Movie/TV Reviews

Street Kings

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

There ought to be a testosterone warning posted at the box-office and stamped on each ticket because overdosing is a distinct possibility.
Recently widowed veteran LAPD Det. Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is a psychotic killing machine. He starts his day by purchasing three airline bottles of cheap vodka, the first of which he gulps just before he massacres four scummy thugs and rescues two kidnapped Asian girls in Koreatown.
“You went toe-to-toe with evil and you won!” chortles his ambitious supervisor, Capt. Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), who firmly believes that the end justifies the means.
But when anti-heroic Ludlow is implicated in the death of his former partner, Det. Terrence Washington (Terry Crews), he’s determined to track down the real murderers while eluding persistent Internal Affairs Capt. James Biggs (Hugh Laurie), who’s fishing for information about everyone else in the department.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for an incorruptible cop, look in a less sordid county.
Directed by David Ayer (“Training Day”) from a predictable, paper-thin plot by “L.A. Confidential” novelist James Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer and Jamie Moss, it’s a cynical, cliché-laden litany of police corruption. Gratuitous violence is ladled out like greasy gravy, along with racial slurs. And the platitudinous dialogue is often ludicrous.
One of the most incongruous moments comes, early on, when Ludlow’s ex-partner’s body has been riddled with dozens of bullets from two machine guns at close range in a convenience store. Contorting his almost static facial muscles, Keanu leans over, stares into his eyes and flatly entreats him: “Stay with me!” Like for seven seconds maybe. To call Reeves’ acting wooden is an insult to Pinnochio. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Street Kings” is a brutal 3, giving gritty realism a bad name.

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Shine a Light

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Shine a Light” (Paramount Pictures)

If you’re into the music of the Rolling Stones and admire the cinematic artistry of director Martin Scorsese, then this rockin’ concert film is for you – either on the flat screen or the extra-large IMAX format.
Most of the two hours is devoted to the Stones concert at Manhattan’s 2,800-seat Beacon Theater in the fall of 2006, celebrating the 60th birthday of Bill Clinton. There are more than 20 numbers, mostly Stones standards. As to be expected, brash Mick Jagger’s visage dominates the footage, strutting, scampering, scatting and shouting around a stage that thrusts right into the audience, but drummer Charlie Watts, along with guitarists Ronnie Woods and Keith Richards, do get their well-deserved close-ups.
Speaking of those tight, low-angle shots, on the huge IMAX screen, it may be a closer examination than you bargained for: Mick Jagger was 63 when this was filmed and the ravages of time have not been kind to his deeply lined face and extensive dental work.
Humor is injected through vintage clips and archival interview footage. It’s poignant when, in 1972, Dick Cavett asks Jagger if he could imagine doing this at 60 and Jagger quips, “Oh, yeah, easily.” There are guests – singer Jack White, slinky Christina Aguilera and bluesman Buddy Guy – but little insightful, behind-the-scenes footage.
If you enjoy this kind of entertainment, check out Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz” (1978), which, frankly, is far better. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Shine a Light” is an energetic 8. Scorsese has already decided to do another music documentary – this time about the life and times of the late reggae legend Bob Marley – and he dedicates this film to longtime music guru Ahmet Ertegun who died shortly after it was completed.

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Smart People

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Smart People” (Miramax)

American astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan once said, “Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.”
So it’s not surprising that some ‘smart people’ can be thick as planks.
While pompous Carnegie Mellon University literature professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) may be a brilliant academician, he’s a caustic, contemptuous curmudgeon. And while his smug, selfish 17 year-old whiz-kid daughter Vanessa (Ellen Page) may ace her SATs, ensuring early admission to Stanford, she hasn’t a clue about herself. Sent to Pittsburgh to dig them out of their self-inflicted misery are his inept, irresponsible adopted brother Chuck (Thomas Haden Church) and former student-turned-lonely-ER doctor, Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker).
Drawing from “The Wonder Boys,” “The Squid and the Whale” and “Dan in Real Life,” first-time screenwriter Mark Jude Poirier and former commercials director Noam Murro delineate some potentially provocative, dysfunctional family situations but then let them drift somewhat aimlessly for far too long before coming to a totally predictable conclusion.
The three leading actors dig into their idiosyncratic characters: Dennis Quaid (“Vantage Point”) embodies the misanthropic widower, matched by Ellen Page (“Juno”) as his smartass verbal sparring partner, and Thomas Haden Church (“Sideways”) as the freewheeling humanist/slacker. On the other hand, Sarah Jessica Parker (“Sex and the City”) can’t seem to latch on to what’s appealing about this erudite, middle-aged loser – resulting in zero chemistry between them – and the majority of Ashton Holmes’ role as Wetherold’s collegiate son must have been left on the cutting-room floor.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Smart People” is an underwhelming, fragmented 5 – ending with a photographic epilogue that’s quite confusing if you really look closely.

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Nim’s Island

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Nim’s Island” (Fox Walden Media)

This is a children’s fantasy and, as such, it works rather well. But if you’re hankering for adult adventure, look elsewhere.
On a remote volcanic paradise somewhere in the South Pacific, resourceful 11 year-old Nim (Abigail Breslin) lives an idyllic existence with her scientist/writer father, Jack (Gerard Butler) and her playful friends: Selkie the sea lion, Galileo the pelican and Fred the tiny bearded dragon. Unlike Robinson Crusoe, however, once a month, a supply boat delivers the ‘essentials,’ like the latest novel by Nim’s favorite explorer hero, Alex Rover.
Meanwhile, cloistered in a flat in San Francisco, agoraphobic writer Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster) is desperately trying to extricate her fictional alter-ego from a sticky ‘volcanic’ situation. When she reads Jack’s article on volcanoes in the National Geographic and e-mails him for more information, it’s Nim who answers on the Internet. So when Jack disappears at sea and tourists from a cruise ship invade their island for a luau, Nim’s only recourse is to summon Alex Rover for help.
Over-written and awkwardly directed – with Nim chatting up the animals, Jack fighting the elements, and Alexandra talking to her computer – by the husband-and-wife team of Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett, along with producer Paula Mazur and Joseph Kwong, it’s based on Wendy Orr’s novel.
Plucky Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) strikes just the right notes, ‘becoming the heroine of her own life,’ as does Jodie Foster, handling pratfalls with her usual aplomb. While Gerard Butler (“300”) seems a bit out of his element in as the paternal Jack, he succeeds as fictional persona of intrepid Alex Rover. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Nim’s Island” is a family-friendly 6, complete with flying lizards and a flatulent sea lion.

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Leatherheads

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

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

Actor/director George Clooney (“Good Night and Good Luck”) tries a throwback to the Hollywood screwball romantic genre with this sports comedy set in the 1920s, when America’s pro-football league was in its infancy.
Charming Dodge Connolly (Clooney) is an aging player who recruits a hotshot Princeton star/war hero, Carter “The Bullet” Rutherford (John Krasinski from “The Office”), hoping to revitalize the Duluth Bulldogs, a ragtag team of coal miners and farmers whose audience is dwindling. Inevitably, they become rivals for an intrepid newspaper reporter, Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger).
Genially noting, “I steal from everybody,” Clooney lifts snippets from directors Howard Hawks, George Cukor, Preston Sturges and the Coen brothers’ “Hudsucker Proxy,” among others. The awkward gracelessness of Zellweger’s Lexie can be traced directly back to Rosalind Russell in “His Girl Friday,” along with her self-assuredness. Cary Grant must have been Clooney’s role model, particularly his amiable elusiveness. Only, Grant’s reactions were usually oblique, while Clooney’s are all too transparent. And the conceit of Krasinski’s character has its antecedents in “Hail the Conquering Hero” with contemporary tinges of John Kerry’s Swift Boat.
While the sharp dialogue by screenwriters Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly epitomizes quarreling without losing your class – it’s a ritual banter of personal exchange and witty expression – the storyline is as uneven as the pacing. I suspect it may play better on DVD where it will easily recoup its investment, particularly among diehard football fans who may be intrigued by the antiquity of the plays. Back then, for example, passing was considered ‘unmanly,’ so it was rough-and-tumble down-the-middle until one player broke free and ran for the goalposts to score.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Leatherheads” is an admirably stylized 6. Yet as sports comedies go, it fumbles.

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Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns” (Lionsgate)

Adapting another one of his stage plays, prolific writer/director Tyler Perry (“Diary of a Mad Black Woman,” “Madea’s Family Reunion,” “Daddy’s Little Girl,” “Why Did I Get Married?”) continues his exploration of the sense and sensibility of the African-American community.
Brenda (Angela Bassett) is barely surviving as a single mother living in a Chicago housing project. And the future looks dim since factory she works at is closing. Perhaps that’s why she agrees to attend the funeral of the father she never knew.
Arriving by bus in the small, rural Georgia town with her teenage son and two daughters, she meets the Browns: Leroy (David Mann), the malaprop-prone, leisure-suit clad buffoon of a deacon, and his hostile, hard-drinking sister Vera (Jennifer Lewis), along with staid Sarah (Margaret Avery), Cora (Tamela Mann) and L.B. (Frankie Faison) Even the grandmother Madea (Tyler Perry’s alter ego) in a gratuitous cameo near the conclusion. Before that, however, Brenda’s attention and affection is caught by Harry (Rick Fox), a former NBA star-turned-coach who, as the plot thickens, takes a much-needed paternal interest in her son, Michael (Lance Gross).
Mired in melodrama, Tyler Perry dabbles in the temptations of drug dealing, morality, religion and, of course, humor. Although his dialogue is unwieldy, his slapstick pacing uneven, his characters basically caricatures, and his direction functional, considering the shrill performances, Perry’s a crowd-pleaser. A victim of physical abuse as a child and a survivor of toiling for too many years in obscurity, Perry is determined to deliver his perennial message of perseverance: “Just keep praying.” And Angela Bassett can seemingly do no wrong. So on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns” is a fun-loving 5, celebrating the possibility of second chances.

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21

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “21” (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Here’s the deal: this is sheer escapist entertainment.
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess) is a brilliant MIT senior with his heart set on attending Harvard Medical School. While he dutifully sells men’s clothing at J. Press on weekends, his $8-an-hour salary just doesn’t meet the steep $300,000 tuition and his widowed mom (Helen Carey) can’t help out much. His future is totally dependent on winning a coveted scholarship, but other competitors are equally qualified.
So when a manipulative math professor, Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) realizes Ben’s a brainiac, he convinces to join a top-secret, high-stakes gambling team (Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts). Soon Ben begins to spend all his weekends in Las Vegas. Rosa has devised a near-foolproof scheme for ‘counting cards’ at blackjack tables and this lucrative, clandestine enterprise soon dominates Ben’s life, much to the chagrin of his geeky buddies (Josh Gad, Sam Golzari) – and Planet Hollywood’s beleaguered security consultant (Laurence Fishburne) who has a grudge against Rosa.
Based on “Bringing Down the House,” Ben Mezrich’s best-seller about six real-life MIT students who took Vegas for millions in the 1990s, director Robert Luketic (“Legally Blonde”) makes ‘counting cards’ absolutely fascinating, not to mention exciting, aided by Gray Marshall’s flashy visual effects. Writers Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb have a tougher time with characterizations, particularly since bland Kate Bosworth (“Superman Returns,” “Beyond the Sea”) seems incapable of more than a couple of facial expressions. As if to compensate, Spacey maniacally cavorts all over the screen, while Fishburne provides believable menace.
Despite some glaring plot loopholes that had me wondering why Ben didn’t rent a safety-deposit box at a Boston bank, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “21” is a slick, suspenseful 7. It’s a good gamble.

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Drillbit Taylor

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Drillbit Taylor” (Paramount Pictures)

Combine the talents of engaging actor Owen Wilson (“Wedding Crashers,” “Meet the Parents”) with the comedy sense of producer Judd Apatow (“The 40 Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Superbad”) – and how bad can it be? Pretty bad.
The story begins as three stereotypical, insecure dorks – skinny Ryan (Troy Gentile), tubby Wade (Nate Hartley) and tiny Emmit (David Dorfman) – start high school. They’re pumped – until they’re targeted by fearsome Filkins (Alex Frost), a vicious 18 year-old bully who makes their lives miserable. Complaints to the principal are dismissed, so their only means of survival comes from placing an Internet ad seeking protection.
An AWOL Army vagrant living (and showering nude) on a Santa Monica beach, Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), is the only one they can afford. Explaining, “I was discharged for unauthorized heroism,” he figures he can scam them for a few hundred dollars – enough to buy him a ticket to Alaska – but his bumming buddies urge him to milk the gig for all its worth. Meanwhile, he forms an emotional attachment to the kids.
The goofy “My Bodyguard” premise is appealing, but the execution is disjointed. Writers Kristofor Brown (“Undeclared”) and Seth Rogen (“Superbad”), along with director Steven Brill (“Little Nicky”), fail to make either the characters or their actions plausible. Drillbit obviously has psychological problems which are not only never addressed but obliterated by his masquerade as a substitute teacher, “Dr. Illbit,” attracting amorous moves from another teacher (Leslie Mann, Apatow’s wife). The freshmen are obviously clever but are rarely given inventive solutions to their dilemma. And it’s certainly not the fault of the hapless dudes who soldier on.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Drillbit Taylor” is a flimsy, formulaic 4, offering only lame laughter.

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Stop-Loss

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Stop-Loss” (Paramount Pictures)

While Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama devise exit strategies and Republican John McCain speculates that we’ll be in Iraq for the next 100 years, filmmaker Kimberley Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry”) angrily delves into what’s happening to troops currently serving their country in the Middle East.
Specifically, the government’s Stop-Loss Policy, which authorizes the retention of soldiers in the service beyond their expected term, also known as a “Back Door Draft.”
Staff Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) has honorably completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq and is recovering in Brazos, his small Texas hometown, when he’s informed that the Army plans to send him back – indefinitely. While he’s as patriotic as the next guy, that’s just not right!
Meanwhile, his buddy, Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), is so emotionally devastated that – his first night home – he gets drunk and digs a foxhole in the front yard from which he howls, much to the distress of his fiancée (Abbie Cornish). And Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has become a stereotypically twitchy, screwed-up psycho veteran.
So King impetuously goes AWOL, becoming a fugitive in the country he fought to protect.
Problem is: “Stop-Loss” isn’t really about the use of that legal loophole. Instead, it’s about soldiers’ post-traumatic stress upon returning home from war, a subject covered far more effectively by Paul Haggis in “In the Valley of Elah,” for which Tommy Lee Jones received a well-deserved Oscar nomination.
The contrived characters and cinematography, especially the Tikrit combat sequences, seem all too familiar and, since Paramount’s partner is MTV, the heavy metal/alt-pop/southern rock soundtrack can occasionally be overwhelming. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Stop-Loss” is grim, heart-wrenching 5, measuring the shameful human cost of the continuing escalation of the war.

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Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (Universal Pictures)

Gleefully uproarious sex comedies have become the bawdy province of Judd Apatow (“The 40 Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up”), who stretches farcical, vulgar silliness into outright hilarity.
Since struggling musician Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) is wildly in love with his girlfriend, “Crime Scene” television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell of “Veronica Mars”), he’s utterly shattered when she unceremoniously dumps him for an egotistical British-rocker, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand).
Following the advice of his well-meaning stepbrother (Bill Hader), Peter books a 4th of July trip to Hawaii, checking into the posh Turtle Bay Resort, not realizing that Sarah and Aldous are there too. Saved from mortification by a compassionate front desk clerk, Rachael (smoldering Mila Kunis), he awkwardly tries to heal his broken heart with some new friends and to complete his great opus: a dark, Gothic “Dracula” rock opera with vampire puppets.
Insightfully scripted by Jason Segel (yes, he wrote himself the pathetic leading character) and sensitively directed by Nicholas Stoller, it plumbs all the laughter inherent in an emotional disaster while skillfully tweaking formulaic romantic comedy clichés. Plus, the lusty women are bright as well as beautiful – and that counts.
Remember how taboo full-frontal male nudity once was? Forget it. From the getgo, Jason Segel is in the altogether – and he’s altogether likeable – as is the rest of the cast, including fresh funny folk like Paul Rudd (as a surfing instructor), Jonah Hill (as a star-struck waiter) and Jack McBrayer (as a sexually naïve newlywed). But it’s droll Russell Brand’s hedonistic bravado that steals the show!
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is an outrageous 8, a raunchy romp that turns into a real audience-pleaser. And linger for an amusing epilogue in the final credits.

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