Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” (Columbia Pictures)

 

    Although it’s inspired by the popular 1978 children’s novel, written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett, the 3-D animated screen version is a tantalizing delight unto itself – and a cautionary tale about gluttony, obesity and genetically-altered edibles.

    With the collapse of the world canned-sardine market, the tiny island fishing town of Swallow Falls has fallen on hard times. Even its Welcome sign is missing the crucial ‘F,’ reading ‘Swallow alls.’ But Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader of “Saturday Night Live”), a nerdy teenage inventor, is determined to make his mark, coming up with a clever contraption that turns water vapor into food: the Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator.

    While his first attempts subject him to ridicule and disdain, soon everything imaginable comes drizzling down in savory smorgasbord. As Flint’s fame grows, so do the appetites of the townspeople, led by their opportunistic Mayor (voiced by Bruce Campbell) whose waistline is continually expanding. Chew and Swallow (the town’s new name) becomes an Atlantic cruise ship destination, as tourists flock in for the ice-cream sledding and Jello-O mold jumping. Inevitably, Flint’s machine goes awry and he’s called on, once again, to cope with impending catastrophe. In the meantime, he’s able to repair his relationship with his disapproving, technophobe father (voiced by James Caan), befriend the frenzied cop (voiced by Mr. T), confront a local bully (voiced by Andy Samberg) and ignite a romance with Sam Sparks (voiced by Anna Faris), a savvy TV forecaster for the Weather News Network reporting on the meteorological phenomena.

    First-time directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller stretch the thin, uneven narrative with visual puns and weather-disaster gags, while the high-spirited Sony Pictures animation remains amusing. Since they previously collaborated on the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” they inveigled its star, Neil Patrick Harris, to supply the voice for Steve, Flint’s pet monkey. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” is a funny, eye-popping 8, emerging as an entertaining kidflick while serving up enlightening food-for-thought.

Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, Sept. 25:

 

    Joining the hoopla surrounding Dan Brown’s latest novel, “The Lost Symbol,” “Mysteries of the Freemasons” is an A&E documentary revealing the untold story of the world’s oldest secret society with influential members like Mozart, George Washington, Paul Revere, Ben Franklin and Duke Ellington.

    The frothy “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” imagines Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” as a romantic comedy with Matthew McConaughey in the Scrooge/womanizer role, Jennifer Garner as his love interest and Michael Douglas as his playboy Uncle.

    Seth Rogen stars in “Observe and Report” as the lonely, self-delusional, misanthropic chief of security at Forest Ridge Mall who is determined to protect patrons from an elusive flasher despite the efforts of a real law-enforcement officer (Ray Liotta).

    Based on the childhood experiences of director Derick Martini, the engagingly irreverent “Lymelife,” starring Alec Baldwin, Kieran Culkin, Rory Culkin, Emma Roberts and Cynthia Nixon, centers on a 15 year-old on suburban Long Island.

    Reversing the sci-fi concept of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” “Battle for Terra” revolves around two rebellious, tadpole-shaped alien teens (voiced by Justin Long and Evan Rachel Wood) whose world is brutally invaded by Earthmen whose habitat has been destroyed by civil war and environmental catastrophe.

    And “Trumbo” is the stirring story of one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters, Dalton Trumbo, who was hauled before the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 as a suspected subversive and subsequently blacklisted; Kirk Douglas claims that breaking the blacklist by insisting Trumbo get “Spartacus” screenplay credit was the proudest moment of his career.

    PICK OF THE WEEK: Ben Niles’ documentary “Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037” profiles the progress of a single 9-foot grand piano from its first step as a laminated strip of mahogany through its production at Steinway & Sons, the 154-year-old piano factory in Astoria, Queens, to its delivery 12 months later. While virtually every other piano maker has mechanized, Steinway continues to do it the old-fashioned way, an approach that Harry Connick Jr and other featured musicians say gives each instrument its unique feel and sound.

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

 

    Does art imitate life or does life imitate art? It’s hard to tell with Jennifer Aniston’s wretched new romantic drama which is almost as disastrous as the tabloids’ chronicles of her off-screen, unlucky-in-love life. Why draw the obvious similarity? Because of her friend’s (Judy Greer) wry observation: “You tend to fall for these guys with expiration dates right on their foreheads.”

    This time, it’s self-help author/psychologist Dr. Burke Ryan (Aaron Eckhart), who arrives in Seattle to teach an “A-OK! A Path Through Grief” seminar and, literally, bumps into expressionless Eloise Chandler (Aniston), a floral designer, in the hallway of the hotel where he’s speaking. Burke’s conflicted back story is that he lost his wife in a car accident three years earlier and has since become a self-proclaimed ‘expert’ on sorrow. Except that he hasn’t healed himself. Nevertheless, in a grotesquely maudlin manner, he deals with an assortment of mourners, including a widow who baked her husband’s ashes into cookies and a skeptical father/contractor (John Carroll Lynch) whose 12 year-old son snapped his spine working on his construction site, urging them and other attendees to walk barefoot over hot coals. Plus, there’s a subplot in which Burke’s best friend/agent Lane (Dan Fogler) tries to get him a network deal. Eventually, Burke makes peace with his tough-guy father-in-law (Martin Sheen), a retired Marine.

    Formerly titled “Traveling” and “Brand New Day,” it’s chock full of clichés co-written by Mike Thompson and debut director Brandon Camp, whose father, Joe Camp, created the “Benji” dog movies in the 1970s. Yet in a bizarre twist, screenwriters Greg Crowder and Tony Freitas are also claiming credit for this turkey, even trying to block the film’s release. Wearing an assortment of kooky hats, Aniston trades on her quirky, “Friends”-honed likeability, while Eckhart (“Thank You for Smoking,” “In the Company of Men”) vainly strives for veracity. Yet, between them, there is zero romantic chemistry. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Love Happens” is a tiresome 2. Face it, when you use that title, you’re just asking for trouble.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Informant!” (Warner Bros.)

 

    Are you ready for whistleblowing as an absurdist comedy? Because that’s the way Steven Soderbergh has re-imagined the true-life story of dementedly delusional Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a top executive/Ph.D. biochemist and the youngest divisional president at Archer Daniels Midland, a Decatur, Illinois-based agribusiness, who – after learning about a Japanese extortion scheme in 1992 – decides to expose his company’s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI.

   Driving a Porsche, living with his wife Ginger (Melanie Lynskey) in a suburban mansion, he has devoted himself for years to turning corn into profit but now he’s toting wiretapping equipment, working as a ‘confidential informant.’ Once that happens, high-strung Mark is hooked into the spy world, referring to himself as Agent 0014 “because I’m twice as smart as James Bond” and spinning enough tall tales to utterly confuse the FBI agents (Scott Bakula, Joel McHale) who have been assigned to handle the case. Then there’s the indisputable fact that Mark has pocketed some $9 million in kickbacks.   

    Steven Soderbergh’s ambiguously ironic concept, based on a non-fiction thriller by Ken Eichenwald, bears more of a stylistic resemblance to “Catch Me If You Can” and “Burn After Reading” than serious big-business skullduggery exposes like “Erin Brockovich,” “Norma Rae” or “The Insider.” Yet its ditsy originality stems from screenwriter Scott Z. Burns’ (“The Bourne Ultimatum”) invention of Mark’s antic, extensive voiceover narration, an internal monologue that serves as indisputable evidence of his bipolar disorder. And credit Marvin Hamlisch for setting the delirious tone with his effervescent musical score.

    But it’s really Matt Damon’s show. Piling on 30 pounds, wearing a hairpiece and mustache, along with steel-rimmed glasses, and pitching his voice higher than usual, he channels the manic energy that makes the undeniable charm of Mark’s character work, aided and abetted by supporting actors like the Smothers Brothers, Tom Wilson and Tom Papa. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Informant!” is a subversive, hide-and-sneaky 7, verifying that “Everyone in this country is a victim of corporate crime by the time they finish breakfast.”

Susan Granger’s review of “The Other Man” (Image Entertainment)

 

    When glamorous Lisa (Laura Linney) asks Peter (Liam Neeson), her stolid, tweedy husband of 25 years, “Do you think people can live together all their lives?” followed by “Do you ever wish you could sleep with someone else?” – the unmistakable signposts of suspicion and duplicity are difficult to miss.

    When Lisa disappears soon after, Peter becomes obsessed with unraveling the hidden secrets of his wife’s life. A celebrated haute-couture shoe designer in London, Lisa’s always been independent, traveling around the world with her fashion coterie. Then Peter discovers a mysterious message on her cell phone and a ‘locked’ icon on her laptop labeled ‘Love.’ Eventually, he comes up with a password – “Lake Como” – that opens a file of photos showing Lisa frolicking wantonly with another man in that Italian resort. Since he’s the CEO of a Cambridge software company, it’s not difficult for Peter to discover Lisa had an affair with a Spaniard in Milan named Ralph (Antonio Banderas). Boarding the next plane to Italy, Peter proceeds to stalk his wife’s lover, playing a cat-and-mouse game to enable him to meet Ralph in a café, play chess with him and coax out the details of the affair without revealing who he is. In the meantime, there’s a subplot involving Lisa and Peter’s testy twentysomething daughter Abigail (Romola Garai) and her stonemason fiancé.

    Adapted from a story by German author Bernhard Schlink (“The Reader”) by Charles Wood and director Richard Eyre (“Notes on a Scandal”), this psychological thriller doesn’t make sense: why would Ralph confide in a superficial acquaintance like Peter? Then, when it’s suddenly revealed that Ralph is not who he seems and that Peter is also coming from a different place than we suspected, the concept is beyond bizarre.

    Both Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas seem miscast, caricatures rather than characters. Only Laura Linney conveys a sense of reality yet, in retrospect, she’s more talked about than on-screen. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Other Man” is a skewed 6, revolving around the many forms of betrayal.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Burning Plain” (Magnolia Pictures)

 

    Acclaimed Mexican screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (“Babel,” “21 Grams,” “Amores Perros”) climbs into the director’s chair for this romantic mystery about a tormented woman who realizes she must acknowledge the past in order to find redemption.

    Near Portland, Oregon, Sylvia (Charlize Theron) manages her chic seaside restaurant with cool composure yet, in private, she leads a turbulent, promiscuous sex life, engages in casual self-mutilation and contemplates suicide. When an enigmatic stranger from Mexico confronts her about guilty secrets she thought were hidden, she’s connected with disparate yet interconnected characters, all of whom are grappling with their own intriguing romantic destinies.

    In the New Mexico border town of Las Cruces, a frustrated housewife, Gina (Kim Basinger), embarks on a doomed, adulterous affair with a Mexican farmer (Joaquim de Almeida), in an abandoned trailer that explodes in flames in the remote desert, and two rebellious teenagers, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) and Santiago (JD Pardo), discover furtive, forbidden love in the aftermath the trauma of their respective parents’ sudden deaths. In Mexico, 12 year-old Maria (Tessa Ia) lives happily with her devoted crop-duster father (Danny Pino) and his best friend (Jose Maria Yazpik), until a near-fatal airplane crash changes everyone’s lives.

    Propelled by solid female roles, superbly performed by Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, it’s a compelling, if melodramatic, tale of emotional turmoil, particularly between mothers-and-daughters, told in jumbled fragments that make sense only when the non-linear, multi-dimensional parts of the puzzle finally fit together, thanks to Robert Elswit and John Toll’s striking cinematography and Craig Wood’s seamless editing.

    For many years, Guillermo Arriaga’s screenplays were helmed by fellow Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, but they had a disagreement about who was the real auteur of “Babel,” so Arriaga decided to go out on his own with this venture. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Burning Plain” is an erotic, haunting 7, filled with fateful concepts and indelible imagery.

Susan Granger’s DVD/Video Update for week of Friday, September 18:

 

    “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” reveals the origin of surly James Logan (Hugh Jackman), Marvel’s angriest mutant superhero. Back in 1845 in Canada’s Northwest Territories, he discovers that when he becomes furious, his hands sprout retractable bone-claws; not surprisingly, his older half-brother Creed (Liev  Schreiber), has similar but different powers. Being ageless and indestructible, they fight in the American Civil War, both World Wars and Vietnam before they’re recruited by Maj. William Stryker (Danny Huston) as part of the U.S. Government’s Team X.

   Jessica Biel stars as a brash American heiress who impetuously marries into an aristocratic British family in “Easy Virtue,” based on Noel Coward’s 1920s comedy-of-manners. In this case, a fish-out-of-water becomes a feminist-out-of-century. While there’s a snippet of upstairs/downstairs intrigue, the conflict is primarily between her and her imperious mother-in-law (Kirsten Scott-Thomas). If you’re curious, rent “Easy Virtue” as a silent film directed by a very young Alfred Hitchcock.

   A cache of drugs ends up in the wrong place in music video director Benny Bloom’s “Next Day Air,” starring “Scrubs” Donald Faison as a perpetually stoned delivery man, along with Cisco, Reyes, Emilio Rivera and cameos by Mos Def and Debbie Allen.

    From Christopher Webster (“Hellraiser,” “Heathers”) there’s the coming-of-age, teen horror thriller “Deadgirl,” in the original R-rated cut and the unrated Director’s Cut.

    For tots, “Barney: Jungle Friends” has rainforest discoveries and animal adventures, while older kids like “Bionicle: The Legend Reborn” inspired by Lego construction toys and featuring the voice of Michael Dorn from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” as warrior Mata Nui.

    PICK OF THE WEEK: You can get an Academy Award-winning documentary free! Smile Train, which treats children worldwide for cleft palate birth defects and has been hailed by the NY Times as one of the most productive charities in America, is giving away its Oscar-winning “Smile Pinki.” Call toll-free 877-213-4160 or order at www.smiletrain.org. Anyone who watches this film will fall in love with Pinki, a desperately poor child in rural India whose life is totally transformed when she receives free surgery to correct her cleft lip.

Susan Granger’s review of “Extract” (Miramax Films)

 

    Austin, Texas, writer/director Mike Judge (“Office Space”) is intrigued by the world of business, the ordinary, everyday, daily grind that churns the commerce of life.

    Hard-working chemist/entrepreneur Joel Reynold (Jason Bateman) is just about to sell his self-made flavor-extract company to General Mills when a lawsuit over a freak assembly-line accident and sexual frustration with his emotionally estranged, sweatpants-clad wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), threaten to upset the industrial applecart of his existence.

    That’s when his laid-back, sports-grill bartender buddy Deam (bearded Ben Affleck) not only convinces Joel to buy some illegal substances but also concocts a plan involving hiring Brad (Dustin Milligan), a dim-witted gigolo, as his new “pool boy” to seduce his wife so that Joel can feel free to canoodle with a flirtatious, manipulative sociopath, Cindy (Mila Kunis of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), the new office temp.

    Judge’s animated TV series, “King of the Hill,” concludes its 13-season run this month and it too often examines the workplaces of hero, Hank Hill, a Texas propane salesman, and his wife, Peggy, a substitute teacher. So did his “Beavis and Butt-head” about two teenagers working at the fast-food chain Burger World. But now, Judge switches his empathy from the drones to harried management. In a June commencement speech at his alma mater, Judge noted, “The job is a fairly recent concept in human history…I kind of was able to find this niche that was about real life.”

    Memorable in other caricature vignettes are Clifton Collins Jr., J.K. Simmons, David Koechner, T.J. Miller, Beth Grant, Matt Schultze and rocker Gene Simmons, as a self-promoting personal injury lawyer. Despite the script’s episodic, occasionally inane, sit-com nature, Judge’s dry, deadpan wit prevails, enhanced by Tim Suhrstedt’s perceptive City of Commerce cinematography and Julia Wong’s editing. But, basically, it’s too bland – and then there’s the misstep of George S. Clinton’s overwrought score. So the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Extract” is a satirical 6. It’s a raunchy social commentary that will undoubtedly do even better when it’s released on video, thereby repeating the pattern of “Office Space.”

Susan Granger’s review of “Whiteout” (Warner Bros.)

 

    It’s not difficult to spot ice-schlocky when it smacks you in the face from the getgo. In this alleged thriller, we’re introduced to the heroine, U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale), as she strips naked and takes a long, sexy relaxing shower – with puffs of steam obscuring strategic sections of her anatomy.

    She’s on Antarctica’s Amundsen-Scott Base with her avuncular buddy, Dr. John Fury (Tom Skerritt), and they’re both eagerly anticipating leaving the frozen tundra when a geologist is found murdered, leading them to Vostok, a smaller, more remote Russian base. By now, Carrie’s now sensibly clothed in a thick parka that’s perfect for snowmobiling.

    Meanwhile, there’s one flashback to 1957 in the Cold War era, when vodka-swilling Russians on a Soviet plane get caught in the cross-fire when the copilot tries to eliminate the passengers; the plane crashes at the South Pole with cargo but no survivors. A second flashback transports Carrie to a time in Miami when she lost her confidence on a mission involving another kind of snow and developed serious trust issues.

    By then, U.N. investigator Robert Pryce (Gabriel Macht) has shown up, the clock’s ticking down 72 hours before a storm closes in, plunging the continent into six months of utter darkness. So whodunit? By process of elimination, guessing the culprit isn’t difficult, just tedious. At least Carrie’s clad in a thick parka when she’s pursued by a pickax-toting killer during a blizzard.

    Based on a graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, the script was written by two sets of brothers: Jon and Erich Hoeber and Chad and Carey W. Hayes. Combine the ideas of these four screenwriters and you get implausible drivel. So to stir up some drama, director Dominic Sena (“Swordfish”) augments the jerky, hand-held photography with flashing, often un-focused images that only increase the confusion.  To his credit, however, cinematographer Chris Soos makes Manitoba and Quebec look like the South Pole’s magnificent yet menacing desolation. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Whiteout” is an icy, idiotic 3. It’s a wipeout.

Susan Granger’s review of “The September Issue” (Roadside Attractions)

 

    If you were intrigued by Meryl Streep’s conjuring Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006), here’s your chance to see the icy, meticulous woman who inspired the impersonation.

    Documentarian R.J. Cutler (“The War Room”) goes back two years to reveal a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the creation of the massive, pre-recession September, 2007, issue. Described in a voice-over as “the single most important figure in the $300 billion fashion world,” the real Ms. Wintour hides behind huge, ever-present sunglasses, only occasionally revealing her imperious hauteur and whimsical judgments. In one encounter, she challenges ingenious creative director Grace Coddington, who started at Vogue on the same day in July, 1988, and emerges as the real heroine of the narrative, confessing her lack of enthusiasm about featuring British actress Sienna Miller on the cover.

    “I think I know when to stop pushing her,” Coddington candidly notes. “She doesn’t know when to stop pushing me.”

    Over an eight-month period, Cutler accompanied Wintour to meetings, couture shows and glamorous events, riding in her chauffeured car, visiting her home and chatting with her stylish daughter, who shows little interest in the clothing trade.

    Problem is: this is an “authorized” (a.k.a. flattering) examination of Vogue and its editor. While this gave R.J. Cutler unprecedented, intimate access to fashion footage and interviews, it also gave Conde Nast publications and Ms. Wintour implied censorship ability. For that reason, we never truly know what makes the Vogue editor tick.

    If you’re fascinated by the fashion world, also watch TV’s “Ugly Betty,” the recent DVD about Italy’s “Valentino” and the delightful “Funny Face” (1957), starring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The September Issue” is glossy, eye-candy 7. In an appearance on the “Late Show With David Letterman,” Wintour explained, “When we originally agreed to the documentary, we didn’t foresee this timing…Supporting the industry is my prime objective, and anything I’m doing is to help the retailers through what for all of us is a very difficult time.”