Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Pacific Rim” (Legendary/Warner Bros.)

 

When Mexican-born filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro (“Hellboy,” “Pan’s Labyrinth”) tackles a high-tech giant-robots-vs.-giant-monsters, epic adventure with the tagline, “Go big or go extinct” – you know the waves will be huge.

“To fight monsters…We created monsters,” the titles proclaim. Sci-fi action begins on K-Day, as legions of immense alien creatures, known as Kaiju, start rising from
the Pacific Ocean, igniting a horrific war in which millions of lives were sacrificed and humanity’s resources were drained for years. To fight the relentless, oppressive behemoths, massive 25-story-tall robots, called Jaegers, have been deployed. Each individual Jaeger has its own distinctive design, ability and personality and is controlled by dual pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge (whatever that is). All seems lost until two unlikely and, unfortunately, rather uninteresting heroes – former pilot Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and untested trainee Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) – team up to defend mankind, maneuvering a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger.

Published by Legendary’s comics branch, Travis Beacham (“Clash of the Titans”) wrote a graphic prequel novel, “Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero,” as a supplement explaining the entire back story. Working from Beacham’s script, Guillermo Del Toro has devised a unique mythology. His inspirational references include “The War of
the Gargantuas,” “Godzilla,” “Transformers,” Francisco Goya’s painting “The Colossus” (depicting a terrifying giant towering over a valley), ‘80s and ‘90s kids TV programs, Power Rangers video gaming and Japanese Mech culture.

In addition to Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi, veteran actors Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky and Ron Perlman lend support. But it’s the awesome visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic that will appeal to the fanboys.  In addition to the CGI, “Pacific Rim,” which reportedly cost $150 million, utilized 101 sets, most built on nine stages at Pinewood Toronto, including two of the largest shooting stages in the world.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Pacific Rim” is a facile, fast-paced 5. Since
everything becomes a franchise these days, Travis Beacham and Guillermo Del Toro are already working on a possible sequel.

 

Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Fri., July 19:

 

In “Erased,” when an ex-CIA agent/tech-whiz (Aaron Eckhart) discovers that he and his teenage daughter (Liana Liberato) have been marked for termination as part of an international conspiracy, a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse ensues as he tries to outsmart his pursuers and uncover the truth.

Fred Alvarez’s recent remake of Sam Raimi’s “The Evil Dead” isn’t anywhere near as good as the
1981 horror classic, set in a remote, allegedly abandoned cabin which becomes a house of horrors when a group of twentysomething friends unwittingly awakens its ancient demons.

Swordplay and sorcery abound in “Solomon Kane,” featuring a brutally efficient 16^th
century assassin and starring James Purefoy, the late Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Hurd-Wood and Max Von Sydow.

Henry Jaglom’s showbiz-themed “45 Minutes from Broadway” follows an actress (Tanna Fredrick)
who flees to her family’s ramshackle upstate country house, where her non-theatrical sister (Julie Davis) and her sister’s non-Jewish fiancé (Judd Nelson), are also arriving for the family’s annual Passover Seder.

At the end of 2008, 27 year-old environmentalist Tim DeChristopher became “Bidder 70” at a federal auction of oil and gas drilling rights in prime Utah wilderness.  Bidding $1.7 million (which he didn’t have), he won 22,000 acres with no intention to drill. His two-year federal prison sentence, according to documentarians Beth and George Gage, ignited the climate justice movement.

Another documentary, “An Affair of the Heart,” is named for the classic Rick Springfield song and
follows the singer’s unique relationship with seven uber-fans who follow him on tour. And “The Life After Death Project” attempts a scientific investigation of apparent messages from the ‘Other Side.’

For kids, there’s “Tom and Jerry: No Mice Allowed!” showcasing 30 cartoons and “The Smurfs:
Smurfs To the Rescue?” with six entertaining adventures.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Revealing blatant racial bigotry, “42” is the inspiring story of how courageous Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) broke Major League baseball’s color barrier in 1947, when he was signed by Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Susan Granger’s review of “Still Mine” (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

 

Based on a true story, this touching, extraordinarily told tale of devotion speaks to both the heart and the mind. Joining the ranks of “Away From Her,” “Quartet” and
“Amour,” it revolves around the vicissitudes of aging.

Set in rural St. Martins, New Brunswick in Canada’s Maritime Provinces, it revolves around Craig Morrison (James Cromwell), an 89 year-old cattle-rancher who realizes that his beloved wife Irene (Genevieve Bujold) is growing frailer by the day and is now unable to cope with living in their old, two-story farmhouse, where they raised seven
children. To care for her properly, he starts to build a smaller, more suitable and comfortable cottage nearby – on part of the 2,000 acres he owns, overlooking the Bay of Fundy. Although he was trained as a carpenter by his accomplished shipbuilding father and he mills his own old-growth spruce, Morrison gets blindsided by an overzealous local bureaucrat (Jonathan Potts). Accused of 26 alleged ‘violations’ of the new National Building Code, he must appear before a judge to plead his case, which he illustrates by alluding to a treasured baseball, signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

In a meticulously crafted, tour-de-force performance, guided by Toronto-based writer/director Michael McGowan, James Cromwell – best known as the farmer in “Babe” – exhibits an irresistible mixture of insight and tender uncertainty, depicting Craig’s dilemma with fluid precision, while Genevieve Bujold’s emotional vulnerability wraps around your heart. Not often seen on-screen since she made “Anne of a Thousand days,” Bujold is a brilliant French-Canadian actress. In supporting roles, Campbell Scott, George R. Robertson, Julie Stewart and Rick Roberts deliver memorable performances.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Still Mine” is a sentimental, inspirational 7, concluding on a note of optimism.

 

 

 

Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Fri., July 12:

 

Tina Fey deserves better material than Paul Weitz’s relationship dramedy “Admission,” in which
she plays a Princeton University admissions officer who has reason to believe that an unconventional applicant might be the son she secretly gave up for adoption 18 years ago.

Saoirse Ronan stars in Andrew Niccol’s “The Host,” based on Stephanie Meyer’s love story, set in the future, when Earth is occupied by seemingly benign extraterrestrials, or Souls, that erase the minds of their human hosts, leaving their bodies intact and their eyes crystalline blue. Along similar lines, “Upside Down” with Kirsten Dunst, Jim Sturgess and Timothy Spall is romantic sci-fi in an alternate university where twinned words have opposite gravities.

“Spring Breakers” is avant-garde filmmaker Harmony Korine’s voyeuristic, visually exploitive,
hyper-sexualized cinematic commentary on youth-driven pop culture, and “Tyler Perry’s Temptation” is a straitlaced, sermonizing cautionary tale about wanting what you haven’t got.

In “Dark Power,” two FBI Agents (Sean Patrick Flanery, Kristanna Loken) join forces to investigate a murder, only to discover that City Hall holds more secrets than the identity of the killer, and Jack the Ripper lives in “Hands of the Ripper,” widely recognized one of the most gruesome Hammer horror films ever made.

Foreign film aficionados: in Italian and Mandarin with English subtitles, “Shun Li and the Poet” is about old souls from different cultures and different times forging a strong, meaningful friendship.

For kids, “Cody the Robosapien” centers on a techno-savvy whiz kid and a smart, spunky bot who’s
on the lam from an evil Kinetech executive.

For toddlers, “Best of Daizy” is the fourth and final title in the “Best of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!”
collection, while “Imagine With Barney” finds everyone’s favorite purple dinosaur embarking on four all-new adventures, plus “Imagination Vacation.”

    PICK OF THE WEEK: Oscar-nominated as Best Documentary, Dror Moreh’s “The Gatekeepers” is an unprecedented, deeply unsettling glimpse inside Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet; it’s an insider’s view of the Arab-Israel conflict since the Six Day War in 1967, when one million Palestinians came under Israeli control in the West Bank, Gaza and the old city of Jerusalem.

Susan Granger’s review of “Fruitvale Station” (The Weinstein Company)

 

Simply called “Fruitvale” when it won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year, this low-budget, documentary-like feature also impressed audiences at the Cannes Film Festival.

It’s a true story about the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, a 22 year-old African-American who was fatally shot in the San Francisco Bay area by a BART transit police officer in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 2009. Unarmed Grant was shot in the back while lying, handcuffed and prone, on the floor of Oakland’s Fruitvale metro stop – all filmed by dozens of cell phones. When the officer was charged with murder, his defense was that he mistook his gun for his taser. After a jury convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, protests and riots broke out.

In July, 2012, shortly before 26 year-old writer/director Ryan Coogler began filming, Trayvon Martin, an African-American, was shot by a community watch member – making the outrage of “Fruitvale Station” all the more relevant to Michael B. Jordan (“The Wire,” “Friday Night Lights”), as Oscar Grant; Octavia Spencer (Oscar winner for “The Help”), as Oscar’s mother; and Forest Whitaker, as producer.

Problem is: Coogler’s device of compressing so much positivity about Grant, a convicted felon, into ashort, foreboding time period. We see him dutifully obeying his mother’s dictum
that he use a hands-free device while driving AND coping with his girlfriend
(Melonie Diaz) AND refusing to sell drugs AND tending a stray dog that’s been
hit by a car AND helping a stranger (Ahna O’Reilly) choose which fish to fry by
calling his grandmother (Marjorie Shears) from the market AND convincing a
grocery store owner to re-open so two women can use the bathroom AND reassuring
his four year-old daughter (Ariana Neal) about the sounds of gunfire, promising
he’ll take her to Chuck E. Cheese, AND, finally, being goaded into fighting on
the train by New Year’s Eve revelers.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Fruitvale Station” is a significant 7. It’s compelling and exasperating.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Lone Ranger” (Disney)

 

It’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” in the old West.  And any resemblance between the old-time radio/TV Western and this theme-park-ride-ready-to-happen is exactly what Disney had in mind.

While the titular hero is the legendary masked man wearing a big, white Stetson and riding a scene-stealing steed named Silver, the plot pivots on his quirky Native American companion, Tonto (Johnny Depp), because the origin story is told as he recalls it.  Initially, there’s no mystery about the
lawman’s identity. He’s John Reid (Armie Hammer), an earnest, uptight lawyer who has come to Texas to be District Attorney.  John joins his older Ranger brother Dan (James Badge Tate) in pursuit of Butch Cavendish (William Fichtner), a fiendish outlaw whose sadistic sneer terrifies Dan’s wife Rebecca (Ruth Wilson), who married Dan when John left for Harvard Law School.

But they’re bushwacked.  All the Rangers are killed except John, who’s determined to avenge his brother’s death and rescue kidnapped Rebecca and his nephew. But Tonto, a bizarre spirit warrior, is the brains behind the operation – with his chalky white-streaked face, fake nose and a dead crow perched atop his head.  He’s come to recruit Reid to bring to justice those responsible for destroying
Comanche villages. He convinces Reid to wear a mask made from his late brother’s vest, calling him ‘kemosabe.’  Then there’s the conniving railway baron (Tom Wilkinson) and a saloon madam (Helena
Bonham Carter) with an ivory leg that shoots bullets.

Screenwriters Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and director Gore Verbinski take an
exhausting 2 ½ hours to tell this vigilante tale, chock full of explosions, crashes and chases – with a climactic shootout on dueling steam trains, accompanied by Rossini’s rousing “William Tell Overture.”

FYI: It’s PG-13 but wary families should know there’s a great deal of bloodshed…and if Armie Hammer looks familiar, he played both Winklevoss twins in “The Social Network.”

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Lone Ranger” gallops in with a slapstick, slyly silly, high-spirited 6, evoking days of yesteryear with, “Hi-ho, Silver! Away!”

Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Friday, July 5:

 

Coming to DVD this Independence Day weekend, “Death by China” is Harvard-trained economist Peter Navarro’s alarming and alarmist documentary about the history and implications of the imbalanced U.S.-China trade relationship.  Narrated by Martin Sheen, it gives background insight into the recent meetings between President Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping.

Alexander Siddig, Marisa Tomei and Joshua Jackson star in in the tense “Inescapable,” about a
Canadian businessman but must confront his past as a former Syrian military intelligence officer when his journalist daughter suddenly disappears in his hometown of Damascus.

Julianne Moore stars in the eerie, supernatural thriller “Six Souls,” as a forensic psychiatrist who specializes in debunking criminals’ claims of insanity and is challenged by a curious patien (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who convincingly shifts from one personality to another.

Taking responsibility for your own life is a difficult lesson, particularly if you have a self destructive personality like the sullen, south Texas mother (Abbie Cornish) who has lost custody of her five-year old son in writer/director David Riker’s “The Girl.”

Tennis fans should enjoy “Venus and Serena,” a documentary love letter to the African-American
Williams sisters, who left South Central Los Angeles to take the lily-white world of tennis by storm.

For film buffs, “56 Up” and “The Up Series” box set is a collection of Michael Apted’s ground-breaking documentary series, based on the belief: “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man.” And there’s a new 20-film “Best of Warner Bros. Comedy Collection,” combining classics with modern favorites.

For foreign film aficianados, “The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu” is an exhaustive – and
exhausting – three-hour epic by Romanian filmmaker Andrej Ujica, meticulously chronicling the 25 year (1965-1989) reign of an arrogant, autocratic 20^th century dictator.

PICK OF THE WEEK: “The House I Live In” is Eugene Jarecki’s award-winning documentary, dissecting America’s 40 year-long War on Drugs. Costing $1 trillion and resulting in 45 million
arrests, it’s failed to successfully address the problem, yet has made the US the world’s leading jailer, with 2.3 million people behind bars.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Way Way Back” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

 

Along with summer sunshine inevitably comes coming-of-age comedic dramas – and this is better
than most. The family-friendly story revolves around disgruntled, 14 year-old Duncan (Liam James), who is forced to spend the summer at a Cape Cod beach house with his divorced mother Pam (Toni Collette), her smarmy boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell) and Trent’s mean, snarky daughter Steph (Zoe Levin) from a previous marriage.

As Duncan is riding in the way, way back, rear-facing seat of their old ‘70s station wagon, domineering Trent immediately ignites his ire by demanding that the reclusive teenager to rank himself on a scale of one-to-ten.  When Duncan mumbles “Six,” Trent indicates that’s about double his own evaluation.  Not a great start for a relationship with a perhaps-about-to-be-stepdad.

Seeking refuge from the seemingly continual partying of Pam, Trent and their boozy, annoying
friends (Allison Janney, Amanda Peet, Rob Corddry), Duncan sneaks off on a borrowed girl’s bike to spend time at Water Wizz, a nearby amusement park run by explosive, weirdly gregarious Owen (Sam Rockwell), who not only hires him for the summer but also becomes the mentor/father-figure that humorless Duncan so desperately needs.  Along with his co-workers Catlin (Maya Rudolph), Roddy (Nat Faxon) and Lewis (Jim Rash), Duncan – more significantly – makes friends with an amiable neighbor, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb).

The Oscar-winning “The Descendants” screenwriting team of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash makes their
directing debut, developing rich, recognizable characters and working wonders with a familiar, formulaic script that evokes memories of Gregg Mottola’s similarly autobiographical “Adventureland” (2009), starring Jesse Eisenberg.  Despite the drawing power of “Little Miss
Sunshine” alums Steve Carell and Toni Collette, it’s Sam Rockwell who delivers the most delightful and memorable performance, ably supported by the adolescent cast.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Way Way Back” is an uplifting, endearing 8. It’s a bittersweet, heartwarming delight.

Susan Granger’s review of “Despicable Me 2” (Universal Pictures)

 

Following the success of its 2010 predecessor, this charming sequel begins with Gru (Steve Carell), now a suburban dad, caring for his feisty, adopted orphan girls: Agnes (Elsie Kate Fisher), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), the oldest, who’s becoming interested in boys, a complication Gru can’t quite deal with.

Having left malevolent moon-theft behind, Gru needs a new profession.  Jelly and jam making?  Probably not.  Just in time, he’s back into criminality when super-secretive Anti-Villain League’s Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) recruits him to catch a dastardly mastermind who has stolen a secret serum that turns innocent critters, like bunnies and minions, into killing machines. Determined to catch the culprit before major mutating damage occurs, Gru goes undercover in a shopping mall, teaming up with spunky, lipstick taser-wielding AVL Agent Lucy Wilde (Kristen Wiig), who has followed his criminal career over the years. There are numerous suspects, including Eduardo (Benjamin Bratt), a cook in the Mexican restaurant who resembles a former nemesis believed to be dead.

Once again, the mischievous, gibberish-chattering, goggle-eyed, yellow-skinned Minions steal
the show, obviously preparing for their own spin-off movie.

Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio’s wacky, warm-hearted script is directed by co-creators Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, who dub the Minions’ voices. Superb casting is what makes it all tick. Utilizing an exaggerated Eastern European accent, Steve Carell (TV’s “The Office,” “Date Night”) captures Gru’s every nuance. Too bad Russell Brand’s mad scientist Dr. Nefariom has less to do this time ‘round.  And while Javier Bardem and Al Pacino were considered for El Macho – Pacino even recorded the part – Benjamin Bratt is convincing.

Illumination Mac Guff’s 3D animation is amusing. Mac Guff is a French visual effects company,
based in Paris and Los Angeles; its name stems from the term MacGuffin, which was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Despicable Me 2” is a sweet ‘n’ sticky yet solid 7. And keep your 3D glasses on through the credits to get the most from the Minions.

Susan Granger’s review of “White House Down” (Columbia Pictures/Sony)

 

It’s déjà vu all over again in this second film of the season in which terrorists invade the White
House, leaving an aspiring Secret Service Agent to save the day. The concept is familiar from “Olympus Has Fallen” but, this time, the characters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are far more fully developed and interesting. There’s humor and heart.

Ex-Marine-turned-Capitol policeman John Cale (Channing Tatum) has been turned down for his dream job of serving on the President’s Secret Service detail. But on a White House tour with his precocious, preteen daughter Emily (Joey King), armed militants take over, so it’s up to underestimated Officer Cale save President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx), Emily and the country.

What makes this different is the way screenwriter James Vanderbilt (“The Amazing Spider Man,”
“Zodiac”) and director Roland Emmerich cultivate the relationship between Cale and Sawyer. Jamie Foxx (“Django Unchained”) obviously models his POTUS on the current incumbent, giving Channing Tatum (“G.I. Joe”) most of the derring-do. Plus there are memorable supporting turns from Maggie Gyllenhaal, Richard Jenkins, Jason Clarke and James Woods.

In the 17 years since Roland Emmerich blew up the White House in “Independence Day,” much has changed – like no more filming in Washington, D.C. Instead the iconic, 222 year-old Executive Mansion, where the President lives and works, was meticulously re-created in Montreal by production designer Kirk Petruccelli (“The Incredible Hulk,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”), including its many secret tunnels and the bulletproof Presidential limo.

On a deeper psychological level, after 9/11, depicting graphic destruction of our treasured national monuments exploits Americans’ terrorism paranoia and tweaks a growing suspicion of defense contractors and the military/industrial complex. But it’s these CGI scenes of spectacular demolition that sell action-adventures overseas.

Comparisons between Channing Tatum and Bruce Willis’ wisecracking “Die Hard” character are
obvious; they share the same first name and both wear dirty, sleeveless T-shirts.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “White House Down” is an implausible but action-packed,
escapist 8. Emmerich’s next is “Independence Day 2,”scheduled to open July 3, 2015.