing a gruff, old sonuvagun. His latest acting/directing effort, "Gran Torino," is proof positive of that, if nothing else. Fortunately, it's proof positive of much more than that. Namely, that the tough-guy Hollywood legend who made a name for himself playing the Man With No Name in the trio of spaghetti Western films "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the 1960s still has it.

Walt's always attended Catholic church, but confession? Please.

"I confess that I never cared for church that much," the gravel-voiced Walt tells the persistent, young priest who became close to his wife in the months before her passing. And he's certainly in no mood for confessing to an "overeducated, 27-year-old virgin."

When some gang members harass his Hmong neighbors and stumble onto his property, Walt's not afraid to load up the shotgun and tell the invaders to not so kindly get out of Dodge. Not to be the hero to his innocent neighbors, mind you, but to get the intruders off his finely manicured lawn — and away from his prized possession, his mint condition Ford Gran Torino.

Nevertheless, the Hmong community immediately deems Walt an unlikely hero, and takes to showering him with gifts. It's not long before the disgruntled Walt begins loosening up and getting to know his immigrant neighbors. It's not long before he realizes he has more in common with them than he does his two sons, neither of which he's ever been close to. He's soon playing a father figure of sorts to Thao (played by Bee Vang), the lone boy in the family, showing him how to do projects around the home and teaching him how to talk like a man, so long as you're a man who enjoys using many four-letter words and insulting racial and ethnic slurs.

If it all sounds a little unappetizing, it is, in a way. If it sounds a bit on the politically incorrect side, it definitely is. But Eastwood somehow manages to make it quite palatable, and often downright hilarious.

Playing Walt gives the remarkably fit 78-year-old (78!) Eastwood the opportunity to relive the hardened persona he once famously portrayed in the likes of "The Good "¦" and "Dirty Harry." It wouldn't have seemed at all out of place for ol' Walt to mutter, "You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" And although Eastwood's been in a number of great movies in his later years, "Gran Torino" features his best one-liners since that 1971 cop movie.

In showing a softer, mentoring side to the grizzly Walt, Eastwood also manages to make a stubborn, old racist about as cuddly and fuzzy as a stubborn, old racist can be. For having such a rough exterior, "Gran Torino" is as much a feel-good story as it is a hard-hitting piece of social commentary.

Preventing "Gran Torino" from reaching "movie of the year" status is the supporting cast around Eastwood, as well as the over-the-top stereotypes used liberally against Asians. While the other largely unknown cast members do a decent job fulfilling their roles, it's clear they're amateurs compared to the silver-haired alpha male next to them (although, who isn't?). You can tell they're trying, but perhaps they're trying a bit too hard at times, as the movie occasionally comes off as a bit forced.

Similarly, the slurs get to be a little overbearing at times. Like, could Walt ever form a sentence to an Asian without belittling them at least once?

Still, Eastwood is remarkably close to the top of his game, and I'm sure not one to tell him he's got to stop just because he's nearing his eighth decade.

I don't feel that lucky, punk.

Joel Sensenig is news editor of the Review Times. If he's even still around then, he wouldn't mind looking like Clint Eastwood in 46 years.