Movie/TV Reviews

Run, Fat Boy, Run

Susan Granger’s review of “Run, Fat Boy, Run” (Picturehouse)

What has David Schwimmer – a.k.a. Dr. Ross Geller – been up to since the demise of TV’s “Friends”? He’s hopped across the pond to make his directorial debut with this relationship comedy.
Commitment-phobic, emotionally immature Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg from “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”) is a big-time loser. It’s not that he’s actually fat; pudgy would be more accurate. No, his sin is that he got cold feet and bolted, leaving his very pregnant fiancée Libby (Thandie Newton from “Crash”) at the altar. Not a swift move.
Five years later, he’s living in the North London basement flat of an Indian widower, Mr. Ghoshdashtidar (Harish Patel), and poignantly participating in parenting their young son Jake (Matthew Festoon), hoping to win back Libby’s affections. In the interim, Libby has become involved with Whit (Hank Azaria from “Dodgeball”), a wealthy, good-looking American hedge-fund trader – and Dennis’ chances are growing dimmer daily.
So – to prove his worth – Dennis, this chain-smoking, beer-swilling slob, decides to run a 26-mile charity marathon, to compete with Whit, as it were. At his side is his poker-playing mate, Gordon (Irish comedian Dylan Moran, also from “Shaun of the Dead”), who bets his savings on Dennis and becomes his coach, along with Mr. Ghoshdashtidar, who buys him splendid running shoes and paddles him with a spatula when he’s lazy.
Using conventional slapstick gags and inventive crosscutting, David Schwimmer makes the most of the somewhat innocuous, totally predictable, obscenity and profanity-laden, slacker script by Michael Ian Black (“Reno 911: Miami”) and Simon Pegg, scoring as a creditable, if not memorable, director. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Run, Fat Boy, Run” trudges in with a mediocre 5. My advice is to wait for the video/dvd.

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Doomsday

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Doomsday” (Universal Pictures)

There must be people who are drawn to action-packed, post-apocalyptic fantasies – because there are so many and, remarkably, most of them seem to make money. So here goes….
In the 2008 prologue, a pandemic threatens to annihilate the human race. It begins in Scotland and, within days of detection, the virulent Reaper virus infects millions. The United Kingdom declares the entire country a “hot zone” and quarantines the populace with a 21st century version of Hadrian’s Wall – with reinforced, steel ramparts and remote sentry guns.
Skip ahead to 2035 and the Reaper re-appears – only, this time, it’s in London. And the Brits discover that, miraculously, there are survivors in Glasgow. Somehow, they must have developed a cure. The Prime Minister (Alexander Siddig of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) summons the Security Chief (Bob Hoskins), who recruits Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), a sexy eye-patch wearing Scot who was evacuated as a wee lass. She and her armed soldiers are to go into the “hot zone” to find a Dr. Kane (Malcolm McDowell) who was working on a counteragent. What they discover are crazed cannibals in a gruesome, graphic medieval netherworld straight out of “Mad Max.”
Writer/director Neil Marshall (“The Descent,” “Dog Soldiers”) shamelessly rips off elements from “28 Days Later,” “Escape from New York,” “The Road Warrior,” “Resident Evil,” and “I Am Legend,” among others, giving you the eerie feeling that you’ve seen all this mayhem before. No doubt that’s why it was not screened for critics before its initial release. It’s also revealing that – in the production credits – the stuntmen and women outnumber the actors.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Doomsday” is a disgusting, gore-filled 2 – with a conclusion that leaves the door ajar for a sequel.

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College Road Trip

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “College Road Trip” (Buena Vista – Disney)

Maybe he read those recently alarming statistics – that one out of four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease – but there’s this small-town Illinois police chief who is determined to protect his daughter’s safety and security, no matter what.
James Porter (Martin Lawrence) is a control-freak. There’s no doubt about it. So when his beloved 17 year-old daughter Melanie (Disney Channel star Raven-Symone) starts looking at colleges, he’s determined that she attend nearby Northwestern, where he’ll be able to keep an eye on her.
But clever Mel has secretly applied to Georgetown University, which has exactly the pre-law curriculum she’d like. With a bit of help from her understanding mother (Kym E. Whitley), she’s off to Washington, D.C. for an interview. But not alone. Dad is determined to drive her, and her little brother (Eshaya Draper) stows away in the police SUV’s trunk, along with Albert, his squealing pet pig. Then there are Mel’s best friends (Brenda Song, Margo Harshman), who meet them at a sorority house stopover. And, eventually, they wind up car-pooling with another father-daughter tandem – Doug (Donny Osmond) and Wendy (Molly Ephraim) – who cheerfully go the extra mile.
Written by Emi Moschizuki & Carrie Evans (part of the Disney Writers’ Program that encourages young talent), along with Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio and directed by Roger Kumble (“The Sweetest Thing”), it’s a skimpy, G-rated TV episode that’s been padded with silly slapstick to feature-film length. Mercifully, that’s only 83 minutes long. And, for those who care, most of the academic exteriors were filmed at various prep schools and colleges in Connecticut. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 t 10, “College Road Trip” is a clumsy, arduous 4. Family-friendly doesn’t have to mean dumbed-down.

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Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” (Fox)

Thanks to Blue Sky, the White Plains, New York- based, award-winning animation studio that rivals Pixar/Disney and DreamWorks, this feature-length adaptation of one of Theodore Geisel’s most beloved tales is absolutely glorious family entertainment.
“On the fifteenth of May, in jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing…enjoying the jungle’s great joys…When Horton the elephant heard a small noise,” begins CBS’ broadcaster Charles Osgood who, as narrator, makes the most of the playfully rhyming text.
That ‘noise’ heard by Horton (voiced by Jim Carrey) turns out to be a faint cry for help emanating from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. It seems that particle houses an entire city named Who-ville, inhabited by microscopic Whos, led by their Mayor (voiced by Steve Carrell). And they’re in danger! So despite being ridiculed and threatened by doubters – Vlad the Eagle (voiced by Will Arnett) and Kangaroo (voiced by Carol Burnett) – Horton, on the advice of Morton the Mouse (voiced by Seth Rogen), is determined to save them – because “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”
Directed by Jimmy Howard and Steve Martino, Blue Sky’s computer animation captures Dr. Seuss’ weird world, particularly the massive clover field in which sweetly sincere Horton must find the tiny speck.
While Dr. Seuss is served better by animation than live-action (“How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “The Cat in the Hat”), the plot’s really too thin so it’s been gently padded with hip, G-rated slapstick comedy by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (“College Road Trip”).
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” is a wacky, wondrous 10 – bountiful fun for children of all ages.

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The Counterfeiters

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Counterfeiters” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Winner of the Best Foreign-Language Film Academy Award, this is a true W.W.II drama that poses a provocative moral dilemma about Jewish collaboration with the Nazis.
Salomon “Sally” Sorowitsch (Karl Markovics) is a Russian Jew who survived the Holocaust. Carrying a satchel bursting with bank notes, he’s gambling recklessly in the casino in Monte Carlo. A flashback to 1936 reveals him as a master forger, specializing in documents of ancestry and passports.
When he’s arrested by Inspector Friedrich Herzog (David Streisow) in Berlin, he’s dispatched to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he curries favor with his captors with his graphic art. But when opportunistic Herzog becomes an SS officer at Sachsenhausen, he sends for Sslly to join other papermakers, photographers and copper engravers in “Operation Bernhard,” in a plan to undermine the economies of the United States and Great Britain with a flood of counterfeit currency. Indeed, from 1942 to 1945, these privileged prisoners were housed separately, fed better and kept relatively healthy – and as a reward for successfully counterfeiting 134 million English pounds, they got a ping-pong table. Meanwhile, others were suffering.
Austrian writer/director Stefan Ruzowitsky delves into the prisoners’ reactions to collusion – like Adolf Burger (August Diehl), an idealistic printer who wants to sabotage the operation. Burger believes that helping the Nazis is betraying the Jews.
“I’d rather be gassed tomorrow than be shot for nothing today,” Sally argues, reasoning, “A day’s a day.”
What makes this movie worthwhile is its depiction of this struggle of conscience. What would you do in such a situation? Would you sacrifice another life to extend your own?
In German with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Counterfeiters” is a compelling 9, chronicling the currency of desperation.

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10,000 B.C.

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “10,000 B.C.” (Warner Bros.)

Evoking memories of “One Million Years B.C.,” “Quest for Fire,” “Clan of the Cave Bear,” “Apocalypto” and the grand spectacles staged by early sci-fi maven Ray Harryhausen, this is an action adventure set in a prehistoric world.
The story begins on a vast frozen tundra where the Yagahl tribe of dreadlock’d hunters pursues woolly mammoths. Their spiritual leader, Old Mother (Mona Hammond) predicts an ominous future, heralded by the arrival of a blue-eyed orphan girl, Evolet (Camilla Belle), and her subsequent capture – during a devastating raid of their tiny village – by ‘four-legged demons’ (slave traders on horseback).
Determined to rescue Evolet and the others who have been taken captive, a hunky, love-smitten, outcast hunter, D’Leh (Steven Strait), takes off in pursuit, accompanied by his aging mentor, Tic Tic (Cliff Curtis), and a young boy, Baku (Nathaniel Baring). They trek over snowy mountains, sneak through a verdant valley filled with gigantic, clucking ostrich-like creatures, make friends with a saber tooth tiger and slog over sand dunes in a vast desert. Along the way, they encounter other bizarrely-costumed tribes that have been devastated by abductions by the slavers and, eventually, assemble a nomadic army. Under D’Leh’s leadership, they follow the North Star and eventually discover a barbaric, pyramid-building civilization, where a climactic battle takes place.
Satisfied with a banal plot, touching only vaguely on paleoanthropology, minimalist dialogue, delivered in stilted English, and rudimentary characterizations, writer/director Roland Emmerich (“Independence Day,” “Godzilla,” “The Day After Tomorrow”) and co-writer/composer Harald Kloser rely on state-of-the-art computer technology and multiracial casting – and, unfortunately, Camilla Belle is no Raquel Welch.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “10,000 B.C.” is a formulaic 5. It’s a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy watching stampeding herds of mastodons.

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Under the Same Moon

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Under the Same Moon” (Focus Features/Weinstein)

Evoking memories of “Cinema Paradiso,” this engaging road movie traces parallel stories of a mother and son in Los Angeles and Mexico.
After sneaking over the border, Rosario (Kate del Castillo) diligently works two house-cleaning jobs in Southern California, hoping that someday her nine year-old son, Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), can join her there. The highlight of her week is the ritual Sunday morning call which she makes to Carlitos from a payphone on an East Los Angeles street corner.
Lonely Carlitos lives with his ailing grandmother (Angelina Pelaez) in Mexico. When the frail woman dies, Carlitos scoops up the money his mother has sent and sets out to find her. He’s smuggled across the Texas border by students (“Ugly Betty” America Ferrera and Jesse Garcia) but loses his cash en route when their vehicle is impounded. That leaves him prey to a junkie who tries to sell him, presumably for child prostitution, but he’s saved by a kind-hearted Latrina who hooks him up with a reluctant day laborer (Eugenio Derbetz) headed west. It’s a long, difficult trip and all Carlitos has going for him is his irresistible sincerity, determination and ingenuity.
Screenwriter Ligia Villabos and director Patricia Riggen tackle the thorny subject of illegal immigration with intelligence laced with humor – and velvet gloves. Young Adrian Alonso (“The Legend of Zorro”) exudes natural charm, as does luminous Kate del Castillo (“Bordertown”), whose outwardly composed character is so desperate that she’s tempted to marry a Mexican-American security guard (Gabriel Porras), just to get her green card.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Under the Same Moon” is a timely, thoughtful 9. In Spanish with English subtitles, it’s a gem – one of those rare films that truly touch your heart.

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The Other Boleyn Girl

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Other Boleyn Girl” (Columbia Pictures/Focus Features)

It’s not really fair to compare a film adaptation with its novel source. While a novel can sprawl over hundreds of pages, a movie generally wraps in about two hours. But this dull mediocrity is an insult to Philippa Gregory’s historical concept of the two rival sisters who both bedded England’s King Henry VIII.
When Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon (Ana Torrent), was unable to bear him a heir, the King’s (Eric Bana) attention was drawn to the nubile daughters of Sir Thomas Boleyn (Mark Rylance) and his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas). Feisty, flirtatious Anne (Natalie Portman) was the obvious choice since she was the elder and, besides, her younger sister Mary (Scarlett Johanson) was already married to a local merchant. But Henry preferred dutiful Mary, dispatching her to serve as his Queen’s lady-in-waiting. Soon Mary became pregnant but her child, alas, was a bastard. Then Anne, having returned from exile in the French court, caught his eye. But she held out for marriage. So Henry Tudor divorced Catherine, abandoned Mary, ditched Roman Catholicism and started his own Church of England. Eventually, Anne had a daughter – who became Elizabeth I – but Anne was beheaded so that Henry could marry Jane Seymour.
Good story, eh? Not the way that screenwriter Peter Morgan (“The Queen”) and former TV director Justin Chadwick present it. Underwritten to the point of sketchiness, you need to understand British history for any of it to make much sense. Neither sensual nor sexy, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanson seem to be groping for subtlety in their characterizations – while Eric Bana just gropes. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Other Boleyn Girl” is a clumsy, clunky 4, totally lacking in passion and cohesion.

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Vantage Point

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Vantage Point” (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

This terrorism thriller has a terrific premise but fizzles into a forgettable formula.
In Salamanca, Spain, global leaders have gathered for an important World Summit Against Terrorism. At a midday rally in the city’s crowded Plaza Mejor, just as the President of the United States (William Hurt) is about to speak, he is shot by an assassin. Then a bomb goes off, reducing the government building behind him to rubble, as a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver) and her crew watch, horrified by what’s unfolding in front of them.
This incident is repeated again and again, each time from a different person’s point-of-view, much like Kurosawa’s concept in his classic “Rashomon.”
There’s the perspective of Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), an understandably edgy, veteran Secret Service agent who, a year ago, took a bullet to save his Commander-in-Chief’s life. At his side is his colleague, Agent Taylor (Matthew Fox), who has another angle, as does a plainclothes Spanish cop (Eduardo Noriega) and an observant American tourist (Forest Whitaker) who chronicles everything on his camcorder.
Although screenwriter Barry L. Levy and director Peter Travis add a fillip of new information, a tantalizing clue, with each retelling, tedium soon sets in, along with growing disbelief. Quick cuts and throbbing music punctuate the seemingly indestructible Barnes’ pursuit of the culprit. The climactic chase is ludicrous, as a multitude of characters careen through crowds, dodge bullets and crash cars – as the body count mounts. Obviously, there’s a dastardly conspiracy but the motive behind this complex exercise in lunacy is never revealed. So there’s no emotionally satisfactory payoff – and far too many loose ends.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Vantage Point” is a suspenseful 6 but it’s all too far-fetched to matter much.

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Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” (Focus Features)

The 1930s and ‘40s were the heyday of Hollywood’s screwball romantic comedies and now, for a brief, fleeting moment, that charming, irresistible nonsense has returned.
In 1939 in London, middle-aged Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is summarily fired from yet another governess position, a profession for which she is obviously not well suited. Downtrodden and desperate, she swipes an employment agency reference and presents herself as a ‘social secretary’ to an American actress/cabaret singer, Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), whose hectic, chaotic life is in need of the kind of order and common sense that Miss Pettigrew dispenses with gallant aplomb. And, while untangling Delysia’s frivolous web of deceit and deception, Miss Pettigrew seizes the exhilarating opportunity to forge a future for herself that she never dreamed possible.
The screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and David Magee – evolving over a 24-hour period – was based on Winifred Watson’s scandalous novel which – back in 1938 – glorified sexually liberated women flouting convention and class distinction. Recently rediscovered by Persephone Books, London’s Daily Mail cited the book’s Cinderella-like message “that everyone, no matter how poor or prim or neglected, has a second chance to blossom in the world.”
Frances McDormand (“Fargo”) merges her down-to-earth intensity with Amy Adams’ (“Enchanted”) recklessness impatience, as they share a mutual, unconquerable hopefulness. Reduced to stereotypes by director Bharat Nalluri (“Tsunami: The Aftermath”), the men (Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Payne, Mark Strong) fare less well, as their giddy fun becomes very deliberate very quickly, their hijinks emerging as complacent, rather than adventurous or daring. Nevertheless, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” is a stylish, sparkly 7. Amid the dark, dreary dirges on the screen, it’s wonderfulness on a rampage.

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