Movie/TV Reviews

Spellbound

Susan Granger’s review of “Spellbound” (THINKFilm/HBO/Cinemax Films)

No, this is not a remake of Hitchcock’s Ingrid Bergman/Gregory Peck thriller. Far from it. Set in Washington, D.C., it’s Jeffrey Blitz’s Oscar-nominated documentary that profiles the 14 year-old honor students who compete in the annual National Spelling Bee. Now, before you yawn and stop reading, let me tell you the contest is far more interesting than you’d expect – or ESPN wouldn’t regularly televise the finals. How many of us can spell “cephalalgia” or “apocope”? The story begins as Harry, an anguished teen, is trying to spell a simple word that sounds like “bands” but turns out to be “banns,” a term familiar only to regular churchgoers. After that, we’re introduced to eight local champions. From New Haven, Connecticut, there’s upscale, energetic Emily; at the opposite end of the socio/economic spectrum, there’s Angela, the Texas-bred daughter of illegal Mexican immigrants who speak no English. Ashley’s from Washington D.C’.s inner city projects, while Ted’s rural Missouri family lives in a trailer and Ashley’s a vegan from Ambler, Pennsylvania. Neil’s father from San Clemente has analyzed all previous Spelling Bees and not only works through the dictionary with his son but also hires foreign-language tutors for word derivations. Young Nupur’s hometown of Tampa is so proud of her that the local Hooters put up a sign: “Congradulations.” That several competitors are immigrants from India is explained by the fact that students cannot correct their mistakes in India, so there is strong societal pressure to be perfect. And in the Spelling Bee, there’s also no second chance. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Spellbound” is an uplifting, oddball 6, using spelling skill as a metaphor for life. And if you miss it in theaters, watch for it on cable TV later this year.

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Prince Charming

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Prince Charming” (Sunday evening, July 13, on TNT)

Are you in the mood for a funny midsummer night’s fantasy? This classic fairy tale begins in the 15th century in the European country of Lothian as Prince John (Sean Maguire), who has an eye for the ladies, is caught in a compromising situation with a damsel on his wedding day. As punishment, he and his loyal squire Rodney (Martin Short) are sentenced to “frogging,” which transforms them into lowly frogs for all eternity – or until the prince can convince a maiden not only to kiss him but also to marry him. 500 years later later, John and Rodney find themselves wet ‘n’ wild in 21st century New York in Central Park. Miraculously, they’re returned to human form by a kiss from Margo (Bernadette Peters), a Broadway diva who’s in love with Hamish (Billy Connolly), her director, and has no intention of marrying Prince John, who, meanwhile, has fallen for Kate, a street-wise horse-drawn buggy driver (Christina Applegate). So it falls to Rodney and his lady-love Serena (Andrea Martin) to conjure a bit of magical manipulation. Written by Doug Palau and directed by Allan Arkush, this charming story pivots on the medieval chivalry of the heroic Prince, who has sown his wild oats and discovers true love for the first time. Jamie Anderson’s cinematography conveys the romantic aura, while the interaction of the CGI frogs with live-action actors is amusing and production designer John Dondertman makes clever use of Central Park’s Belvedere Castle. On the Granger Made-for-TV Movie Gauge, “Prince Charming” is an endearing 7. The two-hour TNT World Premiere is at 8 p.m. on Sunday, July 13, with encores at 10 p.m. and 12 am, plus additional encores on July 17 at 9 p.m., July 18 at 10:30 p.m., July 19 at 12 a.m., July 23 at 11 p.m. and July 26 at 9:30 a.m..

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Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” (Miramax Films)

The third installment in Robert Rodriguez’ successful “Spy Kids” franchise has three strikes against it: a) the once-adorable “kids” are growing up, b) the ’50s style blue-and-red style cardboard 3-D glasses are a pain, and c) there’s too much blatant computer-game merchandising. As the story begins, the no-longer-cherubic, 11 year-old secret agent Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) is recruited from ‘retirement’ by OSS leaders (Salma Heyek, Mike Judge) and the President of the United States (George Clooney). Juni’s assignment is penetrate the highest level of a mysteriously menacing video game, created by The Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone), who battles his own split-personalities as he holds Juni’s sister Carmen (Alexa Vega) hostage in cyberspace. When Juni’s allowed one companion on this perilous quest, he wisely chooses his grandpa (Ricardo Montalban) who soon becomes a superhero. While there are some clever allusions – Juni’s known as “The Guy,” a play on “The One” from “The Matrix,” and Montalban’s wheelchair is “fine Corinthian leather,” etc. – the video-game characters are inexplicably and unpredictably hostile, then friendly, but most often duplicitous, noting: “Time flies when you’re playing games!” Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Cheech Marin, and Holland Taylor appear briefly in cameos, along with Steve Buscemi, Alan Cummings, Bill Paxton, Emily Osment, reprising their previous “Spy Kids” characters. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over” is a mindlessly chaotic, family-friendly 5, but parents should be prepared to fork out for the video-game, in addition to the video games for “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Finding Nemo,” “Enter the Matrix,” “Hulk,” and “X-Men 2: Wolverine’s Revenge.”

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Bad Boys II

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Bad Boys II” (Columbia Pictures)

This action-packed sequel to the 1995 movie starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence resonates with deafening gun battles, careening car chases, and graphic carnage for 2 1/2 hours. Smith and Lawrence play squabbling buddy cops Mike Lowry and Marcus Burnett. It’s eight years after their first escapade in Miami and, unbeknownst to Burnett, Lowry is dating his kid sister, Syd (Gabrielle Union), who works undercover for the DEA in New York. All three are on the tail of a ruthless trafficker in Ecstasy pills named Johnny Tapia (Jordi Molla), who smuggles drugs and money from Cuba to Miami and back in coffins. While the quest is to capture Tapia, the focus on the fireballs, explosions and banter – in that order. And since four writers (Ron Shelton, Jerry Stahl, Marianne Wibberly, Cormac Wibberly) are given screen credit, you’d think they wouldn’t have to repeat jokes twice. Perhaps director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer just didn’t listen since they seem to have paid far more attention to the systematic wrecking of vehicles: 22 cars and a boat are demolished in the movie’s first half-hour alone. To add to the gruesome gore, slow-motion photography follows bullets as they penetrate necks and shatter skulls, severed limbs drip blood on a dining-room table, and a decapitated head off an embalmed corpse bounces down the highway. That’s visceral. That’s nasty. On the other hand, one amusing moment does occur when Mike and Marcus team up to terrify a young man who has come to take Marcus’s daughter on a first date. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bad Boys II” is an interminably bloated, brutal 2. A contemptible example of vile, relentless overkill, it’s rated R for strong violence, offensive language, sexuality and drug content.

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” (20th Century-Fox)

When a major studio, big-budget action-adventure is as dreary and dismal as this, it’s often interesting to dissect its various elements and discover what went wrong. Based on the graphic novel (i.e.: comic book) by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, the story assembles adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), “Invisible Man” Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng), Tom Sawyer (Shane West), and Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), a Dracula-inspired vampire. It’s 1899 when they’re summoned by Britain’s Secret Agent M (Richard Roxburgh) to sail to Venice, Italy, to battle a powerful enemy known only as The Fantom. While these living legends have colorful reputations, they’re uniformly dull – with the notable exception of Quatermain, who struggles valiantly to turn the American lad into a surrogate son. Working from a clumsy, confusing, convoluted script by James Dale Robinson, director Stephen Norrington (“Blade”) seems totally at a loss with how to connect with the actors at his disposal. As a result, emotional relationships between the misfit characters are non-existent. And it’s impossible to suspect disbelief when the special effects are this silly. “The Invisible Man” is just an actor in white-face makeup and – even with a comic book mentality – one cannot conceive how the gigantic “Nautilus” submarine could skim undetected through the narrow Venetian canals, nor how everyone is able to drive cars. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” is a ponderous, inconsequential 3. Is it possible that the vision of producer Don Murphy (“From Hell”) was actually to dumb-down a comic book?

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The Holy Land

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Holy Land” (CAVU Pictures)

Set in Israel, this strange, disquieting coming-of-age story begins as Mendy (Oren Rehany), a sexually distracted rabbinical student, is advised by his Orthodox rabbi to abandon his Torah studies and visit a prostitute to “get it out of his system.” Following that dubiously believable suggestion, he goes to a Tel Aviv brothel where he becomes obsessed with Sasha (Tchelet Semel), a Christian girl from Russia. A rugged American war photographer named Mike (Saul Stein) befriends him, revealing that Sasha hangs out at his bar in Jerusalem. Soon, Mendy’s working at “Mike’s Place,” a dive where Jews and Arabs drink side-by-side. That’s where he finds Razi (Albert Illuz), an Arab smuggler/collaborator, and The Exterminator (Arie Moskuna), an American-born Jewish settler with an M-16. As the plot unfolds, shy, lovelorn Mendy and feisty, hot-tempered Sarah inadvertently become pawns in the never-ending ‘intifadah’ or holy war. What distinguishes writer/director Eitan Gorlin’s ambitious, if muddled, prodigal son concept are the rich, local details and exotic, intoxicating locations, which perhaps lend unwarranted authenticity to the somewhat confusing story. Raised as an American Orthodox Jew, Gorlin first visited Israel at age 17, attending a Zionist yeshiva where religious studies and military service were combined. He came back to the United States for college before returning to Israel, where he worked as a bartender and spent a year in the Israel Defense Forces. His diverse experiences were chronicled in “Mike’s Place, A Jerusalem Diary,” which served as the basis for this film. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Holy Land” is a contrived, ambiguous 5, perhaps best conveying what life in Jerusalem is really like beneath the tourist facade.

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Swimming Pool

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

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

French filmmaker Francois Ozon’s first predominantly English film sizzles with intrigue. The seductive story begins as a British publisher (Charles Dance) offers a discontented, best-selling mystery writer, Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling), his house in idyllic Provence in the off-season. Weary of caring for her elderly father, Sarah’s grateful to get away from London and relax in the south of France for a few weeks, hoping to get her creative juices flowing again. But as soon as she gets settled with her laptop in the refreshing sunshine, her serenity is shattered when her publisher’s free-spirited teenage daughter Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) unexpectedly arrives and settles into the spare bedroom. Lusty and uninhibited, Julie parades around nude and brings a different man back to the house each night. Friction erupts between the prim, repressed spinster and the naughty nymphet. For awhile, it seems as if the two women are headed for a Sapphic duet. But that’s just a tease before Ozon and his writing partner, Emanuele Bernheim, twist the tale into a suspense thriller. Suddenly, there are blots of blood on the deck of the swimming pool and a handsome waiter has disappeared. And the final fillip may have you reeling with confusion. What is reality and what has occurred in Sarah Morton’s fertile imagination? Blessed with a mobile, expressive face atop a superb body, Charlotte Rampling continues her penchant for shocking, full-frontal nudity, recalling when she coupled on broken glass with Dirk Bogarde in “The Night Porter” (1974), while Ludivine Sagnier is totally convincing as the confused hedonist. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Swimming Pool” is a tantalizing, off-beat, ambiguous 8 – but don’t expect any easy answers to the inevitable questions that remain.

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Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review: “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life” (Paramount Pictures)

(Disclosure: My son, Donald Granger, co-owns Mutual Films which co-financed this film.) Angelina Jolie is back again as the intrepid British archeologist Lara Croft in this female-propelled version of Indiana Jones-meets-James Bond. The globe-trotting adventure fantasy begins on the Greek island of Santorini, where a volcanic eruption allows Croft access to a long-lost orb buried in the subterranean Luna Temple of Alexander the Great. The orb is a map to the fabled Pandora’s Box which – according to a villainous bioterrorist (Ciaran Hinds) – contains world-wide destructive powers. Problem is: Chinese mercenaries are also after the artifact. So it’s a race to discover where it’s buried. Instead of working alone, Lara Croft springs a former flame (Gerard Butler) from a Kazakhstan prison and, together, they’re off to China – then Hong Kong – then Kenya, where she’s met by an old friend (Djimon Hounsou) who serves as her translator. Director Jon De Bont (“Speed,” “Twister”) propels the high-speed motion with some of the summer’s most spectacular stunts, particularly an acrobatic rooftop leap onto a barge, dazzlingly photographed by David Tattersall. While stunning Angelina Jolie has the convincing physicality, it’s too bad screenwriter Dean Georgaris and his cohorts didn’t come up with more of the caustic humor that lightens both Indiana Jones and James Bond. Whereas both of these macho men enjoy curvy distractions, grizzled, gnarly Gerard Butler with his thick Scottish brogue is a curious choice to charm Lady Croft. And the CGI creatures guarding The Cradle of Life are little more than silly spooks. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life” is an action-packed 7, continuing the video game-inspired, popcorn-picture fun.

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Seabiscuit

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Seabiscuit” (Universal Pictures/DreamWorks)

“Seabiscuit” is one of the great American legends – and now there’s a movie that does it justice. Narrated by historian David McCullough, it shows how – back in the 1930s in the depths of the Depression – a runty racehorse captured the country’s imagination. Based on a book by Laura Hillenbrand and adapted into a screenplay by director Gary Ross, the story follows three damaged men who were rescued and restored by their faith in a down-trodden horse. First came owner Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges), a self-made San Francisco auto magnate whose son was killed an a truck accident. Then there was taciturn trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper), perhaps the original horse whisperer. Feisty, Shakespeare-quoting jockey “Red” Pollard (Tobey Maguire) completed the trio. Finally, there was Seabiscuit, a troublesome thoroughbred with fire in his eye. On one thing they all agreed: “You don’t throw a whole life away just ’cause it’s banged up a little.” William H. Macy offers comic relief as a radio commentator. Jonathan Schwartzmann’s cinematography gives you a thrilling jockey’s-eye-view of the racetrack with real-life Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens lending authenticity as Pollard’s buddy George Woolf. “The Story of Seabiscuit” was filmed once before, back in 1949, with Shirley Temple and Lon McCallister. The only thing that version had in its favor was vintage newsreel clips of Seabiscuit racing War Admiral at Pimlico and then winning at Santa Anita. On the other hand, this “Seabiscuit” captures your heart. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Seabiscuit” races off with a thrilling, triumphant 10. Saddle up Oscar nominations for Bridges, Cooper, Maguire, supporting actor Macy and writer/director Ross. This is a crowd-pleasing winner!

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Pulse: A STOMP Odyssey

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Pulse: A STOMP Odyssey” (Imax)

What goes bang-bong, clink-clang, whee-wooosh, ding-dong? It’s PULSE this summer’s most surprising IMAX movie. Neither a travelogue nor natural history chronicle, it’s an energetic, imaginative celebration of the pulsating global beat, exploring mystically connective drum and vocal rhythms on different continents around the globe. It’s like listening to the unifying heartbeat of the planet Earth. From the clever creators of the experimental musical STOMP, the story begins as a single percussionist open the window of his New York apartment and begins to tap. The camera pulls slowly back, revealing his neighbors eagerly joining in. Then its chant encompasses the human neighborhood. There are the bead-shaking South African Moremogolo Tswana Traditional Dancers, frenzied Kodo drummers of Japan, Winchester Cathedral bell-ringers in England, a clicking Flamenco dancer on a rooftop in Spain, Hindi natives going through decorated elephant religious rituals in India, American Indian Dance Theater in Colorado’s Red Rock Canyon, even underwater workers making music beneath the waters of the English Channel. And don’t forget the 200 Bayeza Cultural Dancers, wearing hard-hats, overalls and Wellington boots in the slums Johannesburg. Closer to home, there are two, quite different uniformed drum corps – the traditional Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps and the funky Jackie Robinson Steppers – stage a musical “duel” as they pass each other, going in opposite directions on the Brooklyn Bridge. Guiding us wordlessly through this global excursion is Keith “Wild Child” Middleton, a facially expressive hip-hopper who starred in STOMP on Broadway. That musical’s creators, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, designed an urban collective that utilizes ordinary objects, like trash cans, brooms, boxes, basketballs and soda bottles, to capture the rhythms of the city – and the country – even on bicycles, tooting horns and clanking bells on an open country road. But this is not a giant screen version of STOMP; it’s a creation unto itself. Miraculously, it’s rhythmic but not noisy. Utilizing the photography of Christophe Lanzenberg and James Neiulhouse, the large-format IMAX screen is ideally suited to capture the images and allow you to feel the beat right down to your toe-tapping feet. Even the opening titles, consisting of a parade of fantastical vehicles, a promotional plug for Honda’s sponsorship, are fanciful and, therefore, memorable. If there’s any quibble, it’s with the formulaic (panning left-to-right) camera work which, at times, seems to undercut the naturalistic choreography. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Pulse: A STOMP Odyssey” is an exuberant, joyous 9, keeping you on the edge of your seat until Middleton signals the conclusion with the only spoken word in the entire film: an gentle “Shhhh….”

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