Movie/TV Reviews

Death at a Funeral

Susan Granger’s review of “Death at a Funeral” (MGM release)

It’s a most unusual funeral when the coffin is delivered with the wrong body inside of it – and that’s just the beginning of this farce set in a small, bucolic town in England.
Soft-spoken, dutiful Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen), the underappreciated son, is handling all the arrangements for the funeral of his father. His brother Robert (Rupert Graves), a successful novelist, flies in from New York and realizes that a terrible mistake has been made. Meanwhile, Daniel’s wife Jane (Keeley Hawes) is determined that Robert take his newly widowed mother (Jane Asher) back to America, so that she can move with Daniel into their new London flat.
Cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) has brought along her flustered fiancŽ Simon (Alan Tudyk) – who accidentally swallowed an LSD tablet instead of Valium, the fault of her aspiring pharmacist brother, Troy (Kris Marshall) – to introduce to her snobbish father (Peter Egan). Martha’s ex, Justin (Ewen Bremmer), is there, along with a hypochondriac Howard (Andy Nyman) and wheelchair-bound Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughn).
There’s the appearance of a mysterious mourner (Peter Dinklage) who arrives with a tawdry revelation about the deceased, complete with compromising photos – to the impatience of the vicar (Thomas Wheatley).
Written by Dean Craig (“Caffeine”) and directed by Frank Oz (“Bowfinger,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,”), who was born in Great Britain before joining Jim Henson and becoming a famous Muppeteer in America. It’s an ensemble comedy that’s stronger in exaggerated situational humor than its eccentric yet one-dimensional characterizations. Best remembered as dashing Mr. Darcy opposite Keira Knightly in “Pride and Prejudice,” Matthew Macfadyen transforms into diligently dowdy here. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Death at a Funeral” is a silly, screwball 7 – for those who enjoy droll British humor.

Death at a Funeral Read More »

Becoming Jane

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Becoming Jane” (Miramax Films)

There’s a strange dŽjˆ vu quality about this fictionalized biography of Jane Austen in that, if you’re familiar with “Pride and Prejudice,” you’ve seen the same story – better done – before.
Set in late 18th century England, it’s all about marrying off a rebellious young woman in an era of obedience and docility. “That girl needs a husband,” declares her mother (Julie Walters) at the outset. But her father, Rev. Austen (James Cromwell), realizes that finding a ‘suitable’ (i.e.: wealthy) one won’t be easy. After all, Jane’s already rejected Mr. Wisley (Laurence Fox), the nephew of Lady Gresham (Maggie Smith).
“His fortune will not buy me,” Jane declares stubbornly – to which her mother observes, “Affection is desirable but money is absolutely indispensable!”
Instead, Jane’s smitten by a charming but penniless Irish lawyer-in-training Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), whose penchant for bare-knuckle boxing appalls his uncle and benefactor (Ian Richardson).
Adapted as a vapid melodrama – without neither proper chronology nor a shred of originality or Austen wit – by Sarah Williams and Kevin Hood from Jon Spence’s biography, distractingly dimly photographed in Ireland by Eigil Bryld and directed at a plodding, pedestrian pace by Julian Jarrold (“Kinky Boots”), it’s very, very literary – and quite tedious. But that’s not the fault of Anne Hathaway (“The Princess Diaries,” “The Devil Wears Prada”), who acquits herself admirably with veteran thespians Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, James Cromwell and Ian Richardson – in his last screen role.
Judging by this and Renee Zellweger’s lackluster “Miss Potter,” about writer Beatrix Potter, the lives of these lady writers in Regency society fare far better on paper. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Becoming Jane” is a bland 5. It’s a stilted, stuffy costume drama masquerading as a chick flick.

Becoming Jane Read More »

Daddy Day Camp

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Daddy Day Camp” (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

This lackluster sequel to “Daddy Day Care” continues the dysfunctional family concept as Charlie Hinton (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his partner Phil Ryerson (Paul Rae) endeavor to launch a day camp, stepping into the hard-to-fill footprints of Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garlin, who starred in the original.
Years ago, both men had traumatizing experiences as campers. Charlie, in particular, suffered humiliation at the 1977 Summer Camp Olympiad by a tormentor named Lance Warner (Lochlyn Munro), who now heads Camp Canola, a rich kids’ spa with materialistic extravagances like four-wheelers, jet skis, etc. – plus waiters and valets.
So Charlie and Phil – with the best of intentions – buy Uncle Morty’s (Brian Doyle-Murphy) dilapidated Camp Driftwood, located across the lake from cushy Camp Canola. The site is a health-department disaster – with a serious methane problem lurking in the outhouse.
Their campers are a predictably motley crew: the bully (Tyger Rawlings), the puker (Talon Ackerman), the cool girl (Katie Fisher), etc. And, of course, there’s Charlie’s own eager-to-please son, Ben (Spencir Bridges, real-life son of “Diff’rent Strokes” Todd Bridges), who eventually benefits from a cross-generational connection involving his father and authoritative grandfather, Marine Corps Col. Buck Hinton (Richard Gant), who teaches everyone about teamwork and perseverance.
Written by Geoff Rodkey (“Daddy Day Care”), J. David Stern and David N. Weiss, and directed by former child star Fred Savage (“Wonder Years”), its plot is uncomfortably reminiscent of the “Cheaper by the Dozen” sequel and its humor derives from the campers’ toilet and digestive tract and malfunctions, like vomiting, farting, bed-wetting, etc. It’s potty humor – from beginning to end. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Daddy Day Camp” is a truly tedious 2 except, perhaps, for the matinee moppets with indulgent parents.

Daddy Day Camp Read More »

Rush Hour 3

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Rush Hour 3” (New Line Cinema)

In its third incarnation, this once-amusing, East-West, globe-trotting franchise simply fizzles, particularly in comparison with “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
When Chinese Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma) and his now-20-year-old daughter Soo Yung (Zhang Jingchu) are in Los Angeles, he’s shot in an assassination attempt just as he’s about to publicly identify a gangland leader at the World Criminal Court. (These two Asian characters appeared in the original “Rush Hour.”)
In his capacity as Han’s bodyguard, Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) pursues the culprit, only to discover that the hit man is Kenji (Hiroyuki Sanada), a “brother” with whom he grew up in a Chinese orphanage. Kenji works with an international crime syndicate known as the Triads, now based in France. Teaming up, once again, with LAPD detective Carter (Chris Tucker), who has been demoted to traffic duty and witnessed Lee’s chase after Kenji, the ever-bickering duo take off for Paris, where most of the action takes place.
Experienced “Rush Hour” screenwriter Jeff Nathanson and director Brett Ratner maintain the odd-couple, buddy-cop concept if not the momentum. The climactic acrobatic conflict is staged at night on the exposed beams high atop the Eiffel Tower.
Despite their obvious camaraderie, Jackie Chan is aging, stunt-wise, and Chris Tucker’s comedy has gone stale. Newcomers on the scene are Yves Attal as a virulently anti-American taxi driver, Julie Depardieu as his Parisian wife, Noemie Lenoir as the exotic and mysterious Genevieve, and Max von Sydow as enigmatic Reynard, head of the World Criminal Court. Director Roman Polanski appears in an uncredited cameo as a sadistic Gallic police chief. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Rush Hour 3” is a formulaic 5 – which probably will not discourage loyal fans from lining up at the box-office.

Rush Hour 3 Read More »

September Dawn

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “September Dawn” (Black Diamond Films)

Bound to incite a new wave of anti-Mormon controversy, “September Dawn” chronicles the horrific real-life Mountain Meadows massacre, the first known act of religious terrorism on U.S. soil and one of the darkest moments in Mormon history.
Back on September 11, 1857, 120 innocent pioneers – men, women and children – en route to California were slaughtered in Utah by a raiding party that claimed direct orders from the Mormon Church hierarchy. Only 17 of the youngest children were spared and later ‘adopted’ by local Mormon families.
When the wagon-train, led by Capt. Alexander Fancher (Shaun Johnston), encounters fanatic Mormon Bishop Jacob Samuelson (Jon Voight), just outside Cedar City, there’s immediate tension. Believing rumors that U.S. troops might remove Territorial Governor Brigham Young (Terence Stamp), the Mormons are distrustful of “Gentiles,” which is what they call anyone not of their faith. While Bishop Samuelson reluctantly allows Capt. Fancher’s party to camp for two weeks, he dispatches his oldest son (Trent Ford) to spy on them and, in doing so, the young man falls in love with the minister’s daughter (Tamara Hope). With its “Romeo and Juliet” theme, tragedy is inevitable as religious fanaticism overwhelms reason.
Determined to be historically accurate, filmmaker Christopher Cain (“Young Guns”) drew on a 27-page confession by John D. Lee, who was convicted for his part in the carnage, along with actual transcripts of Brigham Young’s fiery sermons which instructed, “If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats.”
While the convoluted narrative is, at times, confusing, the cast is convincing, including a cameo by Dean Cain (the director’s son) as slain Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “September Dawn” is a cautionary 6. It’s a stirring Western drama with a timely, pertinent message.

September Dawn Read More »

Resurrecting the Champ

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Resurrecting the Champ” (Yari Film Group)

Film critic-turned-writer/director Rod Lurie (“The Contender,” TV’s “Commander-in-Chief”) scores again with this crowd-pleasing sports drama
Ambitious Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett) is a struggling rookie sports reporter at the Denver Times who labors under the cloud of his late newspaperman father’s stellar reputation, trying – in vain – to please Metz (Alan Alda), his demanding editor.
One day, Erik, literally, stumbles onto an elderly homeless man, nicknamed Champ (Samuel L. Jackson), who was beaten up by a gang of juvenile delinquents while rummaging for booze in garbage cans in a downtown alley. The vagrant refers to himself as boxing legend Battling Bob Satterfield, who was believed to have passed away long ago. Satterfield was once a heavyweight ‘contender’ in every sense of the word, ranked #3 in the world and sparring with Rocky Marciano.
Encouraged by the editor (David Paymer) of the newspaper’s magazine section, Erik is determined to tell Champ’s story, and the co-dependent relationship that develops between writer-and-subject takes some wild jabs and makes unexpected bobs and weaves. Meanwhile, in the background, there’s Erik’s estranged wife/co-worker (Kathryn Morris) and young son (Dakota Goyo).
Wearing a gray wig of wild dreadlocks, Samuel L. Jackson is terrific as the battered-but-unbowed Champ. Josh Hartnett scores and – in supporting roles – so do Teri Hatcher and Peter Coyote.
Based on a true Los Angeles Times magazine story by J.R. Moehringer and adapted for the screen by Michael Bortman and Allison Burnett, it’s not only a boxing saga but also a contemplation of journalistic ethics – kind of like “Rocky” meets “All the President’s Men.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Resurrecting the Champ” is an uplifting, redemptive 7. As Erik observes: “It’s you that’s out there – and there’s no place to hide.”

Resurrecting the Champ Read More »

3:10 to Yuma

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate)

No one knows how many thousands of Westerns have been made, but the first notable one was “The Great Train Robbery” in 1903. Since then, we’ve watched Westerns for more years than there was a Wild West, since they’re usually set in the years between the conclusion of the Civil War and the end of the 19th century.
James Mangold’s re-make of Delmer Daves’ 1957 anti-hero redemption saga revolves around the psychological conflict between a crippled, courageous rancher, Dan Evans (Christian Bale), and a notorious killer, Ben Wade (Russell Crowe). After suffering a period of draught and subsequent debt, Evans’ family is awakened one night to discover their barn burning and small herd of cattle rustled, subsequently serving as a stampede diversion for a stagecoach robbery. That sets up his first encounter with Ben Wade – but far from his last.
Writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas have added to Elmore Leonard’s story and Halsted Welles’ original script, making it more violent, cynical and brutal – with the clock-ticking convention of “High Noon” and “Rio Bravo” and an enigmatic conclusion. James Mangold (“Walk the Line”) keeps the tension taut as Evans is grimly determined to deposit Wade on the 3:10 train to Yuma prison.
Russell Crowe’s sophisticated, multi-dimensional sociopath anchors the story, while scowling Christian Bale’s seems weighted down with stoic, stubborn, idealistic virtue. Or perhaps it’s just his choice to underplay. As Wade’s dastardly accomplice, Ben Foster scores, and Peter Fonda is memorable as a corrupt bounty hunter. On the other hand, the ‘frontier women’ (Gretchen Mol, Vinessa Shaw) are too creamed and coiffed to be even remotely believable. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “3:10 to Yuma” is a gritty, galloping 8, an authentic Western with cynical, contemporary touches.

3:10 to Yuma Read More »

The Nanny Diaries

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Nanny Diaries” (MGM/The Weinstein Company)

This film adaptation of the popular, satirical chick-lit novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Krause misses so many chances to be funny.
The concept is that a working-class girl is hired to take care of a spoiled Upper East Side tot. Annie Braddock (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright college grad from a New Jersey suburb. Although her mom (Donna Murphy), a hard-working nurse, tries to steer her into finance, Annie’s more into anthropology, examining mothers from various cultures, depicted in dioramas at the Museum of Natural History.
Annie’s hired by a high-strung, complaining control-freak, Mrs. X (Laura Linney), who demands that her precocious five year-old, Grayer (Nicholas Reese Art) be read to from the Wall Street Journal and, on his birthday, be amused by two French mimes. Her crude, philandering husband (Paul Giamatti) prefers a lower class type of entertainment, precipitating predictable marital squabbles.
If Annie’s not generic enough, her best friend’s (Alicia Keys) downright boring. And Annie’s lying to her mother about working as a Wall Street business trainee, rather than baby-sitting a brat, is a transgression with no consequences.
Part of the appeal of the snarky novel was that its authors, presumably, had nannied for Park Avenue society matrons and snobbish celebrities, voyeuristically gobbling up gossip along the way. The shallow, formulaic script, written and directed by Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Burton (“American Splendor” collaborators), has none of that pretense.
Bless her, Laura Linney does a valiant job within the trivial caricature, but Scarlett Johansson’s appeal only seems to surface only for Woody Allen. Here, she’s sullen, soft and sultry, attributes that undermine her role. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Nanny Diaries” is a banal, disappointing 3, making ‘perfection’ look pretty bleak.

The Nanny Diaries Read More »

Death Sentence

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Death Sentence” (20th Century Fox)

September must be ‘payback’ month. In this overwrought revenge thriller, a mild-mannered, hard-working insurance adjuster, Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) with a loving wife (Kelly Preston) and two sons, Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) and Lucas (Jordan Garrett), seeks vengeance for a heartbreaking crime.
It all begins as Nick and teenage Brendan make a late-night stop after a hockey game at a gas station/mini-market, where some tattooed thugs blast the store clerk with a shotgun and – in a gang initiation ritual – one punk, Joe (Matthew O’Leary), attacks and kills Brendan with a machete.
Although Joe is arrested, the prosecutor offers a plea deal of only three to five years in prison. Furious that Joe won’t do hard time, Nick refuses to testify and takes justice into his own hands, stalking Joe and stabbing him to death. Problem is: Joe’s older brother, the gang leader Billy (Garrett Hedlund) declares that Nick has just “bought.a death sentence” for his all-too-vulnerable family.
In supporting roles, Aisha Taylor is the lone ‘voice-of-conscience’ detective, while John Goodman chews the scenery as a weapons dealer with paternal gangland ties.
Screenwriter Ian Mackenzie Jeffers loosely adapts Brian Garfield’s sequel to “Death Wish” which is directed by torture-master James Wan (the “Saw” trio). Despite one impressively photographed chase sequence atop a parking garage – credit the shaky cinematography of John R. Leonetti – it’s exploitive and overwrought with extreme violence, bound to turn off all but the most excessively blood-thirsty movie-goers. And its conclusion is an unabashed rip-off of Travis Bickle’s shaved head and blown-off fingers in “Taxi Driver,” punctuated by the hardcore, heavy-handed soundtrack and score. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Death Sentence” is a gritty, dismal 1 – as in one of the worst movies of the year.

Death Sentence Read More »

Balls of Fury

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Balls of Fury” (Rogue)

Fortunately, stupidity is not a sin – or this misguided comedy would be convicted.
A former child prodigy who has never forgotten his disgraceful defeat at age 12 and a deadly debacle at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Randy Daytona (Dan Fogler, Tony-winner of Broadway’s “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) is recruited by an FBI agent (George Lopez) ostensibly to compete in an illegal, underground table-tennis tournament but actually to help capture the notorious international arms dealer, Master Feng (Christopher Walken), the triad kingpin who is responsible for the death of Randy’s father.
Slovenly, chubby and ‘way out of competitive shape, Randy, wielding an ’88 “Def Leppard Rules” paddle, goes into training with an elderly, blind grandmaster (James Hong of “Big Trouble in Little China”), who happens to have a gorgeously nimble niece, Maggie (Hong Kong superstar Maggie Q of “Mission Impossible III”), who plays ping-pong like a demon. As the match “somewhere in Central America” proceeds, losers are fiendishly dispatched with poison darts and a sex slave (Diedrich Bader) rues not reading the fine print in his contract.
Obviously devoted to crude slapstick, writer/director Robert Ben Garant (“Reno 911”), along with writing collaborator Thomas Lennon (who also plays a small part), pile on the stale, rancid ham. Indiscriminate yet ever-game Christopher Walken (“Hairspray”) seems to relish his wardrobe (a garish variety of satin robes – courtesy of costumer Mary Ann Bozek – along with a mile-high hairdo) and delivering inane lines like, “Okey-dokey, artichokey.” And Dan Fogler comes across as a curiously unappealing blend of Jack Black and Seth Rogen. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Balls of Fury” is a cheesy, chop-socky, sophomoric 3. It’s like a “Saturday Night Live” skit stretched out to a mind-numbing 90 minutes.

Balls of Fury Read More »