Movie/TV Reviews

The Terminal

Susan Granger’s review of “The Terminal” (DreamWorks)

Imagine being a visitor from Eastern Europe who is forced to make a New York airport’s international transit lounge his home. That’s what happens to Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) when he arrives in the United States and learns that war has erupted in Krakozhia, voiding his passport, leaving him a man without a country. Making friends among the airport workers, this resourceful traveler even touches the heart of a lovelorn flight attendant (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Viktor’s nemesis is a heartless bureaucrat (Stanley Tucci), the acting Director of Customs and Border Protection. Rules and regulations prohibit him from letting Viktor leave the premises, yet Viktor’s constant presence is equally unnerving. Inspired perhaps by the tale of Merhan Nasseri, an Iranian who was detained at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris in 1988, “The Terminal” reflects America’s increasingly conflicted feelings about immigration and foreign threats. Not only can anyone who has ever traveled abroad relate to Viktor’s plight but the perfectly cast supporting players – Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Kumar Pallana, Barry Shabaka Henley and Zoe Saldana – reflect the diversity that make America a melting pot. Andrew Niccol, Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson have written a heart-tugging yet light-hearted human drama with refreshing comedic undertones, and it’s one of Steven Spielberg’s most loving, romantic creations, subtly photographed by Janusz Kaminski and scored by John Williams. Tom Hanks delivers yet another indelible, heroic performance, proving why he’s one of our most talented screen actors. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Terminal” is a crowd-pleasing, touching 10. Prepare to laugh, to cry and to relish, once again, the magic of the movies.

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Saved!

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Saved!” (United Artists/MGM)

Historically, religion has not been perceived as been a teen pop culture theme in Hollywood but perhaps Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” has changed that. Let’s see what happens with this satirical comedy about hypocrisy at an evangelical Christian high school. Just before her senior year begins, Mary’s (Jena Malone) boyfriend (Chad Faust) confides that he thinks he’s gay. Soon after, Jesus appears to her in a vision, telling her to “do everything she can to help him.” Unfortunately, her “cure” results in an unexpected pregnancy. Ostracized by her treacherous clique, the “Christian Jewels,” led by her holier-than-thou once-best-friend Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) and insecure Tia (Heather Matarzarro), Mary’s befriended by three misfits: a sexy, rebellious Jewish girl (Eva Amurri), Hilary Faye’s droll wheelchair-bound brother (Macaulay Culkin), and the pastor’s hunky son (Patrick Fugit), who’s just returned from the World Skateboarding for Christianity tour. Meanwhile, Mary’s divorcee mother (Mary-Louise Parker) becomes involved in a conflicted affair with Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan). Screenwriter/director Brian Dannelly and his co-writer Michael Urban subversively skewer the divisive, messianic zealots while scoring points for tolerance, acceptance and spirituality. Yet at times, admittedly, they lack subtlety and are quite simplistic: “Why would God make us so different if He wanted us to be the same?” and “They can’t all be wrong and they can’t all be right.” The casting is on-target with particularly memorable performances from Mandy Moore and Eva Amurri (Susan Sarandon’s daughter). On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Saved!” is a hip, funny, delightfully irreverent 8. It’s a perceptive look at relationships, faith and love.

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Control Room

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Control Room” (Magnolia Pictures)

For those who speak Arabic, Al Jazeera is the world’s leading news service and a frequent source of controversy in the Western world. The popular satellite channel reaches an audience of 40 million in the Middle East, and its importance is constantly growing. Focusing on Al Jazeera’s coverage of beginning of the war in Iraq, Egyptian-American, Harvard-educated filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (“Startup.com”) examines the entire concept of objectivity in news reporting. To that end, this documentary focuses on various journalists, putting a human face on the network that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld labeled “Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece.” Shot over a six-week period, beginning in March, 2003, at Al-Jazeera’s studios in Doha, Qatar, and at the U.S. military’s Central Command press office, located just a few miles away, it shows a frustrated staff emotionally opposed to the war but struggling to present an objective view. There’s sardonic senior producer Samir Khader, a Jordanian who is critical of the Bush administration but insists Al-Jazeera doesn’t want to alienate Americans. “You cannot wage a war without…propaganda,” he asserts as the film begins. Later on, he confesses he’d take a job with the Fox News Channel, trading “the Arab nightmare for the American dream.” Sudanese Hassan Ibrahim grew up in Saudi Arabia, where he was a classmate of bin Laden, went to school in Arizona and spent a year following the Grateful Dead. He’s an Arab nationalist who strongly opposes the war. And Lt. Josh Rushing is a likable Centcom press officer who’s unfailingly honest. In Arabic with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Control Room” is a probing, provocative 9. It’s a vivid, new perspective on the question: “What is truth?”

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Seducing Doctor Lewis

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Seducing Doctor Lewis” (Wellspring Release)

If you enjoyed “Waking Ned Devine,” “The Full Monty” and “Local Hero,” this is also a charming comedic tale. Set in the tiny village of Sainte Marie-La Mauderne, accessible only by boat in northern Quebec, it’s about a community’s struggle for survival after its fishery closes. Week-after-week, the hardy-but-now-hopeless, out-of-work men line up for welfare checks; even the mayor moves away in shame. Until, one day, enterprising Germain Lessage (Raymond Bouchard) decides to launch a campaign to attract a small plastics factory. In order to do that, the town needs its own resident doctor. Through a bit of chicanery, Dr. Lewis (David Boutin), a plastic surgeon from Montreal, appears. He’s there for a month and the residents must seduce him to stay. Their provincial schemes are as eccentric as they are effective. Discovering he loves cricket, they organize a sham match for his arrival. They leave $5 bills on his path, so he’ll think the island’s magical. They tap his phone to learn helpful hints like his joy in fusion jazz and taste for Beef Strogonoff, which is then featured at the town’s only restaurant. Complications occur when the frantic locals must wheedle a $50,000 bribe to compete with a neighboring town and somehow convince the visiting factory rep that their population is double the actual inhabitants. Director Jean-Francois Pouliot and screenwriter Ken Scott have fashioned an amusing, feel-good fable, more genial and modest than a flat-out farce, yet propelled by gentle, idiosyncratic characters. While it’s formulaic, it’s also utterly beguiling, accented by Jean-Marie Benoit’s score. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Seducing Doctor Lewis” is a whimsical 8. In French with English subtitles, it’s a gem.

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Home on the Range

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Home on the Range” (Disney)

The most discouraging word about this lackluster film is that it marks the end of the era of traditional hand-drawn animation at Disney. Perhaps, it’s understandable when you consider how computer animation (CGI) has taken over. And somewhere amidst their cutesy sight-gags and silly dialogue, writers/directors Will Finn and John Sanford (“Road to El Dorado”) forgot about how integral a good story and appealing characters are to a film’s success, even for tiny tots. This tale revolves around a brash, wisecracking, prize-winning heifer named Maggie (voiced by shrill Roseanne Barr), a new arrival at the peaceful Patch of Heaven farm, owned by Pearl (Carole Cooke). While she’s welcomed into the dairy barn by kindly Grace (Jennifer Tilly), she’s rejected by the prim British cow in a blue bonnet, Mrs. Calloway (Dame Judi Dench). But simple cow squabbles seem unimportant when Sheriff Brown (Richard Riehle) tells Pearl that her farm is in foreclosure. The three bovines must band together to capture Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid), a villainous cattle rustler, whose $750 bounty could save Patch of Heaven from the auction block. But Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a skittish, motor-mouth stallion, is after Slim too. Perhaps what’s most disappointing are the tunes by composer Alan Menken (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin”) and his new lyricist partner Glen Slater, warbled by Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang and Tim McGraw. Slim’s yodeling song is backed by a cattle parade, evoking memories of pink elephants in “Dumbo,” plus there’s a runaway mine car and a trio of belching pigs. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Home on the Range” is a mildly funny yet udderly forgettable 5, which means it should soon be stampeding into a video corral near you.

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Hellboy

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Hellboy” (Columbia Pictures)

Egad! It’s April and the monster-mash comic-book movies have already burst into bloom. Six comic book adaptations are scheduled for release this year, including “The Punisher,” “Catwoman,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Man-Thing” and “Blade: Trinity.” Let’s start with “Hellboy.” According to Mike Mignola’s Dark Horse Comics, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) was born as the spawn of Satan 60 years ago, during World War II. He was brought to Earth by the maniacal monk Grigori Rasputin (Karel Roden). Destined to be a harbinger of the apocalypse, Hellboy was rescued by Professor Trevor Broom (John Hurt), founder of the FBI’s secret B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense), who raised him like a son, nurtured his super-hero gifts and convinced him to join the good guys against Rasputin, whose evil warriors include Hitler’s assassin Kroenen (Ladislav Beran) and the indestructible Sammael (Brian Steele). While Hellboy is fond of cats and chocolate bars, he’s cared for by a conflicted new recruit, Agent John Myer (Rupert Evans), and his cohorts include a telepathic amphibian, Abe Sapien (Doug Jones, using David Hyde Pierce’s voice), and a troubled pyrokinetic, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair). Combining CG with matte paintings, models and animatronics, writer/director Guillermo del Toro fosters the fun and ingenuity that fuel this often-confusing horror fantasy. There are cinematic influences from “X-Men,” “The X-Files,” “Star Wars” and Ron Perlman’s own “Beauty and the Beast” TV series. Yet it’s Perlman who steals the show, evoking the humanity and humor beneath the leathery prosthetics and grungy appendages. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hellboy” is a grotesque, violent, demonic 7 – for its target audience. Expect a sequel.

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Walking Tall

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Walking Tall” (MGM/UA)

In this vigilante tale, wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is Chris Vaughn, a solitary, self-righteous U.S. Special Forces soldier who returns home to Kipsat County in Washington State to carve out a new life for himself, only to discover his wealthy high-school rival, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough), has closed the once-prosperous lumber mill and focused his attention on a sleazy casino which fronts for a lucrative drug-dealing operation. Not only has his old high-school girl-friend Deni (Ashley Scott) become a stripper amid the slot machines but the locals have been forced out of business by chain stores and their kids – like Chris’s nephew Pete (Khleo Thomas) – are into drugs obtained from the casino’s security force. Infuriated by the obvious corruption, Vaughn runs for sheriff, deputizes his recovering-addict buddy (Johnny “Jackass” Knoxville) and sets off to settle some scores. The original “Walking Tall” (1973) featured Joe Don Baker as the rural Tennessee lawman Buford Pusser – and it’s not really accurate to call this current, truncated version a re-make. The buff Rock is certainly bigger, if not better, wielding a cedar four-by-four as his big-stick weapon-of-choice. But it’s obvious that cost-control was the key production factor that influenced director Kevin Bray, because the overall impression is cheap, cheap, cheap – filming at minimal cost in Vancouver and casting lesser-known, less-expensive talent. The Rock has a recognizable name but no one else in the cast does. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Walking Tall” is a brutal, fracas-filled 4. And I question the PG-13 awarded by the MPAA; this should be an R-rated film since its explosive violence is quite unsuitable for youngsters.

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Johnson Family Vacation

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Johnson Family Vacation” (Fox Searchlight Films)

As amusing as he is, on occasion, Cedric the Entertainer is no Eddie Murphy. So when he attempts to play multiple parts in this lackluster cross-country trek, the comedy just falls flat. The story begins in Los Angeles as Nate Johnson (Cedric) and his hip-hop-hyped son (Bow Wow) pick up his new Lincoln Navigator. But the SUV he ordered isn’t ready, so Nate agrees to take a ‘loaner,’ rigged with every gadget available, to drive to a family reunion in Caruthersville, Missouri. Then they’re off with his estranged wife Dorothy (Vanessa Williams) and two daughters. The older (Solange Knowles, Beyonce’s kid sister) is an incipient Lolita, attached to a cellphone, while the younger (Gabby Soleil) brings along her imaginary dog, Sir Barks-A-Lot. The three-day trip seems like an eternity, beginning with Nate’s road rage at a truck driver who forces him off the road. When they arrive at the Four Seasonings Hotel in Arizona, Nate is eager to make up with his wife, who plays the sexual trump card far too often. Meanwhile, he’s constantly being needled by his competitive older brother (Steve Harvey), who is determined to win the “Family of the Year” trophy. None of this is very funny, including an Indian casino visit, a cement-truck fiasco and an encounter with a sexy, hitch-hiking witch (Shannon Elizabeth). Music video/commercial director Christopher Erskine is a feature film novice, as are sibling screenwriters Todd R. Jones and Earl Richey Jones – and it shows in the episodic, uneven pacing and risquŽ dialogue. The kinfolk are crude caricatures, while Cedric’s over-the-top “Uncle Earl” is unintelligible. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Johnson Family Vacation” is a silly, disaster-prone 4. Their predictable mishaps rarely rise above the level of gross mediocrity.

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The Whole Ten Yards

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Whole Ten Yards” (Warner Bros.)

Back in 2000, “The Whole Nine Yards” was a comedic hit, pairing Bruce Willis, as the notorious hit-man Jimmy “The Tulip” Tudeski, with “Friends” Matthew Perry, as his California neighbor, Nicholas “Oz” Oseransky, D.D.S.. Now they’re back again in a new escapade. Jimmy’s happily retired in a secret hideaway in Ejutla, Mexico. He’s heavily into domesticity, much to the chagrin of his wife and protŽgŽ Jill (Amanda Peet), Oz’s former dental assistant, who wails, “I thought I married a contract killer, not Martha Stewart!” Meanwhile, back in Brentwood, Oz’s newly-pregnant wife Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), Jimmy’s ex-wife, is kidnapped by revenge-seeking Gogolak gang. Just-paroled Lazlo Gogolak (Kevin Pollak) figures that Oz, who was always paranoid and is now panicked, will lead him directly to Jimmy, which is exactly what happens. So will Jimmy shelve his recipe file and drop his apron to join Oz to rescue Cynthia and get back in the crime game? Director Howard Deutch, who was able to hone his improvisational skills and comic timing with old pros like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in “The Odd Couple II” and “Grumpier Old Men,”does his best to revive the cinematic chemistry. Bruce Willis wearing bunny slippers is a sight to behold, but writer George Gallo’s script sticks to one-liners and juvenile antics which may elicit chuckles yet there’s no laughing-out-loud. And Kevin Pollak, whose character of Yanni Gogolak was bumped off by Jimmy in the original story, is barely recognizeable as the elderly, word-garbling mob boss. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Whole Ten Yards” is a flawed 5. It’s yet another sequel that’s just not as good as the original.

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Ocean Oasis

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Ocean Oasis” at the IMAX

The travelogue has been an IMAX staple since its inception. This time, “Ocean Oasis” explores the two worlds of the Baja Peninsula that juts down from the southern tip of California. It’s intriguing how this geographical area is so biologically and ecologically unique, forming a haven for many species and encouraging ecotourism. The Sea of Cortez, which is actually in Mexican territory, teems with nearly 900 species of life. Barnacle-encrusted humpback whales waft through the swells, blasting water from their blow holes. A pod of dolphins races through the water, clicking messages to one another. There are the huge, graceful manta rays, green moray eels, and voracious hammerhead and gray sharks. This lush underwater world is viewed not only from above but also through the eyes of Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, an ecologist, and Iliana Ortega Bacmeister, a marine biologist and naturalist, who act as guides and narrators. In juxtaposition, there’s the adjacent arid desert of the Baja strip, where only cacti grow in the dry, desolate landscape, yet hummingbirds thrive and a kangaroo rat desperately attempts to escape from a ravenous rattlesnake. In the distance, there are snow-capped mountains. Closer by, one can find mangrove swamps and, within the canyons, an occasional palm oasis. The shore terrain is a nesting ground for millions of birds that migrate to feast from the bountiful sea during the winter, flying in from as far away as Canada and Chile. In a single day, these birds can consume six tons of fish without depleting the underwater population of this area. Of particular interest is a segment detailing how the tiny terns with their bright orange beaks, spiky black crowns and white bodies nest for protection inside a circle of seagulls. Then there are the lumbering male elephant seals with their proboscislike snouts. They can attain a length of 20 feet and emit fearsome roars as they engage in vicious territorial combat on the beaches of the Baja strip while the females flop around in silent submission. By the end of “Ocean Oasis,” however, the two environments – land and sea – are seen as intricately unified and connected in an awesome circle of life. The IMAX technology is at its best in the capable hands of filmmaker Soammes Summerhays, who captures the vividly colored marine life as it gracefully glides through the pristine waters. The cinematography is breathtaking, revealing a seemingly unending series of stunning images, most memorably the wwirling silvery-blue fish swimming in circles, silhouetted in the bright sunlight. On the other hand, after audience have been so enchanted with the anthropomorphism of Disney’s “Finding Nemo,” the lack of any semblance of storytelling makes the viewing a bit tedious. As a result, the presentation is choppy and uneven with no connective thread, and Alan Reeves’s bland New Age music can be soporific. So, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Ocean Oasis” is a visually elegant 5, illuminating the astonishing bio-diversity of the Gulf of California and making you want to pack your scuba gear and go.

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