Movie/TV Reviews

dvd update

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Sept. 12:

For decades, hecklers railing at politicians, entertainers and athletes have been relegated to the sidelines. Yet even back in Shakespeare’s day, audiences hurled insults, if not rotting fruit, at actors onstage. In Colonial America, Crispus Attucks and others at the Boston Massacre helped spark the American Revolution. But Michael Addis’ fascinating documentary “Heckler” shows how these people now feel more entitled.
With high school football underway, ESPN’s “Hellfighters” is an inspirational true story about former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Doug Ferguson and the Harlem Hellfighters, a gritty, relentless team that found itself a long way from Friday night lights.
“Cool Hand Luke Deluxe Edition” shows Paul Newman in one of his most powerful performances as Lucas “Luke” Jackson, a gutsy prisoner in a Southern chain gang, who refuses to buckle under to authority; this uncompromising film is considered one of the most important in the ’60s, a decade marked by protest against the establishment.
“The Big Bang Theory: The Complete First Season” contains 17 original episodes about two geeky physicists (Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons) and their hot female neighbor (Kaley Cuoco), along with bonus featurettes.
Could 2008 be the year when the Great Pumpkin arrives? Join Linus’s vigil on All Hallows Eve with the re-mastered “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” Bonuses focus on the myth and tradition of this Halloween TV staple. Plus, there’s “Halloween Spooktacular” containing fright-free adventures with Barney, Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina, Fireman Sam and Thomas & Friends.
PICK OF THE WEEK: “Saturday Night Live” comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler star in the wry satire “Baby Mama” about the outrageous consequences of putting your eggs in someone else’s basket. DVD bonuses include deleted scenes, an alternate ending and a making-of feature: “From Conception to Delivery.”

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Transsiberian

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Transsiberian” (First Look Studios)

The Trans-Siberian Railroad is no luxurious Orient Express. Instead, it’s a shoddy train with a surly crew that chugs across the vast, snowy wasteland between Beijing and Moscow, making various stops en route, and within its passenger cars, mystery abounds.
The Hitchcock-like story begins in Vladivostok, where a wily narcotics detective, Ilya Grinko (Ben Kingsley), is summoned aboard a ship to investigate a drug-related murder. Then the scene changes to Beijing, where an American church-sponsored group has just completed a charity mission. Genial, gregarious Roy (Woody Harrelson) and his conflicted, chain-smoking photographer wife Jessie (Emily Mortimer) are participants but, instead of flying home directly, they’ve opted take a trip on the legendary – if rickety – rail line that links East to West. They have marital problems and are trying to work them out. But complications arise when another couple appears to share their cramped sleeping compartment with its narrow, double-decker bunk-beds. Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) is a reckless, seductive Spaniard, while Abby (Kate Mara) is a 20 year-old runaway from Seattle. Over drinks and dinner, their stories unfold. But Jessie’s wary, particularly when Carlos secretly shows her some suspicious Russian ‘nesting dolls’ that he’s smuggling out of the country. Then, at a Siberian stopover in Irkutsk, Roy, a locomotive buff, accidentally misses the train – impelling Jessie, Carlos and Abby, to get off at the next station, Ilinskaya, so he can catch up with them. Choices made during this diversion prove disastrously dangerous.
Writer/director Brad Anderson (“The Machinist,” “Session 9”) makes the most of the ominous suspense as the hapless Americans struggle with the nightmare of perilous post-Soviet bureaucracy. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Transsiberian” is a chilling, compelling 8. Paranoia is right on track in this sinister trapped-on-a-train thriller.

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Burn After Reading

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Burn After Reading” (Focus Features)

After “No Country for Old Men,” Ethan and Joel Coen are back in comedy mode, so this farcical thriller about dumb, middle-aged misfits caught in capricious CIA paranoia is more reminiscent of “The Big Lebowski” and “Raising Arizona.”
It all begins in CIA headquarters, where an alcoholic analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is demoted to a low-level State Department position, which surprises his wife Katie (Tilda Swinton), who immediately plans to divorce him – to the chagrin of her lover, Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a feckless federal marshal whose author wife is off on a book tour. Across town, two Hardbodies Fitness Center employees (Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt) – whose emotional IQ barely exceeds their bodily temperature – get their greedy little hands on a computer disc containing a draft of Osborne Cox’s memoirs and attempt to blackmail him.
“Why in God’s name would they think that’s worth anything?” muses Swinton.
It’s not the contrived plot that matters here, it’s the lunatic execution – and the Coens are masters of broadly drawn characters and stylized visuals. Apparently, they asked their actors to “embrace their inner knucklehead” to embody their moronic characters. So John Malkovich spews acerbic indignation; Tilda Swinton’s glacial ice queen escaped from Narnia; George Clooney’s unabashedly sex-obsessed; Brad Pitt’s an endearing idiot, prancing in tight Spandex shorts; and Frances McDormand (who is married to Joel Coen) is pathetically relentless in her determination to “reinvent” herself through expensive plastic surgery. In supporting roles, Richard Jenkins, Elizabeth Marvel, David Rasche, JK Simmons and Jeffrey DeMunn are exemplary.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Burn After Reading” is a silly, satirical 7. Or, as a bewildered CIA supervisor so aptly puts it, “Report back to me – when it makes sense.”

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Bangkok Dangerous

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Bangkok Dangerous” (Lionsgate)

Hong Kong’s Pang brothers – Danny and Oxide – have reworked their similarly titled 1999 Thai-language feature to star Nicolas Cage as the brooding, introspective hit man- for-hire.
His thinly conceived story begins in Prague where he leads a solitary existence: sleeping alone, eating alone and living out of a suitcase. There are four rules he lives by: 1) Don’t ask questions. 2) Don’t take an interest in anyone or trust anyone. 3) Erase every trace. 4) Know when to get out – before you become a target.
“The money’s good and I do what I’m told,” he explains.
Then he gets a plum assignment – four separate assassinations in Bangkok – which, he decides, will be his last foray. Perhaps that’s why he lets down his guard, befriending Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm), a petty thief whom he hires as an assistant, and falling in love with a deaf-mute pharmacist’s assistant (Hong Kong pop singer Charlie Young).
Accompanying the underdeveloped story and Cage’s unrelenting angst, cinematographer Decha Srimantrea’s dark, dank cityscapes radiate unrelenting grimy gloom, except for a bizarre drowning in a Sheraton hotel pool, an exotic chase sequence through a floating market and a tender interlude in a shrine.
As to why an actor of Cage’s Oscar-winning caliber (“Leaving Las Vegas”) is involved as a producer of this laconic, B-level thriller, Cage’s taste has always been eclectic, considering that his last outing was in “Ghost Rider.” Then there’s the money. After all, Cage has corralled at least 13 homes all over the world, including Neidstein Castle in Germany, an allegedly haunted house in New Orleans’ French Quarter, and a private island in the Bahamas. And real estate’s expensive.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bangkok Dangerous” is a toxic, tedious 3. It’s “Bangkok Boring.”

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dvd update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, September 5th:

“Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer” chronicles the extraordinary life of the legendary jazz vocalist, following her early days singing alongside Gene Krupa, Roy Eldridge, Stan Kenton, Louis Armstrong and Hoagy Carmichael through her failed marriages, abortions, arrests and 20-year heroin and alcohol addiction.
Another interesting documentary is “Lynch,” turning the lens on director David Lynch during the filming of his weirdly enigmatic “Inland Empire.”
The holdup genre gets remixed in “How To Rob a Bank” with perspectives and loyalties shifting so quickly it’s tough to tell exactly who is doing what to whom and why – with Nick Stahl, Erika Christensen and Gavin Rossdale involved.
Hong Kong action stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li team up for the first time in “Forbidden Kingdom,” a martial arts muddle, filled with cliché-ridden, chop-schlocky action.
In “The Promotion,” John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott play mid-level Chicago supermarket employees who compete ruthlessly in a contest of wits for a coveted managerial post at a new store location.
Synchronized swimming surfaces in Celine Sciamma’s “Water Lilies” about two teenage French girls discovering sex; thematically, it’s related to Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides,” turning hormonal eruptions into tragic phantasmagorias.
For kids, there’s “Bratz Girls Really Rock” with its Make Your Own Music Video feature; “Bob the Builder: On-Site,” delving into construction; and “The Best of Barney,” featuring the most memorable moments with everyone’s favorite purple dinosaur.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Harrison Ford dons his famous fedora and snaps his bullwhip in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” a thrill-filled fantasy-adventure set in 1957, as he’s pursued by a contemptuous Soviet parapsychologist (Cate Blanchett). At his side are a motorcycle-riding kid (Shia LeBeouf) and his old flame (Karen Allen).

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Traitor

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

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

This top-notch, intelligent espionage thriller slipped in under the wire without much fanfare.
When he was a child in Sudan, Samir Horn (Don Cheadle) watched in horror as his father died in a car bomb attack. Raised in the United States, Samir is a devout Muslim who’s tragically caught between traditional Islam and loyalty to the West. His sympathy for the Afghani Muhajadeen lands him in prison in Yemen, where he’s befriended by Omar (Said Taghmaoui) a Swiss-educated jihadist who arranges their escape and introduces Samir to the Muslim fanatic Fareed (Aly Khan).
Two diligent F.B.I. agents, Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Max Archer (Neal McDonough) are aware of his maneuvers yet unable to discern where his allegiances are. Trained by U.S. Special Forces, Samir’s an explosives expert whom they suspect is directly involved in a suicide bombing on Spain’s Costa del Sol and a fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Nice, France. And they’re right. But that’s just the first of many complex layers within the enigmatic character of Samir, who has secret meetings with a shadowy CIA agent (Jeff Daniels). Delving deeper, Clayton and Archer uncover Samir’s participation in an insidious plot to blow up 30 cross-country buses in America’s heartland during the Thanksgiving holidays.
Written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (“The Day After Tomorrow”), based on a story by Steve Martin and Nachmanoff, it’s filled with a dramatic sense of ambiguity, reminiscent of “Syriana” and “Babel,” heightened by J. Michael Muro’s verite-style cinematography and Billy Fox’s edgy editing. Wiry Don Cheadle (“Hotel Rwanda,” “Crash”) adroitly anchors the complex geopolitical drama, embodying its moral and ethical dilemmas. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 0, “Traitor” is a tense, unpredictable, intriguing 8. Terrorism weaves a tangled web of conspiracy.

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Babylon A.D.

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Babylon A.D.” (20th Century-Fox)

There’s an old saying: “Success has many parents but failure is an orphan.”
Writer/director Mathiew Kassovitz (“Gothika”) has publicly called this sci-fi thriller “pure violence and stupidity,” with parts of the film resembling “a bad episode of ‘24,’” and 20th Century-Fox refused to make screenings available to critics, either before or after its release. Yet, some executive, somewhere, supervised Kassovitz’s adaptation – with Eric Besnard – of Maurice G. Dantec’s philosophical novel “Babylon Babies,” which focused on the political implications of bio-technology, along with the disintegration of the American Empire.
Set in the not-too-distant future, when countless satellites monitor every move, the world has become a war zone, filled with nuclear, radioactive meltdowns. Toorop (Vin Diesel) is a mistrustful mercenary hired by portly Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) to smuggle a mysterious young woman named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) and her guardian, Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), from a convent in Kazakhstan and deliver her to a crazed, feminist Noelite High Priestess (Charlotte Rampling) in New York City. Raised by her father, Dr. Darquandier (Lambert Wilson), the virginal Aurora speaks 19 languages, reads minds, forsees the future and is seen as the ethereal savior of mankind. Crossing the frozen Russian tundra, Toorop must engage in extreme fighting, even dying, only to come back with cybernetically-enhanced limbs.
Despite its thematic similarity to Alfonso Cuaron’s apocalyptic “Children of Men,” the script is wretched with sloppy, repetitive dialogue; noisy, confusing action sequences; and little continuity. And the way Melanie Thierry’s speaks her lines can only be described as ludicrous. Covered with fake tattoos, Vin Diesel mopes and mumbles with a bad attitude although, judging by recent publicity, he’s still staunchly promoting this debacle. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Babylon A.D.” is a dismal 1. Undeniably awful.

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dvd update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 29th:

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet exercises his passion for martial arts with “Redbelt,” as an idealistic jujitsu teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) becomes inexorably drawn into the prize-fighting circuit by a pupil (Max Martini), a movie star (Tim Allen) and his disgruntled Brazilian wife (Alice Braga).
“Son of Rambow” is a subversively eccentric, low-budget British comedy about two young boys who attempt to make the ultimate action sequel in their backyard, devising bizarre, often dangerous stunts and homemade special effects.
“What Happens in Vegas” is a tepid romantic comedy with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher as two strangers who wake up married. Before they can divorce, they win a three million dollar jackpot which they refuse to divide, declaring open warfare on each other for the money.
“August” follows an arrogant dot-com CEO (Josh Hartnett) as he fights to keep his company afloat, reunite with his girlfriend (Naomie Harris) and deal with his father (Rip Torn) and brother (Adam Scott) – with an amusing two-minute David Bowie cameo.
Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious Camera d’Or as most auspicious film debut, “The Forsaken Land” is an extraordinarily poetic portrait of life in Sri Lanka during a tenuous cease-fire between the Sinhala government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – in Sinhalese with English subtitles.
And it’s back-to-school with “Meet the Sight Words,” a new series for early learners (15 months to six years) that engages young eyes with simple, striking visuals.
PICK OF THE WEEK: In 1945, writer Primo Levi was liberated from Auschwitz concentration camp. With the war still on, he embarked on a 1,000-mile journey home to Turin, Italy. “Primo Levi’s Journey,” traced by Davide Ferrario and narrated by Chris Cooper, is an illuminating, idiosyncratic portrait of 21st century Europe.

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Elegy

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

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

How ironic that it took a woman, Spanish director Isabel Coixet, to capture the inherently male agony about facing mortality that the ultimately misogynistic intellectual Philip Roth infused in his 2001 novella “The Dying Animal.”
University professor and celebrated NPR talk-show host David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley) is totally self-absorbed and cynical to his core. He considers his one-and-only marriage a ‘mistake’ and is estranged from his understandably embittered grown son, Kenneth (Peter Sarsgaard), now a physician. His only confidante is a philandering Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, George O’Hearn (Dennis Hopper). While David enjoys seducing attractive female students – wisely refraining until after grades come out – he maintains a casual, emotionally uninvolved sexual relationship with Carolyn (Patricia Clarkson), a successful traveling businesswoman.
That all changes when he meets Consuela Castillo (Penelope Cruz), an impressionable graduate student who is dazzled by his worldly knowledge and considerable charm. For David, his passionate obsession with Consuela – and her enticing physical beauty – is the closest he’s ever come to the elusive emotion called love, but she is 30 years younger than he. When they’re not together, his fertile imagination runs rampant and he’s filled with jealousy. Realizing this, he wonders: what kind of future could they have together?
“Stop worrying about growing old,” his friend advises. “And think about growing up.”
Adapted by Nicholas Meyer and directed by Coixet, the sophisticated story of the fragile liaison between David and Consuela unfolds at a richly textured, leisurely pace – with unexpected twists and turns as the optimism of youth confronts the wisdom of age. Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz are magnificent, as are Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Elegy” is an insightful 9, an evocative meditation on lust and death.

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Death Race

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

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

In 2012, with the collapse of the U.S. economy, crime and unemployment run rampant and violent spectator sports have turned savage. So now there’s ‘Death Race,’ a gladiator-like, three-day challenge involving maximum-security convicts smashing each other up in heavily armed vehicles. The rules are simple: win five events and you’re set free. Lose and you’re pay-per-view road-kill.
Frankenstein, who wears a mask because he’s so hideously disfigured, is the most popular driver in his weaponized 2006 Ford Mustang GT, known as The Monster, rivaled only by Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) in an armor-plated 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4WD truck and Slovo “Angel Wings” Pachenko (Max Ryan) in a 1966 Buick Riviera chop top. As the movie begins, there’s a horrific crash.
Then – right on cue – wrongly imprisoned former speedway champion-turned-steelworker Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) arrives on Terminal Island, where sociopathic, stiletto-heeled Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen) forces him to enter the competition, wearing the mask of the recently deceased Frankenstein, working with his mechanic Coach (Ian McShane) and sexy, tough navigator (Natalie Martinez), shipped in from the women’s prison.
Inspired by Roger Corman’s exploitive “Death Race 2000” (1975), writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson (“Alien vs. Predator”) – not to be confused with the brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”) – specializes in the zoom-in-and-out school of wobbly camerawork, utilizing an inane, effects-driven script. Gamers should recall he did the video-game adaptations of “Mortal Combat” and “Resident Evil.”
And it’s a curious coincidence that thrillers starring fearsome Jason Statham have dominated late August-early September time-period for the past five years, including “War,” “Crank,” “Transporter 2” and “Cellular.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Death Race” crashes in with an ultra-violent, fast-and-furious 4, filled with brutal, blood-splattered vehicular mayhem.

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