Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Drag Me to Hell” (Universal Pictures)

It’s been 17 years since Sam Raimi hit the horror market. In the meantime, he’s been swinging with the “Spider-Man” trilogy. But now the auteur of “The Evil Dead” returns to the occult genre with a simple morality tale about a good woman who makes a bad choice that’s motivated by greed in the form of her desire for a promotion. She then hides behind ‘rules and regulations’ to avoid coming to terms with her sin.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is an ambitious L.A. loan officer who refuses to grant a mortgage extension to an elderly woman, Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver), defaulting her out of her home. In retaliation for the humiliation, the creepy, phlegmy old crone places the gypsy curse of the Lamia (a half-man/half-goat) on Christine, muttering, “Soon it will be you who comes begging to me.”

Sure enough, Christine’s life becomes horrendous as she’s stalked by shadowy demonic creatures. Since her puzzled but supportive college professor fiancé, Clay Dalton (Justin Long), cautions her against superstition, she turns to a Hindu psychic, Rham Jas (Dileep Tao), which leads to a surreal exorcism-séance led by Shaun San Dena (Adriana Barraza). But what price must the increasingly frantic Christine pay to break free of the curse?

Despite its prescient timeliness, Sam Raimi wrote the tongue-in-cheek screenplay with his brother Ivan more than a decade ago. So he insists it wasn’t designed to reflect our society’s current ills or condemn bankers as villains. Nor did Raimi eschew his trademark blood-and-guts just to garner a PG-13 rating, a designation which, apparently, condones other kinds of physical violence, not only with a stapler but also with bodily fluids, including being ‘slimed’ with saliva.

Youthful Alison Lohman brings just the right amount of desperation to the protagonist, while Lorna Raver’s Ganush joins the ranks of classic horror characters. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Drag Me to Hell” is a schlocky, spooky 7. It’s a disturbing terror thriller with an unusually loud soundtrack.

Susan Granger’s review of “Up” (Disney/Pixar)

While Palais aficionados may have questioned the choice of Disney/Pixar’s new, ultra high-tech digital 3-D fantasy to open the Cannes Film Festival, no one’s quibbling now. Without doubt, “Up” is the best movie so far this year.
Director/writer Pete Docter and co-director/writer Bob Peterson set up the backstory superbly, introducing the lifelong bond between Carl Fredericksen (voiced by Ed Asner) and his wife Ellie which began when they were children, entranced by a 1930s newsreel chronicling the exploits of eccentric explorer Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer). Believing “adventure is out there,” it was always Carl and Ellie’s dream to visit Paradise Falls, deep in the rain forest of South America, where the chagrined Muntz retreated in his dirigible, “Spirit of Adventure,” after one of his ‘discoveries’ was declared a fraud. But fate had other plans.
At 78, Carl has become a cantankerous widower who feels he has only one way ‘out’ when he’s banished to a retirement village. A retired balloon seller, he fills thousands of balloons with helium, attaches them to his house and soars up, up and away, only to discover there’s a stowaway: pesky eight-year old Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), a Wilderness Explorer Scout determined to earn his Elderly Assistance badge.
“I’ve never been in a floating house before,” Russell marvels. Where they go, how they get there and what they discover is sheer delight.
With minimal dialogue, the inventive, action-filled narrative flows simply and seamlessly, delicately touching on bittersweet themes of love and loss, along with the idea of escape and the importance of relationships and emotional growth – with nods to “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Lost World,” “The Red Balloon,” even “Fitzcarraldo.”
The poignant, underplayed characterizations are flawless and the finely-textured, visually brilliant animation is dazzling, particularly curmudgeonly Carl’s square-jawed face, subtly reminiscent of Spencer Tracy. So, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Up” lifts off with a high-spirited, towering 10. It’s SO effective, in fact, that whether you view it in 3-D or 2-D, you and your family are in for a terrific, fun-filled ride.

Susan Granger’s video/dvd update for week of Friday, May 29:

Fans of the counterterrorism drama “24” can now buy the complete seventh season that just concluded. 20th Century-Fox executives say this is the first series to be released on DVD and Blue-ray immediately after the finale. It’s an experiment, made possible in part by last year’s writer’s strike, and is similar to the release of “24: Redemption” two days after it was televised.
Renee Zellweger stars in the bleak, frostbitten comedy “New in Town” as an ambitious dairy food executive who agrees to relocate temporarily to a small town in Minnesota to supervise the downsizing of a local factory; predictably, she falls in love with a single father snowplow driver/fireman/union rep, played by Harry Connick Jr.
During his exile from Hollywood before “The Wrestler,” Mickey Rourke starred in “Killshot,” John Maddden’s ill-fated adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel. A hitman for the Toronto mafia, Rourke plays a Native American killer who wants to retire and find inner peace. Instead, a moronic punk (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) involves him in a crime witnessed by a couple (Diane Lane, Thomas Jane) on the brink of divorce.
Fred Durst makes his directorial debut with “The Education of Charlie Banks,” a coming-of-age story about a privileged Ivy Leaguer (Jesse Eisenberg) whose dorm room is invaded by an old acquaintance (Jason Ritter) with a violent past who intrigues his girlfriend (Eva Amurri) as he seamlessly integrates himself into Charlie’s campus life.
“Harlan Ellison: Dreams With Sharp Teeth” pays homage to Ellison, a dark prince of American literature, as Erik Nelson (“Grizzly Man”) captures the remarkable personal journey of this wildly imaginative writer and provocateur.
PICKS OF THE WEEK: If you’ve ever been intrigued by dinosaurs, “The Prehistoric Collection” is a fantastic eight-disc set featuring nearly 20 hours of astonishing computer graphics and compelling scientific data, including “Jurassic Fight Club,” “Megastorms,” ”Journey to 10,000 B.C.” and “Clash of the Cavemen.” Another collection, “Cities of the Underworld: The Complete Season Three” explores 13 subterranean worlds buried beneath city streets, complete with secret passageways, combat tunnels, buried palaces, Mafia escape routes and ammunition depots.

Susan Granger’s review of “Pontypool” (IFC Films)

What makes a horror picture work is what’s not seen on the screen because our imagination is far more powerful than any image a director could conjure up. More than any other genre, the horror picture depends on scaring the audience by manipulating their emotions. The subtlest and most terrifying moments are achieved through suggestion and sensitive editing, rather than shocking close-ups and gory brutality.
Blending elements of “Talk Radio” with “28 Days,” Canadian novelist Tony Burgess and filmmaker Bruce McDonald (“Hard Core Logo,” “The Tracey Fragments”) have created a psychological thriller set in the remote Ontario town of Pontypool. Banished from the Big City airwaves, acerbic shock-jock Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHarrie) is like a backwoods Don Imus, broadcasting every morning on CLSY radio from the basement of a local church with his producer Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle) and young assistant, Laurel Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly), just back from serving in Afghanistan.
What begins as another snowy day in mid-February soon turns deadly. Interrupting the school bus cancellations, folksy notices about a missing cat and traffic bulletins from a reporter in the “sunshine chopper” are strange sightings of marauding hoards of ravenous, zombie-like people, babbling incoherently while invading the offices of Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak), along with a bizarre warning from an unidentified, French-speaking listener about virus that’s infected the English language. But nothing about a riot is coming in on the news wires, so is something weird really happening or is a hoax, like Orson Welles’ infamous “War of the Worlds,” perhaps the result of Quebecois separatist terror groups? Must obnoxious Grant Mazzy shut up or die?
Best known for his appearances in “300” and “The Watchmen,” gravelly-voiced veteran character actor Stephen McHattie propels the plot, charismatically conveying how something mysterious and violent is happening. Where the claustrophobic concept ultimately falters, however, is when linguistic inconsistency and the confusing, outlandish ‘explanation’ shatter the believability. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Pontypool” is a scary 6, not your usual zombie picture.

Susan Granger’s review of “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” (20th Century Fox)

They’re b-a-a-a-ck. Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, the former security guard at New York’s Museum of Natural History hasn’t found happiness with his new entrepreneurial success, so his diorama friends – Robin Williams, as Teddy Roosevelt, along with Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan, as the miniature cowboy and Roman centurion – are happy to see him again.
But much to their chagrin, these exhibits and more are being shipped off to the Federal Archives into the vast underground storage area beneath the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. as the Museum modernizes its facilities. Determined to get his buddies back and save the magical Egyptian tablet that brings them to life, Daley darts frantically around the world’s largest museum complex, including the Air & Space Museum, with more than 136 million items in its eclectic collections.
With all those artifacts to choose among, it’s bizarre that the repeat writing team of Robert Ben Grant and Thomas Lennon and returning director Shawn Levy toss in Rodin’s “The Thinker” from the Musee Rodin in Paris, along with Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” and Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks,” both on display at the Art Institute in Chicago. Indeed, Archie Bunker’s chair, Muhammad Ali’s boxing robe and Dorothy’s ruby slippers are at the National Museum of American History, not the Smithsonian. But that’s factual quibbling. The pointless, implausible silliness and tedious slapstick cheek-slapping are far more egregious, despite a truncated imaginary excursion into Alfred Eisenstaedt’s classic W.W. II photo of V-J Day in Times Square.
Villains include lisping Pharoah Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Napoleon (Alain Chabat), Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal), while Daley’s new allies are aviatrix Amelia Earhart (sensationally spunky Amy Adams), the Tuskegee Airmen and the huge marble statue of Abraham Lincoln (voiced by Hank Azaria) on the Mall, plus bobble-headed Albert Einstein (voiced by Eugene Levy).
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” is a fitful, flighty 4, a frenetic diversion that’s destined for a popular niche on the dvd shelf.

Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, May 22nd:

Catch up with the Golden Globe-winning first season of HBO’s riveting new series “True Blood,” just before the second, highly-anticipated season of the show premieres. Based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, it stars Anna Paquin as Sookie and Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton, the alluring vampire. Bonus materials include tasty tidbits like how V-juice (vampire blood) affects humans differently.
“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” features Kevin James as a single dad who lives with his anxious mother (Shirley Knight) and teenage daughter (Raini Rodriguez) and works as a security guard at a local mall after his dreams of being a New Jersey State Trooper were dashed. Then, on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, a loathsome gang of tattooed thieves on skateboards and bikes, led by the villainous Veck Sims (Keir O’Donnell), invades the mall and takes hostages, including Blart’s crush (Jayme Mays).
Coinciding with the theatrical release of “Terminator: Salvation,” there’s “Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blue-ray Disc” and “T2 Collector’s Set,” loaded with over eight hours of interactive content, storyboard-script views, audio commentaries, quizzes and games.
The remake “My Bloody Valentine 3D” is a terrifying tale about Harmony, a small town that faces horrifying consequences on the anniversary of a deadly tragedy. The Special Edition and/or Blu-ray Disc includes both the 2D and 3D versions with 3D glasses, an audio commentary, two featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.
Set in 1998, “Fanboys” is a road-trip comedy following four “Star Wars” obsessed geeks who try to break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch to view his latest installment before its release.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Intense and compelling, “Valkyrie” tells the true-story of Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), a brave German army officer who was appalled and disgusted by the atrocities being committed by Adolf Hitler. After 14 previous attempts to assassinate the Fuehrer failed, Stauffenberg launched an ambitious plan to surreptitiously place a homemade bomb, concealed in a briefcase, at a high-level briefing in the East Prussia forest compound known as Wolf’s Lair.

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

Once again, Jennifer Aniston tries to assert her big-screen presence in this tepid comedy, hiding her trademark blond tresses under an unflattering brown wig.
Sue Claussen (Aniston) is a traveling saleswoman passing through Kingman, Arizona, who checks into the seedy roadside motel owned by Mike Cranshaw’s parents (Fred Ward, Margo Martindale). Smitten-at-first-sight, affable Mike (Steve Zahn) delivers a bottle of wine “compliments of the management” and tries to strike up a relationship – with little success at first, particularly since she’s heavily into recycling and he isn’t.
Based in Maryland, stressed-out Sue sells nondescript, commercial paintings for a company called Corporate Bliss, and the past history of her love life has been filled with disappointments. After a series of Sue’s motel visits, a succession of champagne sipping from plastic sups and a bizarre sexual encounter, a ‘quickie’ in the laundry room, Mike impetuously flies across country to Baltimore to ‘surprise’ Sue at work.
Predictably, that trip ends disastrously, and Sue moves into a McMansion with her punk rocker-turned-yogurt mogul ex-boyfriend Jano (Woody Harrelson) in Aberdeen, Washington, hoping to ‘make a difference’ in his charity operations. But Mike’s creepy fervor will not be denied so he continues to pursue her persistently with the best of intentions, detouring for four months into Zen Buddhism and eventually befriending a waiter (James Liao) in a Chinese restaurant who serves as his sidekick.
Obviously influenced by the success of “Knocked Up,” screenwriter/director Stephen Belber (“Tape,” “The Laramie Project”) teams an uptight, upscale, practical gal with a kind-hearted, emotionally-immature, laid-back guy, but he fails to create three-dimensional characters, heaping contrivance upon contrivance, never achieving a shred of believability. Timed at 93 minutes, it seems like a tedious two hours, leading one to wonder if there really is a curse on the Emmy award-winning cast of “Friends.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Management” is an incoherent, uneven, flimsy 4, exploring the silly, sweet side of stalking. It should have gone straight-to-video.

Susan Granger’s review of “Terminator: Salvation” (Warner Bros.)

Pow! Blast! Annhilate! The action-packed, bullet-riddled popcorn pictures have officially arrived.
Re-imagined and re-branded, this fourth installment in the “Terminator” series begins in 2003, when a death-row inmate, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), is executed after granting his doctor (Helena Bonham Carter), a geneticist for Cyberdyne Systems, permission to use his body “for research.”
Skip ahead to 2018. Los Angeles is a bleak wasteland after Judgment Day as Skynet, the artificial intelligence network, dispatches a fearsome variety of robots to scour the post-apocalyptic landscape, collecting or killing the few surviving humans. As part of the Resistance, time-traveler John Connor (Christian Bale) is searching for teenage Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) who, according to Terminator mythology, will turn out to be his father in the future. Sound confusing? It is, particularly when “reborn” cyborg Marcus Wright inexplicably emerges from the rubble. Part-man/part- machine, he’s Connor’s only chance of succeeding in his mission. But can this hybrid-seeking-redemption be trusted?
“What are you?” Connor asks. “I don’t know,” Wright replies with total candor.
Under the aegis of McG (“Charlie’s Angels,” “We Are Marshall”), building on a script by John Brancato & Michael Ferris (and, allegedly, many others), the plot is punctuated by so many loud, fiery explosions that there’s little time for character development. Combat production designer Martin Laing and special effects supervisor John Rosengrant owe more than a few nods to ‘bot’ technology from “Transformers” and “Matrix.”
Meanwhile, trapped in the crossfire, are subsidiary characters played by Bryce Dallas Howard, Moon Bloodgood, Jadagrace Berry, Michael Ironside and Jane Alexander. In a cameo appearance as the T-800, Arnold Schwarzegger’s face is digitally grafted onto bodybuilder Roland Kickinger’s torso. Shane Hurlbut’s cinematography is stunning, making one wonder why, during filming last summer, Christian Bale spewed so much profanity at him in an embarrassing spat that was leaked on the Internet.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Terminator: Salvation” is a fast-paced, destructive 7, emerging as the first in the series to get PG-13 rating.

Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, May 15:

Profound and emotionally stirring, “Taking Chance” chronicles Lt. Col. Michael R. Strobl’s (Kevin Bacon) experience as a military escort for a fallen Marine, 19 year-old Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, whose remains he accompanied home for burial; it bears witness to fallen heroes, paying homage to the silent, virtually unseen ritual and dignified ceremony that escorts provide all casualties.
Clad in leather with heavy metal hair, versatile actor Michael Sheen (“Frost/Nixon,” “The Queen”) stars in “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans,” a prequel to the “Underworld” movies, rewinding time to when the werewolves, or Lycans, led by Lucian (Sheen), rebelled against their vampire masters.
In “Personal Effects,” Ashton Kutcher is a rising star in the NCAA wrestling world until his sister is brutally murdered. Returning home to console his mother (Kathy Bates), he meets a beautiful mature woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) who complicates his desire for vengeance.
Directed by Charles Rand & T. Thomas, the documentary “Kill the Record Labels” features some of the hottest artists in hip-hop music expressing their views regarding the state of the industry, including 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Chamillionaire and more.
From British auteur Terence Davies comes “Of Time and the City,” a visual poem about the director’s life in Liverpool from 1945 to 1973; bonus features include background information and editing room interviews with Davies.
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved “A Little Princess” stars 12 year-old Amelia Shankley in the British mini-series first aired in the U.S. on PBS in 1987. The new deluxe set includes issues 1-6 of the ‘Gigantor’ comic book series from Antarctic Press, published in 2000.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Liam Neeson stars in “Taken” as a former government operative working as a L.A. security guard whose estranged 17 year-old daughter (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped in Paris. Rushing to her rescue, he discovers she’s being held by thugs from an Eastern European prostitution ring, and he has only 96 hours to find her before she vanishes forever into a sex slavery underground that’s seemingly propelled by Saudi oil sheiks. It’s an urgent, hyper-kinetic, pulse-pounding thriller.

Susan Granger’s review of “Angels & Demons” (Columbia Pictures/Sony)

Having learned from his mistakes with “The Da Vinci Code,” director Ron Howard has adapted another Dan Brown best-seller into a compelling, fast-paced thriller, starring Tom Hanks as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.
As the College of Cardinals begins its ritual conclave in the Sistine Chapel after the death of a beloved Pope, Langdon is recruited by a Vatican envoy to fly from Cambridge to Rome. Four of the favored papal candidates have been kidnapped the fanatical henchman (Danish actor Nakolaj Lie Kaas) of a secret cult, known as the Illuminati, and one will be killed each hour that night. In addition, the Illuminati have stolen a canister of deadly antimatter (a powerful energy source) from CERN (the world’s largest particle physics laboratory) near Geneva and are threatening to blow up Vatican City at midnight, so Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra (Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer) has also been summoned.
With ticking time-bomb urgency, coolly intrepid Langdon (who is writing a book on the Illuminati) and ever-resourceful Vetra must unravel a 400 year-old mystery that’s tied to the ancient symbols of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, find the Cardinals, locate the bomb and save the Holy See from demolition. As they race through churches, searching crypts and catacombs for clues, they’re both helped and hindered by Vatican officials, including the imperious Commander of the Swiss Guard (Stellan Skarsgard), Inspector Olivetti of the Gendarmarie (Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino), the authoritative Cardinal in charge of the conclave (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and the late Pontiff’s heartbroken confidante, the Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor).
While Howard’s crew filmed at famous sites like the Piazza del Popolo, Piazza Navona, Castle Sant’Angelo, they were denied Vatican access, so they’ve replicated St. Peter’s Square and the Sistine Chapel – spectacularly. But because screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp had to condense and simplify Dan Brown’s arcane, occult explanatory material, there’s still much that’s not only implausible but confusing. Yet on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Angels& Demons” is an enigmatic, enthralling 8 – with enough unexpected twists to keep you on the edge-of-your-seat.