Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Soul Power” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Back in 1974, just before the “Rumble in the Jungle,” when Muhammad Ali faced George Foreman in an epic title fight, the most celebrated African-American R&B stars gathered in South Africa for a 12-hour, three-night music festival in Kinshasa, Zaire, a ”roots” concept dreamed up by Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine and promoted by Don King. Much of this was chronicled in Leon Gast’s 1996 Oscar-winning “We Were Kings.”

Unfolding chronologically, showing how the concert came together, the underwriters’ concerns, the preparation of the stadium, African street musicians and the assembling of the various artists, “Soul Power” is crafted from the extensive “outtakes” that were not utilized in that earlier documentary. These fragments of film have been painstakingly assembled by editor/producer/director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, who was aware of this intriguing backstage and concert footage left languishing in a vault. Featured are stunning performances by James Brown and Miriam Makeba, whose native “clicking” sounds are amazing. Plus, there’s B.B. King with Lucille, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz and Fania-All Stars bandleader Johnny Pacheco – it’s an eyeful and an earful but a great deal that you may have seen before.

It seems a shame that Levy-Hinte chose not to put this concert in its proper historical context. He makes no mention of the behind-the-scenes political intrigue that plagued Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of Congo – under the tyrannical rule of its then publicity-seeking president Mobutu Sese Seko, under whose auspices both the fight and the concert were organized. In “We Were Kings,” there were interviews with those in attendance like Norman Mailer and George Plimpton, which added greatly to the overall impact. While Brown and Cruz have passed on, many of the other artists are still around and it’s too bad that Levy-Hinte didn’t include their reminiscences of “Zaire ’74.”

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to10, “Soul Power” is a conscientiously, if conventionally edited 5, focusing on the undeniable power of the music. Wait for the DVD.

Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, July 17th:

“The Haunting in Connecticut” is a creepy, hokey ghost story revolving around a spooky, old Victorian house in Southington, which was once a funeral parlor, that’s been purchased by an unsuspecting mom (Virginia Madsen) who moves in with her three children, only to find that her teenage son (Kyle Gallner) is plagued by visions of a clairvoyant child (Erik Berg) as a dying priest/exorcist (Elias Koteas) senses evil afoot.

Dennis Quaid stars in “Horsemen” as a recently widowed detective who discovers a shocking connection between himself and the suspects in a perverse serial killing spree rooted in the Biblical prophecy of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Gritty “Explicit Ills” examines inner-city life in Philadelphia in stories about love, drugs and poverty, featuring Rosario Dawson, Paul Dano and Lou Taylor Pucci.

As the hospital doors shut for the last time, “ER: The Complete Eleventh Season” contains all 22 emotion-packed episodes with bonus features. And there’s “Mad Men: Season Two,” timed to coincide with the show’s third season premiere on AMC.

For early learners, “HIT Favorites: School Days” gets ready for September with Thomas, Barney, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, Fifi and the Flowertots and Kipper. And there’s an all-new “Thomas & Friends: Percy and the Bandstand” and “Bob the Builder: Built for Fun,” which comes with a collectible toy vehicle. Plus, all these favorite preschool characters have new DVD Lunch Box Gift Sets packed with episodes from each series.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Oozing great sparks of wit and emotion, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange deliver daring performances as “Little Edie” and “Big Edie” Beale, Jacqueline Kennedy’s eccentric Long Island relatives, in “Grey Gardens.” Additional content compares and contrasts this HBO Film with the documentary by Albert and David Maysles that inspired it. And “The Edge of Love” is an intense, dark drama set in war-torn 1940s London, involving Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys) and his wife (Sienna Miller) who embark on a scandalously close, amorous relationship with a friend named Vera (Keira Knightley).

Susan Granger’s review of “I Love You, Beth Cooper” (20th Century Fox)

On Chris Columbus directorial credits, you’ll find “Home Alone,” “Adventures in Babysitting” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” along with the first two Harry Potter movies, but something went terribly awry with this wannabe teen comedy – and I suspect all mention of it will quickly disappear from his bio.

The premise revolves around Buffalo Grove High School’s dorky valedictorian Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust). Egged on by his geeky, movie-obsessed best friend Rich (Jack T. Carpenter), who may or may not be gay, he decides to boldly “seize the day” at graduation and expresses his innermost thoughts. Those include not only his adoration of the popular, diminutive blonde cheerleader Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere) but also his disdain for her ROTC boy-friend Kevin (Shawn Roberts), among others. Expecting humiliation and rejection, he’s stunned that Beth – recklessly looking for laughs – shows up at his somewhat solitary grad-night ‘party,’ along with two catty cheerleading chums, Cammy (Lauren London) and Treece (Laurel Storm), pursued by drug-addled, revenge-seeking Kevin and two of his menacing friends. That leads Denis and Rich into a chaotic, all-night binge of mischief, merriment and public humiliations.

“This isn’t fun anymore,” Denis says. “Who said it’s supposed to be fun?” counters Beth – which pretty well summarizes this entire movie-going experience.

Whether the fault lies with Chris Columbus’ inept casting or writer Larry Doyle’s formulaic screenplay, adapted from his 2007 coming-of-age novel, is anyone’s guess, but the episodic result is filled with stereotypical characters blathering banal, cliché-riddled dialogue with predictable consequences. While he may look like a teenager at first glance, Paul Rust is actually 28 years old and his maturity soon not only becomes not only obvious but a bit creepy, while Hayden Panettiere, known from “Heroes,” repeats her perky TV persona (minus the superpowers), vainly attempting to exude some semblance of vulnerability. But what’s with the sex and cocaine jokes in what’s supposed to be a featherweight PG-13 farce? On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “I Love You, Beth Cooper” thuds with a lame 3. Avoid it.

Susan Granger’s review of “Food, Inc.” (Participant Media/Magnolia Pictures)

Robert Kenner’s disturbing documentary dissects the industrialization of North American food production and delivery systems and how it has affected our health, environment and economy.

Although Michelle Obama is raising veggies on the back lawn of the White House, you can forget about the bucolic concept of chickens, pigs and cows roaming freely on the family farm or sheltered in barns and feeding on grass. Today, they’re raised in nightmarish Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, that are sheltered from scrutiny by secrecy and intimidation.

To complicate matters, the FDA and USDA have been rendered almost powerless by judicial rulings and legislation which has led to lax health and safety controls. Kenner even utilizes footage from a California legislative hearing to demonstrate how agri-business lobbyists were able to restrict meat-labeling laws that would indicate that the source was cloned animals. And don’t think that because you avoid ‘fast foods,’ you escape the grim peril.

Incorporating information from Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” and Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” as well as commentaries from those two authors and other food advocates, farmers, experts and government officials, Emmy Award-winning director/producer Robert Kenner ( PBS’ “Two Days in October”) delivers a blistering indictment of greedy giant food conglomerates like Monsanto, Tyson, Purdue and Smithfield. Sure, it’s all one-sided – making it ‘advocacy filmmaking’ – because company representatives refused to respond. But explain that to the family of two year-old Kevin Kowalcyk, who died after eating a hamburger contaminated with E.coli.

Back in 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle,” a muckraking novel that exposed unsanitary conditions, corruption and labor practices in the U.S. meatpacking industry, which brought about some reform. Let’s hope the all-consuming “Food, Inc.” has the same effect. If Wal-Mart can change its policies and products because of public pressure, so can every one of the conglomerates. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Food, Inc.” is a stomach-churning yet persuasively necessary 9 – but don’t plan to go out to dinner after viewing this graphic film.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment)

If you’re looking for ferocious, visceral suspense, director Kathryn Bigelow delivers with this graphic, subversive portrait of courage under fire, focusing on the Bravo Company technicians of the elite U.S Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit, dismantling bombs in one of the world’s most dangerous places – Iraq.

In the opening combat sequence, a three-man squad loses their cautious commander, Sgt. Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce), as he’s trying to detonate a street bomb. Arriving to take his place is cocky Staff Sgt. Will James (Jeremy Renner) whose fearlessness – or is it recklessness? – stuns and frightens his men: Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Eldridge (Brian Geraghy), who have only 38 days left in their tour of duty. In one mission, James removes his bulky protective suit to disarm a car that’s rigged with explosives. In another, he tries to help a frightened man remove a bomb harness that’s been locked to his body – with the timer ticking. And as James, Sanborn and Eldridge ride around Baghdad in their Humvee, the atmosphere becomes increasingly dangerous.

Kathryn Bigelow (“Point Break,” “Blue Steel,” “Strange Days”) and journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal (who was embedded with a bomb squad in Baghdad in 2004) begin with a quote from journalist Chris Hedges to the effect that “war is a drug, a potent and often lethal addiction.” That’s the theme they, along with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd and editors Chris Innis and Bob Murawski, single-mindedly pursue, showing little inclination to explore any in-depth psychological analysis, which is particularly evident as an Army psychologist (Christian Camargo) resorts to glib, perfunctory platitudes when counseling terrified Eldridge. Utilizing handheld cameras, rapid pacing and striking sound effects, the testosterone-drenched, nerve-wracking action is undeniably riveting.

After its premiere at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, word-of-mouth has been gathering momentum and this drama can, perhaps, overcome the Iraq-war stigma that sunk Brian De Palma’s “Redacted” and Kimberly Peirce’s “Stop Loss,” among others. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Hurt Locker” is a tension-taut 8, as adrenaline junkies get high on danger.

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

Evoking shades of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: Space Odyssey,” “Blade Runner,” “Silent Running” and “Solaris,” Duncan Jones’ has fashioned a spooky, meditative sci-fi thriller about an astronaut facing an unexpected visitor.

Some decade in the not-too-distant future, mining-engineer Sam Bell is living in solitude on a base called “Sarang” on the far side of the moon, completing his three-year contract with Lunar Industries to extract Helium-3, Earth’s primary source of energy. Working in isolation, except for perfunctory conversations with the company’s reassuring computer, nicknamed Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), it’s a lonely job, made even more frustrating by a broken satellite that allows no ‘live’ communication with his wife (Dominique McElligott) and young daughter on Earth. Taped messages are all Sam can send and receive.

Suddenly, near the end of his tour of duty, Sam’s health begins to deteriorate. Perhaps the headaches and hallucinations he suffers are why he had an almost-fatal accident in his lunar rover while performing a routine maintenance job. While recuperating in the base’s infirmary, Sam discovers another presence hovering around him, someone who appears to be a younger clone of himself. The mystery deepens along with Sam’s paranoia.

Performing by himself and with himself, Sam Rockwell achieves admirable and impressive veracity with the minimalist production. And now that Duncan Jones has established himself as an intelligent, formidable writer-director, collaborating on the script with Nathan Parker (Alan Parker’s son), he’s more forthcoming about his own background: namely, he’s musician David Bowie’s son with his first wife, Angela, and was dubbed Zowie Bowie as a child growing up in Worcester, Ohio. As an adult, Jones pursued a Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University in Nashville but dropped out to study movie-making in London and started working his way up in the British film industry by doing commercials.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Moon” is an intriguing 8. It’s a compellingly haunting human tale of survival that just happens to be set in outer space.

Susan’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, July 10^th:

Chris Evans, Camilla Belle and Dakota Fanning join forces in “Push,” a psychic espionage thriller about eugenics experiments started by the Nazis during W.W.II in order to create superior beings. Now, a black-ops division of the Defense Dept. is determined to enhance the usefulness of these mutant mindbenders by administering mega-drug therapy. It’s long on style and short on substance, not to mention logic.

Also tracing back to Nazi evils, “The Unborn” is a cheesy horror film about a dybbuk, or demonic spirit determined to enter the body of a young woman (Odette Yustman) whose superstitious grandmother (Jane Alexander) is a Holocaust survivor and whose spiritual advisor (Gary Oldman) might be able to perform an exorcism.

The cat-and-mouse thriller “Five Fingers” is a shattering look at the shifting morals of terrorism and covert torture with Laurence Fishburne, Ryan Phillippe and Colm Meaney. And “A Day in the Life” is Onyx musician Sticky Fingaz’s rap narrative about a man who is struggling to leave the street behind but caught between two crime families.

For family viewing, there’s “The Peanuts 1960s Collection,” a six-pack of delightful Charlie Brown specials that have been re-mastered for picture and sound quality. And “The Little Red Truck” documentary chronicles participants in the Missoula Children’s Theater who travel around the country putting on musical shows with local talent.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Nicolas Cage stars in “Knowing,” a weird, far-fetched sci-fi thriller about a cryptic message from 1958 that accurately predicts the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major cataclysm of the past 50 years, along with three additional catastrophes waiting to happen, perhaps global destruction. Meanwhile, four ominous, unearthly men with shiny blond hair seem to be observing everything. And “Garrison Keillor: The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes” trails America’s foremost humorist and radio commentator as he takes his “Prairie Home Companion” skits and monologues across the country, capturing Keillor on and off-stage, mingling fact with fiction as he creates his hometown, Lake Wobegon. Bonus material includes outtakes and an interview with the late Robert Altman.

Susan Granger’s review of  “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” (20th Century Fox)

Fun is far from extinct in this third installment in the prehistoric franchise, the first to use the now-popular 3-D technology. But it’s like a friendly visit with old friends rather than exploring new territory.

As the story begins, Manny (voiced by Ray Romano), the neurotic, overprotective woolly mammoth, and his mate Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah) are busy preparing for the birth of their first offspring. Diego (voiced by Denis Leary), the saber-toothed tiger, takes off on his own, fearing that domesticity has rendered him unable to hunt even the simplest of prey. As a result, Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) is feeling a bit abandoned, so he swipes three huge eggs he finds under the ice and ‘adopts’ the newly hatched dinosaurs. Problem is: that understandably infuriates the enormous Mommy Dino who kidnaps Sid and takes him beneath the frozen tundra into a perilous subterranean world filled with T-Rexes, raptors, flying pterodactyls and carnivorous plants. So his friends Manny, Diego, Ellie and the opossums Eddie (Josh Peck) and Crash (Seann William Scott) band together to brave danger in order to save Sid. Of course, the hyperactive squirrel Scrat (voiced by Chris Wedge) is back, still chasing that elusive acorn, but now distracted by a scrambling female, Scratte, on the same quest.

Short on originality and long on action, this “threequel” returns to the familiar terrain of “The Land Before Time” and “The Lost World” with director Carlos Saldanha adding a new character: a wigged-out warrior weasel named Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg).

Using 3-D does enhance the depth and detail of Blue Sky’s CGI imagery, as paws, claws, beaks and snouts seem to extend off the screen. If that gets too intense for tiny tots, just have them jettison the glasses. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” is a frigidly sluggish, yet familiarly diverting 5 – and the forecast includes spectacular sales when it comes out on dvd.

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

    While 21^st century older women who enjoy decadent relationships with younger men are dubbed “cougars,” that cross-generational attraction has been around for many, many years. Indeed, the legendary French writer Colette (1873-1954), who reportedly had a clandestine affair with her stepson, scandalized society with the two novels on which this new Stephen Frears film is based.

    Set in turn-of-the-century Paris, radiant Lea de Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a wealthy, retired, middle-aged courtesan who embarks on what she thinks will be a casual tryst with a callow, foppish 19 year-old playboy, “a graceful demon” called Cheri (Rupert Friend). His bitchy mother, Charlotte Peloux (scene-stealing Kathy Bates), a former courtesan and Lea’s colleague and rival, doesn’t object; in fact, she considers it an educational experience for him to become her sexual protégé. Surprisingly, six years later, the affair is still on. Lea fears growing old while Cheri fears growing up. But then scheming Charlotte announces that handsome Cheri is affianced to the lovely, virginal Edmee (Felicity Jones), an 18 year-old with a significant dowry and the daughter of Marie-Laure (Iben Hjejle), another ex-courtesan. Her lust unabated, beautifully fragile Lea retreats to the French Riviera, staunch in her refusal to give up her “naughty child.”

    More than 20 years ago, Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) directed Michelle Pfeiffer in the far-better costume drama “Dangeous Liaisons,” which was also translated and adapted by Christopher Hampton. Now at age 51, Pfeiffer’s still gorgeous, as are Consolata Boyle’s elegant Belle Époque costumes and scenery, sumptuously photographed by Darius Khondji. But there’s a distinct unease about Pfeiffer’s performance that permeates and dilutes this sophisticated yet poignant concept.

    As a side note, Frances Tomelty, Sting’s first wife and mother of his two eldest children, plays Pfeiffer’s maid, while Keith Richards’ ex, Anita Pallenberg, has a cameo as a fellow courtesan in a scene shot at Maxim’s in Paris. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Cheri” is a shallow, soufflé-light 6. It’s all about the wicked game of seduction and its aftermath.

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

In “Borat,” Sacha Baron Cohen played an ignorant, anti-Semitic journalist from Kazakhstan who traveled to the U.S. to make a faux documentary.  In “Bruno,” he’s a flamboyantly gay Austrian ‘fashionista’ who’s determined to be an American celebrity. In both provocative ventures, Cohen cajoles real, unsuspecting people into awkward situations – with hysterical consequences.

This time, Cohen crassly exploits the attitudinal discomfort known as homophobia that’s created when heterosexuals, particularly men, encounter aggressive homosexuality. In one scene, sex-crazed Bruno inveigles Representative Ron Paul into his hotel room and tries to seduce him on the pretext of interviewing him about economics; after maintaining his dignity as long as possible, the conservative Texas congressman exits the premises in disgust, muttering, “This guy’s a queer. He’s crazy!” In another, Bruno chats with Paula Abdul who’s served hors d’ouvres off a naked Mexican. (A similar sequence with LaToya Jackson was cut after the untimely death of her brother Michael.) Then there’s Bruno’s ‘adoption’ of a baby in Africa, a thwarted kidnapping in Lebanon and various attempts to ‘go straight’ with martial arts instruction and religious conversion.

Perhaps the most scandalous gag is Bruno’s casting session for glamorous ‘baby’ photo-shoot for which ambitious parents recklessly offer up their offspring. “Is your baby comfortable with bees, wasps and hornets?” he inquires. “Oh, yes, he’s comfortable with everything,” one mother assures him. “Dead or dying animals?” “Yes.” In an even more appalling dialogue, another mother assures him that her 30-pound daughter could lose 10 pounds in one week, if necessary, adding “I’d have to do whatever I could.”
Over the years, British-born Sacha Baron Cohen has developed this rude if riotous alter-ego (Ali G, Borat, now Bruno) and he’s become a cultural phenomenon, an original comic character, exploring radical and risky events, forcing people to challenge their own preconceptions and stereotypes. And director Larry Charles’ choice of ‘reaction shots’ are priceless. As for the R-rating, vulgar, graphic, full-frontal male nudity abounds. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bruno” is a raunchy, satirical 7. Whether it’s outrageously offensive or offensively outrageous, it’s laugh-out-loud funny.