Movie/TV Reviews

Rocky Balboa

Susan Granger’s review of “Rocky Balboa” (MGM release)

World heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is back in the ring – 30 years later – for one final round.
For those too young to remember, Rocky, a.k.a. the Italian Stallion, captured our hearts back in 1976, not to mention three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. “Rocky” scored seven other nominations, including Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. Then came five forgettable sequels.
Now Rocky’s a weary, depressed widower, mourning the death of his beloved wife Adrian (Talia Shire). His brother-in-law Paulie (Burt Young) chides, “You’re living backwards; change the channel from yesterday.”
While awkwardly struggling to maintain a relationship with his yuppie son Robert (Milo Ventimiglia), who resents living in the shadow of his famous father, Rocky runs a small Italian restaurant in South Philly, extending friendship to a down-on-her-luck single mom (Geraldine Hughes) and her rebellious teenage son (James Patrick Kelly III).
One day, ESPN showcases a simulated match between athletes of different eras: the current, vastly unpopular heavyweight champ, Mason “The Line” Dixon (real-life boxer Antonio Tarver), and the young, vigorous Rocky.
That gets Rocky thinking about how much he misses the sport – and fight promoters are eager to stage a real-life rematch of the cyber-fight at the glitzy Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. Billed as an exhibition, it turns into far more.
Writer/director/actor Stallone’s assertion that “anything is possible, if you believe enough” still strikes a resonant, if corny chord. And his inspirational, nostalgic sprint up the grand steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is revisited, not only in the narrative but also, amusingly, over the final credits. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Rocky Balboa” punches hard with a heart-tugging, uplifting 8. “The last thing to age on somebody is their heart.”

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The Good German

Susan Granger’s review of “The Good German” (Warner Bros.)

Intrigued with the black-and-white movies of the 1940s, Steven Soderbergh creates a shadowy espionage thriller that’s more of a film-school exercise than a satisfactory cinematic experience.
When Jake Geismer (George Clooney), an Army war correspondent, returns to post-World War II Berlin to cover the Postdam Conference (in which Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill decided how to administer the defeated Nazi Germany), he’s assigned a motor-pool driver, Tully (Tobey Maguire), a sleazy wheeler/dealer with ties to the thriving black market who, inadvertently, leads him to find an old girlfriend, Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett). It seems Lena’s husband Emil (Christian Oliver) is one of the German rocket scientists whom both the Russians and the Americans covet for their escalating arms race. Sly, secretive and mysterious, Lena is a “femme fatale,” an expert manipulator – as Jake soon discovers – who is desperately trying to escape her past.
Problem is: there’s little chemistry between Clooney and Blanchett, and the still-adolescent-looking Maguire is seriously miscast as the opportunistic romantic rival.
Loosely based on the novel by Joseph Kanon, it’s adapted for the screen as a film noir by Paul Attanasio. For period authenticity, Steven Soderbergh utilizes stock footage, including some Berlin background scenes used for Billy Wilder’s “A Foreign Affair” (1948), while Philip Messina’s production design, Louise Frogley’s costumes and Thomas Newman’s score complete the time warp. As for cinematographer Peter Andrews and film editor Mary Ann Bernard, they’re Soderbergh’s pseudonyms – because it’s his show, all the way, including a rainy ending at the Berlin airport that tries to duplicate the conclusion of “Casablanca,” except for Claude Raines. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Good German” is a stylishly self-conscious 6. It’s a stilted artifice, a mildly engrossing melodrama.

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Dreamgirls

Susan Granger’s review of “Dreamgirls” (Paramount Pictures)

“Dreamgirls,” about the trials and tribulations within a ’60s Motown trio modeled on the Supremes, could rival “Chicago” in the upcoming Oscar race. It’s that good!
When Effie White (Jennifer Hudson), Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles) and Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose) make music together, it’s assumed that Effie will take the lead. She always has. But when their careers stall, despite singing backup for manic R&B artist James ‘Thunder’ Early (Eddie Murphy), ambitious, Svengali-like promoter Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx) elbows out their manager (Danny Glover) and revitalizes their sound, making Deena into a sleek soloist and pushing zaftig, soulful Effie into the background. With her brother C.C. (Keith Robinson) writing their songs, Effie’s justifiably angry and resentful, particularly since Curtis has become Deena’s lover. Kicked out of the group by consensus, brassy Effie is quickly replaced by compliant Michelle (Sharon Leal). The Dreamettes then go on to fame and fortune, while Effie’s left behind in Detroit. But there’s an emotional price to be paid.
Writer/director Bill Condon (“Chicago,” “Gods and Monsters,” “Kinsey”) heightens parallels with the Supremes by having Deena’s hairstyle, clothes and sound unmistakably Diana Ross’ – and Beyonce, of course, left Destiny’s Child to become a superstar. But it’s “American Idol” runner-up Jennifer Hudson – with her big, belting voice – who steals the show – and exuberant Eddie Murphy is a revelation.
The Broadway musical score by Henry Krieger and the late Tom Eyen works well, particularly with the addition of four new numbers. The soundtrack is simply sensational – and utilizing the relevant racial and socio-political context through newsreel footage is effective. Admittedly, there are character-development and transitional weaknesses, yet on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Dreamgirls” is a dazzling 10 – one of the Best Pictures of 2006!

10

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Night at the Museum

Susan Granger’s review of “Night at the Museum” (20th Century-Fox)

Set in Manhattan’s Museum of Natural History, this adventure/comedy centers on the spooky mischief and mayhem discovered by a bumbling new security guard.
When out-of-work divorced dad Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) worries that his son will reject him for a new Wall Street stepfather (Paul Rudd), the lad (Jake Cherry) sensibly suggests that he get a regular job instead of dreaming about doing something big. But on his very first night covering the graveyard shift, relics from the past, miraculously, come to life – thanks to an Egyptian tablet.
The skeletal Tyrannosaurus Rex wants to play as growling Neanderthals quest for fire. Mayans, Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun leap into battle, but the bickering miniature cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and tiny Roman general Octavius (Steve Coogan) provide the most fun.
Chaos reigns until the wax figure of President Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), yearning for beautiful Native American guide Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck) who is trapped behind glass with explorers Lewis and Clark, helps Larry, who’s been abused by a capuchin monkey, gain some control – much to the chagrin of the treacherous trio of retiring security guards (codgers Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs).
Inspired by Croatian illustrator Milan Trenc’s whimsical children’s book, writers Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant (“Taxi,” “The Pacifier”) attempt to revive the “Jumanji” (1995) concept in which an animal board game came to life. Director Shawn Levy (“Pink Panther,” “Cheaper By the Dozen” remakes) concentrates on CGI mayhem – with Ricky Gervais, Carla Gugino, Kim Raver, Brad Garrett, Anne Meara (Stiller’s real-life mom) and Charlie Murphy (Eddie’s real-life brother). On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Night at the Museum” is a silly, shamelessly derivative, slapstick 5, but at least it’s family-friendly hyperactivity.

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The Good Shepherd

Susan Granger’s review of “The Good Shepherd” (Universal Pictures)

Judging by this epic chronicle of an undercover operative who co-founded the CIA, Robert DeNiro is a far better actor than director.
At Yale back in 1939, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) joins the secretive Skull and Bones society, a WASPy brotherhood from which many American presidents, politicians and judges have been culled. After a truncated affair with a deaf woman (Tammy Blanchard), he’s forced into a shotgun wedding with Margaret “Clover” Russell (Angelina Jolie), the seductive sister/daughter of fellow Skull and Bonesmen.
A clandestine meeting with an Army General (Robert DeNiro) leads to Wilson’s joining the Office of Strategic Services. Dispatched to London, he learns about the uses of information and disinformation from American spying pros (Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Alec Baldwin, John Turturro) and their smug British counterpart (Billy Crudup). Meanwhile, on the home front, Wilson’s son (Eddie Redmayne) grows up, barely knowing his father but determined to emulate him.
Written by Eric Roth and directed by DeNiro, the complex, somewhat unfocused story unfolds in a tedious series of flashbacks, including John Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs fiasco which seriously compromises Wilson’s career and the Agency. There’s a revelatory scene in which Wilson confronts a Mafia don (Joe Pesci), declaring that America belongs to the WASPs and everyone else – Italians, Jews, Irish and blacks – are merely visitors.
But the production values and the understated acting are top-notch. Bespectacled Matt Damon personifies the paranoid intensity and personal sacrifices involved with espionage; in every detail, his character seems to be modeled on CIA co-founder James Angleton. And, over the years, Angelina Jolie evolves from feisty to frosty. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Good Shepherd” is a shadowy 7, steeped in the moral decay that formed today’s geopolitical landscape.

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Eragon

Susan Granger’s review of “Eragon” (20th Century-Fox)

With the kids on vacation, needing diversion, this dragon tale will suffice but it’s a pop culture clone that’s totally derivative, offering nothing original.
After culling from “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings,” teenage novelist Christopher Paolini delved into Joseph Campbell’s “Hero With a Thousand Faces,” coming up with this coming-of-age fantasy about Eragon (Ed Speelers) a brave 15 year-old farmboy raised by his Uncle Garrow (Alun Armstrong).
It seems that the land of Alagaesia was once ruled by noble Dragon Riders – until evil King Galbatorix (John Malkovich) nearly drove the fearsome winged creatures into extinction. But one sapphire-blue egg survived and Eragon finds it. When the baby dragon hatches, Eragon names her Saphira. Eventually standing 15 feet tall with a 20-30 feet wingspan, Saphira (voiced by Rachel Weitz) communicates telepathically with Eragon.
Enraged to discover that a dragon lives, Galbatorix demands that his sadistic sorcerer Durza (Robert Carlyle) kill them both – and poor Garrow falls victim. That’s when an inscrutable magic mentor/wise warrior, Brom (Jeremy Irons), tells Eragon (think Luke Skywalker) that he is to be the Dragon Rider, fated to participate in the fierce Battle of Farthen Dur between the King’s army and the rebellious Varden, led by Ajihad (Djimon Hounsou).
Writer Peter Buchman dutifully follows Paolini’s tale while visual effects supervisor-turned-director Stefan Fangmeier, utilizing Wolf Kroeger’s production design and Hugh Johnson’s photography, elicits only minimal excitement, except for the graceful, high-tech dragon with her scales-and-feathers wings.
John Malkovich, Robert Carlyle and Jeremy Irons are old pros at sword-and-sorcery silliness, but the younger actors – Ed Speleers, Sienna Guillory and Garrett Hedlund – come across as stiffly awkward. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Eragon” is a forgettable 5 – unless you’re a pre-adolescent boy who may thoroughly enjoy it.

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We Are Marshall

Susan Granger’s review of “We Are Marshall” (Warner Bros.)

As inspirational football movies go, this well-intentioned effort sputters and stalls.
Set in the 1970s, “We Are Marshall” explores how a small town in West Virginia struggled to cope with the fiery, fatal crash of a chartered jet carrying Marshall University’s football team, coaches and fans home from a game in North Carolina.
While Huntington’s citizens are enmeshed in grief, three team members who missed the fatal flight suffer from survivor’s guilt. Determined defensive back Nate Ruffin (Anthony Mackie) begs flustered University President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) not to suspend the decimated football program, but his traumatized teammate (Brian Geraghty) refuses to play. And assistant coach Red Dawson (Matthew Fox of “Lost”- his hair badly dyed auburn) is wary of going back on the field. Eventually, Dr. Dedmon recruits an optimistic young Wooster, Ohio coach, Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey), who is determined not only to rebuild the team known as The Thundering Herd but also to heal the community.
Despite the tragic, true-life events, screenwriter Jamie Linden and director McG (“Charlie’s Angels”) maintain a static emotional tone, never delving too deeply into the potentially poignant drama, relying, instead, on maudlin sentimentality, utilizing every idiotic football clichŽ ever devised. In addition, characters are introduced and then, inexplicably, disappear.
Clad in cartoonishly garish garb, Matthew McConaughey struts and shouts, rallying the troops the way he rallies his own rambunctious kids. The most bizarre depiction is the creepy relationship between a widower (Ian McShane of “Deadwood”) and his deceased son’s fiancŽe (Annie Cantrell, the great-granddaughter of NY Giants founder Timothy Mara and Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney). On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “We Are Marshall” is a disappointing 4. There’s coal in this tattered Christmas stocking.

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Curse of the Golden Flower

Susan Granger’s review of “Curse of the Golden Flower” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Yellow chrysanthemums splash the screen in director Zhang Yimou’s cross between a martial arts epic and soap opera-like melodrama about class and power struggles.
In the 10th century Later Tang Dynasty, there’s an undercurrent of discontent behind the massive red doors of the Imperial Palace. On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, the Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns with his second son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou), to celebrate the holiday – and to be sure that his estranged wife, the ailing Empress (Gong Li), continues to take daily doses of her special herbal medicine that the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) has secretly laced with a Persian fungus that will make her insane.
Intrigue thickens since she’s having a clandestine affair with the Emperor’s oldest son from a previous marriage, Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), who then betrays her with Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor’s pretty daughter. Suddenly, a mysterious woman appears, telling the Empress of the duplicitous plot against her. Meanwhile, the third and youngest son, Prince Yu (Qin Junjie,) has his own ambitions. Amid the dysfunctional family chaos, the Empress diligently embroiders golden chrysanthemums – which take on an ominous significance when she attempts to stage a coup.
Best known for “House of Flying Daggers” and “Hero,” Zhang Yimou, along with Wu Nan and Bian Zhihong attempted to adapt one of China’s most acclaimed plays, Cao Yu’s “Thunder Storm,” about the disintegration of a wealthy industrialist’s family.
But it’s Yimou’s cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding, production designer Huo Tingxiao and action director Tony Ching Siu-Tung who dazzle with opulent palace settings and acrobatic, CGI-enhanced swordplay. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Curse of the Golden Flower” blossoms into a sumptuous 7. It’s lurid, lavish eye-candy.

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Letters from Iwo Jima

Susan Granger’s review of “Letters from Iwo Jima” (Warner Bros.)

Clint Eastwood’s back-to-back “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” are unique in that they present the same devastating W.W. II battle – but from different perspectives.
While the Americans eventually prevailed on Iwo Jima, the 20,000 Japanese troops there, faced with certain death, put up a heroic fight for 40 days although they were outnumbered five-to-one. Under the cunning leadership of Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe of “The Last Samurai”), who had traveled and studied in America, they dug 18 miles of labyrinthine tunnels in Mt. Suribachi. While his men were prepared to “die with honor” to defend the tiny, volcanic island they considered part of Japan’s sacred homeland, Kuribayashi told them that each had to kill 10 enemy soldiers before they did, specifically American “medics.” One of his bravest cohorts is bon vivant equestrian Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), who rode in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Noble, compassionate and aware of their hopeless task, both are reluctant victims of Japanese militarism.
Screenwriter Iris Yamashita worked with Paul Haggis (“Million Dollar Baby”), inspired by a collection of letters by Kuribayashi to his wife, daughter and son, published in Japan, as well as from hundreds of servicemen’s letters that were excavated decades later. Often read aloud, these letters introduce insightful flashbacks into the personal lives of the Imperial Army’s conscripted combatants, like Saigo (pop star Kazurani Ninomiya), a baker yearning for his wife and infant daughter; idealistic Shimizu (Ryo Kase); and suicidal Ito (Shidou Nakamura) who refuses to surrender. In Japanese with English subtitles, “Letters from Iwo Jima” is an extraordinary, resonant 10.
Subtle and non-judgmental, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” examine history within its context and emerge as strikingly effective anti-war statements.

10

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Notes on a Scandal

Susan Granger’s review of “Notes on a Scandal” (Fox Searchlight)

“In the old days, we confiscated cigarettes and ‘wank’ magazines.’ Now it’s knives and crack cocaine. And they call it progress,” observes North London school teacher Barbara Covett (Judi Dench), going about her duties. A lonely, working-class spinster, she leads a dreary life, solitary except for her beloved cat, until, suddenly, an earthy, attractive art teacher, Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), joins St. George’s faculty.
Under the guise of friendship, Barbara insinuates herself into Sheba’s more posh life, relishing a weekend dinner invitation to meet her young colleague’s 20-years older, ex-academic husband (Bill Nighy), teenage daughter (Juno Temple) and Down’s Syndrome-afflicted grade-school son (Max Lewis).
“I can live on a crumb of anticipation for weeks at a time,” Barbara reveals in a voice-over, “but always in danger of crushing the waited-for event with the freight of my excessive hope.”
Clever, cruel and predatory, Barbara gradually extracts intimate confidences from Sheila, including a chaotic covert affair she’s been conducting with a testosterone-driven 15 year-old student (Andrew Simpson). Emotionally confused, Sheila hasn’t a clue that ever-helpful Barbara is actually a manipulative lesbian until she’s deeply enmeshed in a sordid cat-and-mouse game she cannot win.
Based on the novel “What Was She Thinking?” by Zoe Heller with a screenplay by Patrick Marber (“Closer”), director Richard Eyer’s (“Iris”) witty, character-driven drama crackles with psychological suspense – as Barbara meticulously records every nuance in her journal and Philip Glass’ score heaves with emotionality.
A consummate actress, Judi Dench artfully disguises Barbara’s obsession under layers of carefully modulated reserve, making Cate Blanchett pay a steep price for her tawdry indiscretion and naivetŽ. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Notes on a Scandal” is an ironic, intense 9. It’s a compelling story of trust and betrayal.

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