Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “9” (Focus Features)

    After Shane Acker won a Student Academy Award for an 11-minute animated short film in 2004, he expanded his sci-fi fable with the encouragement of producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov.

    It all begins when a tiny “stitchpunk” rag doll (voiced by Elijah Wood) with the #9 on his back comes to life in a desolate, dreary, post-apocalyptic world. He’s totally bewildered. It’s not until he’s befriended by a kindly, inventor ‘brother,’ known as #2 (voiced by Martin Landau), that he even has a voice. He learns that the dark emptiness is filled with danger: “Sometimes fear is the appropriate response.” Humans are gone. Machines have decimated mankind and it’s the sacred mission of creatures, like himself, to perpetuate “life” as we know it on Earth.

    Each of #9’s numerical colleagues has distinct qualities and weaknesses. #1 (voiced by Christopher Plummer) is a war vet and voice of negativity. #3 and #4 are nonverbal twins who communicate with the bygone world. #5 (voiced by John C. Reilly) is an engineer who’s bullied by #1. #6 (voiced by Crispin Glover) is a visionary artist. #7 (voiced by Jennifer Connelly) is a brave, if reckless warrior. #8 (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) is a dimwitted brute. So it’s up to young #9 to weld them into a cohesive team to defeat their common enemy, the villainous mechanical beast: “All we have now is each other.”

    Shane Acker notes: “I had the idea for the character of #9, an innocent who would risk his life for his brethren and use intellect, rather than might, to slay a beast.”

    Screenwriter Pamela Pettler (“Monster House,” “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride”) has supplied dialogue and the innovative CGI has been expanded. At an exciting 80 minutes, it’s still a bit short and, although imaginative, the storyline is one-dimensional.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “9” is a sinister, scary 7, rated PG-13. For whatever reason, number nine dominates the cinematic landscape this fall. There’s also Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi thriller “District 9,” the Israeli film “9.99” and Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Broadway musical “Nine.”

Susan Granger’s review of “All About Steve” (20^th Century-Fox)

    What would have guessed that teaming Sandra Bullock, who scored in “The Proposal,” and Bradley Cooper, so terrific in “The Hangover,” would result in this grotesque comedy, a prime candidate for Worst Picture of the Year?

    Incessantly chattering Mary Magdalene Horowitz (Bullock) is a cruciverbalist (a.k.a. creator of crossword puzzles) who still lives with her Jewish/Catholic parents in Sacramento, California, and always wears the same red go-go boots. She’s supposed to be adorable. But she isn’t. She’s psychologically disturbed – and extremely annoying.

    So it’s understand able that when her parents fix her up on a blind-date with Steve (Cooper), a cameraman for a cable news network, he’s quickly turned off by her motor-mouth blathering, particularly when she compares their sudden coupling to “two rare-earth elements brought together by the Norns – that’s Scandinavian for the destinies.”

    But Mary’s revved up and ready to run after him – to a hostage crisis in Tucson and a protest at an Oklahoma City hospital, where “pro-leggers” are arguing whether to amputate a baby’s third leg. Then with two strangers (D.J. Qualls and Katy Mixon), she’s off to Galveston in a ’76 Gremlin, encouraged by Steve’s colleague, reporter Hartman Hughes (Thomas Hayden-Church). That’s where she falls down an old mineshaft with a deaf child (Delaney Hamilton).

    Screenwriter Kim Barker (”License to Wed’) witlessly delves for humor in birth defects and stalking, while director Phil Traill clumsily sucks the amusement out of every awkward scene. Not only is Sandra Bullock wretchedly miscast – but she did it to herself. She’s one of the producers. Perky Ms. Bullock prefers to play likeable, socially clumsy heroines (“Miss Congeniality,” “While You Were Sleeping,” “Forces of Nature”) but Mary’s just dreadfully deluded.

    Twice, Mary lists the three elements of any successful crossword puzzle: “Is it solvable? Is it entertaining? Does it sparkle?” If those criteria were applied to this comedy, the answers would be no, no and no. So on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “All About Steve” is an irritating, inexcusable 1. It’s a total waste of time and talent.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Final Destination” (Warner Bros.)

    The basic concept of this horror franchise is intriguing: What if cheating death cursed you with premonitions of other people’s fatalities?

    Now in its fourth installment, this gruesome Grim Reaper tale has the added fillip of 3-D, making impalement, for example, seem to thrust directly into the audience.

    The formulaic story revolves around Nick (Bobby Campo) who experiences precognition at a NASCAR race track, presumably saving himself and those randomly seated around him from a gorefest. But Death is persistent, so those who were supposed to die at the speedway are stalked until they do – in a myriad of ways – and not in any particular preferential order.

    “I feel something’s in the room with me,” Nick notes. To be specific, it’s Death.

    Screenwriter Eric Bress and director David R. Ellis, who previously collaborated on “Final Destination 2” before Ellis helmed “Snakes on a Plane,” have a dandy, ready-made villain, as Death is presented as an abstract, ethereal being, sometimes announcing its presence through breezes. Since impending Death is also invisible and inventive, its victims’ means of disposal are only limited by the filmmakers’ convoluted imaginations: “What do we have to do to kill these characters off?”

    How’s this? A drunk, white racist sets himself on fire while placing a burning cross on a black man’s front lawn while his car radio blares “Why Can’t We Be Friends.”  Like that? Well, there’s more carnage, including decapitations, mutilations, eviscerations and those grisly, inevitable 3-D-enhanced impalements. The rogue ceiling fan, slippery hair oil and the tiny ember floating up from the fire seemed to be particularly creative.

    Acting? Don’t be absurd. Expect only the flimsiest, bland two-dimensional performances from fresh-faced twentysomethings Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano and Haley Webb, along with Mykelti Williamson, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella and Justin Welborn. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Final Destination” is a frantic, flinching, in-your-face 3. The novelty for this supernatural screamfest is the 3-D.

Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, Sept. 4:

    Distilled from the acclaimed BBC mini-series and narrated by James Earl Jones, DisneyNature’s gloriously-filmed, environmentally-propelled “Earth” follows the remarkable story of three animal families: polar bears, elephants and humpback whales. Unlike the BBC version, this sanitized version delicately avoids disturbing depictions of death. On the African plain, for example, there’s stalking, chasing and pouncing but the carnivores’ graphic consumption of their prey is not shown.  

    “Life After People” is thought-provoking documentary that combines superb visual effects with insights from experts in the fields of botany, engineering, ecology, biology, geology, climatology and archeology to demonstrate what might happen if humans disappeared from Earth. Also from the History Channel, “The Crusades” re-enacts the epic battles between Christians and Muslims during the Middle Ages.

    Oscar-nominee Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”) and Oscar-winner Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter”) co-star in “Homeboy,” the story of a washed-up, alcoholic boxer who agrees to take part in the heist of a jewelry store that’s owned by a smooth-talking crook.

    “Russell Simmons Presents Brave New Voices” is the latest creation from the hip-hop mogul. Transcending race, class, gender, orientation and politics, the seven-part HBO series features teams of teen poets from across the country doing verbal battle in a poetry slam competition.

    Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, Whistlefritz’s “Spanish for Beginners” DVD and CD blend live action with lively animation and amusing characters; Whistlefritz was founded in 2006 by a mom who wanted to teach her own kids Spanish, the world’s third most spoken language, in a way they’d remember. Also for kids already anticipating Halloween, there’s “Shaun the Sheep: Little Sheep of Horrors,” inspired by a horror film on TV and HIT Favorites “Trick or Treat Tales” for preschoolers.

    PICK OF THE WEEK: In “State of Play,” Russell Crowe is an unkempt, double-cheeseburger-with-chili gobbling, whiskey-soaked newspaper reporter who reluctantly teams up with a gossipy political blogger (Rachel McAdams) to solve the mystery of why the pretty research assistant/mistress of a Philadelphia congressman (Ben Affleck) was crushed under a Washington D.C. subway train in front of hundreds of witnesses.

Susan Granger’s review of “Post Grad” (Fox Searchlight Films)

    Former “Gilmore Girl” and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” alum Alexis Bledel deserves better than this lackluster coming-of-age comedy that is obviously on the fast-track to the dvd shelf.

    As ambitious, over-confident Ryden Malby, she has just graduated from college and is determined to make it big in the L.A. publishing business. Bubbling with enthusiasm and batting her cerulean-blue eyes, she’s nevertheless robbed of her dream job by Jessica Bard (Catherine Reitman) and forced to return home. That means going back to suburbia in the San Fernando Valley with her daffy, do-it-yourself, get-rich-quick-inclined dad (Michael Keaton), penny-pinching mom (Jane Lynch), weird kid brother (Bobby Coleman) and politically-incorrect, oxygen-tank-toting grandma (Carol Burnett) who’s into coffins. Whiny Ryden’s only solace is spending time with her devoted best friend, Adam (Zach Gilford from “Friday Night Lights”), who offers an enduring relationship. Or should she take a chance with a hunky Brazilian neighbor (Rodrigo Santoro, a.k.a. Xerxes in “300”)?

    Forgetting the formulaic characters and situations, what’s most distressing about Kelly Fremon’s script, directed by Vicky Jensen, are the ideas that – when encountering career obstacles – young women should forget their dreams and aspirations, even their independence, return to the nest, settle for security with the most obviously eligible suitor and wait for a miracle to happen.

    What hypocrisy from a writer and a director who tenaciously had to beat the odds in order to get a movie made in Hollywood! Hailed as the next-generation’s Nora Ephron, Kelly Fremon started out as a stand-up comic and scored her first writing assignment after an internship at Immortal Entertainment. Vicky Jenson started in animation as a cell painter, working on backgrounds for “The Flintstones” and “Smurfs” at Hanna Barbera Studios. In 1996, Jenson joined DreamWorks, honing her skills as a production designer, story artist and director. They obviously didn’t capitulate when faced with rejection, so why should their heroine?

    Considering the waste of time, comedic talent and film-financing, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Post Grad” is an inexcusably unrealistic, dull 3. It flunks.

Susan Granger’s review of “Taking Woodstock” (Focus Features)

    Much of our enjoyment of a movie is based on expectations – and this title is misleading. The fabled music festival with Jimi, Janis and Arlo is simply the historical background for Ang Lee’s low-key, lightweight, personal story about Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) a young, semi-closeted gay painter/interior designer in New York’s Greenwich Village who spends his weekends in the Catskills trying to help his stereotypical Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Jake and Sonia Teichberg (Henry Goodman, Imelda Staunton), keep their run-down El Monaco Motel from going bankrupt.

    As president of the Bethel Chamber of Commerce, Elliot offers the use of El Monaco as a ramshackle base camp to the organizers and staff of Woodstock Ventures after the company loses its permit for an arts festival in nearby Wallkill. He also brokers a deal between Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff), one of the festival’s producer/organizers, and Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy), who owns a 600-acre dairy farm down the road in White Lake (Yes, the festival actually took place in White Lake, not Woodstock.) As the inevitable chaos climaxes, Elliot drops acid with an Age of Aquarius couple in a van (Kelli Garner, Paul Dano), amid the hippies-in-the-mud and graphic nudity.

    Riffing on Elliot Tiber memoir, “Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert and A Life,” written with Tom Monte, James Schamus’s screenplay rambles episodically; its sprawling fragmentation is emphasized by Ang Lee’s kaleidoscopic use of multiple cameras and a split-screen. Stand-up comedian Demetri Martin doesn’t measure up to the dramatic demands of the leading role that’s thrust upon him and Emile Hirsch’s bitter, brain-fried Vietnam vet is over-the-top, but Liev Schreiber is memorable as a macho, transsexual ex-Marine security guard. And you can glimpse Meryl Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer, looking lovely as Tisha, Jonathan Groff’s supposed girl-friend.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Taking Woodstock” is an occasionally amusing yet shallow 6. If you really want to tune in and turn on to the authentic musical flavor of 40 years ago, rent Michael Wadleigh’s Oscar-winning 1970 concert documentary “Woodstock.”

Susan Granger’s DVD/Video update for week of Friday, August 28:

    “Adventureland” is a sweet-natured coming-of-age story about a recent college grad (Jesse Eisenberg) working at the rigged arcade games at an amusement park in Pennsylvania, learning more about life one summer at the theme park – from the bumper cars to the Tilt-a-Whirl to the Tunnel of Love – than in his past four years in academia.

    Set in New Mexico, the gently ghoulish “Sunshine Cleaning” revolves around two underachieving sisters (Amy Adams, Emily Blunt) struggling to stay afloat in a sinking economy by going into the messy, morbid business of mopping up blood-splattered crime scenes and toxic biohazard sites after the CSI guys leave.

    In “Fighting,” Channing Tatum plays a poor kid living on the streets of NYC, where he’s discovered by a scam artist (Terence Howard) who makes him a star in the underground “bare-knuckle” world of street-fighting; keep your eye on the brawl in this  generic ‘wannabe’ Fight Club.

    If you like off-beat, independent films, “Goodbye Solo,” directed by Ramin Bahrani, is about the unlikely friendship between a cheerful taxi driver from Senegal (Souleymane Sy Savane) and a hard-edged, 70 year-old white Southerner (Red West).

    “Burning the Future: Coal in America” is David Novack’s searing expose of how West Virginia’s coal-mining industry has created a wasteland, destroying the fresh water supply and causing health issues for residents.

    New York Giants fans can re-live many of Big Blue’s greatest moments with “NFL New York Giants 10 Greatest Games,” a 10-disc collectible, and there’s “NFL San Francisco 49ers Greatest Games: Super Bowl Victories,” a five-disc collectible.

    For kids, “Bob the Builder: Call in the Crew!” is packaged with a toy vehicle and filled with action about teamwork, positive thinking and problem-solving. And “Fireman Sam: Help is here!” teaches fire safety and fire prevention.

    PICK OF THE WEEK: “Duplicity” is a sexy, sophisticated spy caper starring Julia Roberts as a CIA officer who teams up with Clive Owen, a M16 agent, even though they constantly “game” each other with playful misdirection, since they’re competitive spirits, consummate deceivers and lovers of larceny.

Susan Granger’s review of “My One and Only” (Herrick Entertainment)

    When I read George Hamilton’s dishy descriptions of traveling with his ditsy socialite mother in his autobiography, “Don’t Mind If I Do” (2008), I thought she’d make a great Americana screen character. Obviously, so did screenwriter Charlie Peters and director Richard Loncraine. Because she’s is front-and-center in this lighthearted, nostalgic comedy that begins in the summer of 1953.

    When Southern belle Ann Devereaux (Renee Zellweger) returns to her Manhattan apartment and finds her feckless bandleader husband, Dan (Kevin Bacon), in bed with another woman, she instinctively knows that it’s time to forge a new future. So she loads her two teenage sons into a baby-blue Cadillac Coupe de Ville, paid for in cash, and embarks on a meandering road trip from New York to Los Angeles – with stops in Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Phoenix – to search for a new man and a new life.

    While his obliviously gay, older half-brother Robbie (Mark Rendell) obsesses about fashion and theater, 15 year-old George (Logan Lerman) is an aspiring writer who just wants to finish school. But first, Ann’s disastrous husband-hunting expedition includes Wallace (Steven Weber), a Boston businessman who’s in worse financial straits than she; Harlan Williams (Chris Noth), a zealous, authoritarian Army colonel; Charlie (Eric McCormack), a former suitor who now has a much younger girlfriend; and Bill (David Koechner), a paint-store owner/serial bigamist. The only exception is a true gentleman (Nick Stahl). As their fortunes deteriorate, George eventually takes off to stay with Ann’s jealous sister Hope (Robin Weigart) and returns to New York’s Upper West Side far more self-reliant – with remarkable tales to tell.

    Evoking the sexist ambiance of TV’s “Mad Men,” Renee Zellweger slyly charms as a naive ‘50s unlucky-in-love belle who’s always been ‘kept’ by a man and eventually gains some perspective. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “My One and Only” is an amusingly bittersweet, screwball 7. You don’t learn the secret behind George Hamilton’s perpetual cinnamon brown tan but this goes a long way toward explaining his debonair demeanor.

Susan Granger’s review of “Adam” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

    For those who like unusual, off-beat, uplifting stories, let me recommend this intimate glimpse into the life a young man with Asberger’s Syndrome (ASD). Asberger’s is a developmental disorder on the high-functioning autism specter that makes it difficult for someone not only to communicate his or her feelings and concerns but also to comprehend those of others.

    Having lived a highly structured, regimented life, Adam Raki (Hugh Dancy) is a brilliant, 29 year-old electronics engineer who is fired from his job as a toy designer after the death of his beloved father and now fears losing his New York City apartment because he can’t pay the mortgage. What makes his task even more challenging is that he totally lacks the ordinary social skills necessary for a job interview. Instead of conversing, geeky Adam awkwardly delivers lengthy discourses on topics that interest him, like space exploration, astronomy, the raccoons that forage in Central Park at night and the history of some of the Off-Broadway theaters – unable to interpret cues that he’s boring others beyond endurance.

    To his rescue comes his new neighbor, Beth Buchwald (Rose Byrne), a patient elementary school teacher and aspiring children’s book author whose compassion for his dilemma compels her to befriend and mentor Adam. Eventually, she also becomes romantically involved with him, much to the consternation of her protective parents (Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving), who are going through their own complicated, overly contrived life crises in a Westchester County courthouse.

    Writer/director Max Mayer elicits multi-faceted, naturalistic performances from his entire cast, and both British actor Hugh Dancy (“Ella Enchanted”) and Australian actress Rose Byrne (Glenn Close’s protégé on TV’s “Damages”) demonstrate remarkably authentic American accents. Adroitly avoiding superficial short-cuts and stereotypes, Mayer falters only in his wobbly plot narrative, blending light comedy with pathos, and lack of subtlety about Adam’s obsessive behavior.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Adam” is a sensitive 7, exploring a bittersweet relationship that’s unusual and uncertain, demanding compromises and courage, and delivering an epilogue that’s both convincing and satisfying.

Susan Granger’s review of “Inglourious Basterds” (Weinstein Company)

    Lifting the title from Enzo Castellari’s 1978 Italian W.W.II film, Quentin Tarantino begins with “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France” as he creates an alternate-reality fantasy/fable about a small group of Jewish-American soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Aldo “the Apache” Raine (Brad Pitt), a moonshine-maker from Tennessee, who wreak their own savage Nazi “retribution.”

    So when the head of the Third Reich’s propaganda bureau, Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Green), decides to hold the premiere of a movie celebrating the exploits of the German Army’s finest sharpshooter, Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), in Paris – with Adolf Hitler and all his henchmen in attendance, British Lieutenant Archie Cox (Michael Fassbender) parachutes behind enemy lines to organize the commando Basterds to blow up the cinema, working with glamorous German actress/undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger). At the same time, the art cinema’s owner, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), whose family was brutally executed by evil SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) several years earlier in rural France, is plotting with her lover/assistant Marcel (Jacky Ido) to lock the doors of her theater and set it on fire. Everyone meets during the climactic finale in which Tarantino unabashedly rewrites Holocaust history.

    Known for his gory, over-the-top violence and witty repartee in “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and 2,” idiosyncratic Quentin Tarantino interweaves fact with fiction and realism with fantasy in a non-linear tale, keeping the tension taut during the far-too-long (2 hours, 32-minute) running time, despite an abundance of dialogue which tends to drag on and on and on. Unfortunately, when the writer is also the director, there’s a tendency toward self-indulgence in length.

    Those familiar with Second World War action/adventures will spot Basterdian antecedents in “The Dirty Dozen,” “The Great Escape” and Sergio Leoni’s spaghetti-Westerns, among others, while Diane Kruger’s character is obviously based on Hildegard Knef/Marlene Dietrich, and Mike Myers appears briefly, disguised as General Fenech.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Inglourious Basterds” is an exciting if uneven 8, exhilarating in the theme of Jewish empowerment and righteous revenge.