Movie/TV Reviews

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

Intense, ultra-violent and – at 2 hours, 41 minutes – far too long, this is not your ordinary superhero movie. It’s Zack Snyder’s challenging yet slavishly faithful adaptation of Alan Moore’s landmark graphic novel about psychopathic crime fighters investigating the death of one of their own.
Set in 1985 in an alternate America, the Doomsday Clock with the Soviet Union is ticking ominously and Richard Nixon still occupies the White House, having won the Vietnam War by unleashing a powerful colossus, Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), to subjugate the Vietcong. But when a renegade known as The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is murdered, his troubled cohort Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) rounds up other now-banished costumed vigilantes – like Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) and Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), whose mother (Carla Gugino) once had a relationship with The Comedian – to investigate an insidious and devastating conspiracy that’s hurtling us toward Armageddon.
While “The Dark Knight” set the stage for the politics of fear, this audacious, allegorical saga ruminates on pop culture’s addiction to archetypical savior figures. There are character-origin explanations, along with complicated sexual liaisons, demonstrating that that gratuitous violence has its consequences.
Behind-the-scenes, this notorious project bounced around Hollywood for years with directors Terry Gilliam (“Brazil”) and Darren Aronofsky (“The Wrestler”) attempting to get it made. But it fell to Zack Snyder and cinematographer Larry Fong, who previously collaborated on “300,” to turn the bleak brutality into a rain-soaked, R-rated rampage.
What works are the striking visuals and stunning digital effects – from Dr. Manhattan’s blue-hued nakedness (no fig leaf here) and Martian refuge to Ozymandias’ Antarctica fortress, along with performances by Morgan, Wilson and Haley. But there’s weakness in the dense exposition/multiple flashbacks and in the work of Akerman and Goode.
While hardcore fans of the source material may quibble with David Hayter and Alex Tse’s script changes, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Watchmen” is an eerie, awesome 8, aimed primarily at a young male audience familiar with the blood-stained smiley face.

Susan Granger’s review of “Reunion” (Talking Pictures Company, Inc.)

Writer/director Alan Hruska’s midlife rumination on revelations from college days reveals how, perhaps more often than not, our past determines our present.
Before she died, Janie Burns tantalized fellow members of an exclusive Yale society by sending each of them a letter promising to reveal some buried ‘secrets’ that would touch them all. Ten years later, her attorney husband Jake (Brett Cullen) invites them all to come to Manhattan to attend a meeting. Since Jake wrote a novel which enraged many of his fellow ‘best and brightest’ cohorts, only a few accept but those who do are eager to participate in the kind of confession-and-confrontation sessions they used to relish back in New Haven.
There’s big-time film producer, Lloyd (David Thornton), accompanied by his actress girlfriend, Minerva (Alice Evans); alcoholic, less-than-successful businessman, Barnaby (Jamey Sheridan), and his frustrated novelist/wife, Emily (Cynthia Stevenson); actress-turned-talent agent, Sadie (Amy Pietz); outspoken, resentful journalist, Eamon (Christopher McDonald); prominent, if ethnocentric Jewish doctor/philanthropist, Saul (Josh Pais) with his adoring wife, Beth (Jessica Hecht); and Jake’s loyal assistant, Averil (Zoe McLellan), who obviously wishes she had a closer relationship with her widower boss.
While the provocative set-up is reminiscent of “The Big Chill,” the problem is that Janie’s oft-referred-to letter is never read and the highly anticipated ‘secrets’ are less than earth-shattering, making one wish for a more effective payoff after 90 minutes. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to10, “Reunion” is a psychobabbling 6. I just wish it didn’t come across as a muddled melodrama about entitled elitists.

Susan Granger’s review of “Must Read After My Death” (Gigantic Releasing)

Filmmaker Morgan Dews unearths the emotional kaleidoscope that permeated his grandparents’ lives in this revealing documentary.
In 2001, after the death of his maternal grandmother Allis, Dews discovered a multi-media stash of Dictaphone and tape recordings, along with reels of home-movies, labeled MUST READ AFTER MY DEATH and soon realized how very little he knew about his fractured family’s traumatic history. As Tolstoy wrote, “while happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
When Allis and Charley met, they were married to other people. Since both were non-conformists and into ‘open marriage,’ that didn’t post much of a problem – at least, not at first. Charley, more than Allis, relished his freedom and she, being the dutiful ‘50s housewife, indulged his incessant philandering while raising their daughter and three sons. But she was anxious and resentful – and the angst took its toll.
A hyper-critical, heavy-drinking insurance exec based in Hartford, Connecticut, Charley spent several months each year on the road, often in Australia, and his audio “letters” reveal his liaisons with a multitude of women, many of whom added their own messages to Allis. Meanwhile, on the home front, unconventional, pre-feminist Allis coped in various ways, many of which screwed up the lives of their children. Chuck, the eldest, suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia and was eventually dispatched to a mental hospital – an upheaval which understandably affected the lives of his siblings: Bruce, Douglas and Anne. Patronizing psychiatric therapy – in and out of the Institute for Living – didn’t help much.
Having had experience making short films, Morgan Dews decided to superimpose Allis’s home movies on her audio recordings to create a virtual scrapbook filled with memorabilia in a genre that is reminiscent of “Capturing the Friedmans.” There are the idyllic summer frolics and winter snowman-building but, just beneath the veneer of suburban camaraderie, lurk fleeting glimpses of loneliness and betrayal.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Must Read After My Death” is a haunting, troubling 7, therapeutically transforming home movies into visual art.

Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, Feb. 27th

Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo stumble through “Blindness,” Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles’ adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s apocalyptic allegory in which residents of a deliberately unspecified but primarily English-speaking city are afflicted by an inexplicable ailment that affects their vision.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe team up in “Body of Lies,” a far-fetched action-adventure with DiCaprio as the Pentagon’s top spy in the Middle East and Crowe as the Langley-based ‘operative’ who tracks his every movement via computer.
Spike Lee’s episodic W.W.II drama, “Miracle at St. Anna,” is the revisionist story of African-American soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Tuscany, combining a murder-mystery with a war epic in a muddle of “miracles.” And “Frozen River” Oscar-nominee Melissa Leo stars in the thriller “Lullaby” as an American mother who receives word that her drug-addled son has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom by a South African drug lord.
Utilizing interviews and archival footage, Christina Clausen’s loving but ultimately shallow documentary, “The Universe of Keith Haring,” traces the too-short life of the New York graffiti-style artist from his childhood to his death from AIDS at age 21. Margaret Brown’s “The Order of Myths” is a documentary about Mobile, Alabama’s Mardi Gras, which has been celebrated since 1703 and is still racially segregated. And “Adam Clayton Powell,” narrated by legendary activist Julian Bond, lauds one of the most influential civil rights leaders.
To amuse pre-schoolers, there’s “How’d They Build That?” focusing on the school bus and the concrete truck, and all their favorites (Barney, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, etc.) blossom together in “HIT Favorites: Here Comes Spring.”
PICK OF THE WEEK: You can get an insider’s glimpse into Hollywood in Barry Levinson’s wryly amusing “What Just Happened,” as a producer (Robert De Niro) battles a contentious, pill-popping British director (Michael Wincott) during post-production of an arty Sean Penn thriller schedule to debut at Cannes within a week and prepares to start a new film with temperamental Bruce Willis.

Susan Granger’s review of “Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience” (Disney)

Like Hanna Montana before them, The Jonas Brothers are ‘tween idols, releasing multimillion selling records and selling out stadiums nationwide. So it’s a blessing to parents’ wallets that youngsters can enjoy this peppy, 75-minute performance in a movie theater rather than scrambling for hard-to-get tickets and trekking to a ‘live’ concert.
What’s on the screen is footage from their 2008 arena spectaculars, supplemented with behind-the-scenes glimpses of them romping and riding Segways. But that does not include their recent appearance at the White House, fulfilling the fantasies of Sasha and Malia Obama.
For those unfamiliar with the Jonases, they are really brothers whose deeply religious parents accompany them on the road; their father is an evangelical pastor. At 21, Kevin is the eldest. He plays lead guitar and does backup vocals. The middle brother, Joe, is 18 and seems to propel the show as the lead singer. 17 year-old Nick, a.k.a. “Mr. President” plays guitar, keyboard and drums. He has Type 1 diabetes, which he dramatically reveals in a heartfelt solo number, “A Little Bit Longer.”
Nick allegedly dated and dumped Miley Cyrus, prompting her to write and record “7 Things I Hate About You.” He’s now dating Disney-bred Selena Gomez. And Joe expressed love for country singer Taylor Swift before moving on to his music video partner Camilla Belle. I’m told you need to know these timely gossip tidbits to appreciate the swooning fan fervor for this trinity that’s captured by director Bruce Hendricks.
The Jonas Brothers’ style seems to combine the Backstreet Boys and NKOTB, emphasizing repetitive three-part harmony. They warble about teenage angst, emphasizing chaste love and heartbreak, touching on the temptations of drugs and sex. All three wear purity rings and have vowed celibacy until marriage. That’s what’s behind the lyrics to “Burning Up”: “I’m slipping into the lava/I’m trying to keep from going under/Baby, you turn the temperature hotter/’Cuz I’m burnin’ up for you, baby.”
As for the 3-D, it’s a gimmick involving tossed sunglasses and guitar picks. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience” is a high-decibel, shriek-inducing 6 for its intended audience – which, I suspect, includes few of us over the age of 30.

Susan Granger’s review of “Crossing Over” (Weinstein Co.)

Think of this as the “Crash” and “Babel” of illegal-immigration ensemble dramas. Set in Southern California, its stereotypical characters and structured story lines keep crossing and bumping into each other.
There’s Max Brogan (Harrison Ford), a gruff but wearily sympathetic Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who is trying to reunite an illegal Mexican, Mireya Sanchez (Alice Braga), caught in a sweatshop raid, with her young son. His partner Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis) comes from a wealthy Iranian family who fled the 1979 revolution and is dishonored by the behavior of his sister, Zahra (Melody Khazae), a sexy young woman who has become way too assimilated. And Hamid just happens to be there when a Korean teen, Yong Kim (Justin Chon), and his pals rob a convenience store. Then there’s a Bangladeshi Muslim teen, Taslima Jahangir (Summer Bishil), who faces F.B.I. deportation after she naively writes a school essay in which she says she understands the motives of the 9/11 hijackers. Her crusading defense attorney, Denise Frankel (Ashley Judd), wants to adopt an African orphan stuck in a detention center, despite the objections of her sleazy husband, Cole (Ray Liotta), an immigrations application adjudicator who is sexually exploiting an ambitious Australian starlet, Claire Sheperd (Alice Eve), whose visitor status doesn’t permit her to work and whose British musician boyfriend, Gavin Kossef (Jim Sturgess), is posing as an expert in Judaism to get his green card.
Problem is: none of these diverse micro-dilemmas are explored in any depth, although they culminate with a mass citizenship ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Writer/director Wayne Kramer (“The Cooler”), who emigrated from South Africa in 1986, skims over the surface of the interconnected issues, stressing the challenge of enforcing fair immigration legislation within an overburdened governmental system.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Crossing Over” is a lurid, contrived 4. So it’s understandable why Oscar-winner Sean Penn reportedly requested that his small role be eliminated from the final cut.

Susan Granger’s review of “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” (Lionsgate)

This latest installment in writer/director Tyler Perry’s comedy series raked in more than $40 million its first weekend, the highest grossing film for both Perry and Lionsgate studio. Yet most mainstream moviegoers haven’t a clue who Perry is or why his movies have such box-office clout.
Rising from New Orleans homelessness to owning a multimillion-dollar Atlanta production company with the hit TV series “House of Payne” and “Meet the Browns,” Perry has a devoted following in a niche market. His Christian evangelical stories usually revolve around African-Americans struggling to make ends meet, surrounded by good people with faith in God and in each other.
“I understand my audience,” he says. “If you’ve worked all day and you are going through all this hell in your own life, it’s nice to go to the movies for two hours and forget about everything. If I can do that, I feel like I’ve done something worthwhile.”
So in this latest formulaic, slapstick comedy, the trash-talking, hot-tempered Mabel M. Simmons, a.k.a. Madea (Perry), who has a long rap sheet, is incarcerated and would be headed for the Big House if the arresting officers hadn’t neglected to Mirandize her. Instead, she’s sentenced to anger-management therapy with Dr. Phil McGraw. Yes, that Dr. Phil.
Meanwhile, Joshua (Derek Luke), a fast-rising D.A., is working on a case involving a college friend, Candy (Keshia Knight Pulliam, grown up from “The Cosby Show”), who has become a drug-addicted prostitute. And his uptight co-worker/fiancée Linda (Ion Overman) doesn’t understand his sudden concern about getting Candy away from a Latino pimp and turning her life around.
With Perry playing three roles – Madea, Joe (her pot-smoking brother) and Ben (her lawyer nephew) – on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” is a silly yet crowd-pleasing, forgiveness-themed 5. And watch for Tyler Perry to make a cameo appearance in the new “Star Trek” movie due out May 8th.

Susan Granger’s review of “Fired Up!” (Screen Gems)

As dumb teen sex comedies go, this one is a dud.
Top scorers on Gerald R. Ford High School’s football team – both on and off the field – Shawn (Nicholas D’Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) decide to bypass Tigers’ training camp in El Paso with foul-mouthed Coach Byrnes (Philip Baker Hall) in favor of cheerleading camp at Southeastern Illinois University. Why? ‘Cause that’s where the girls are.
Shawn falls for suspicious Carly (Sarah Roemer), the squad captain, who’s involved with a jerky, pre-med college student who already refers to himself as ‘Dr. Rick’ (David Walton) and drives a BMW convertible, while Nick goes for a hottie 30 year-old, Diora (Molly Sims), whom he describes as “ancient and desperate” and who also happens to be the wife of the camp’s not-so-closeted commander, Coach Keith (Michael John Higgins), “the skipper of this spirit ship.”
The most amusing scene is when the nubile cheerleaders watch the far-better cheerleading film, “Bring It On!” (2000), and recite in unison every line of Kirsten Dunst’s dialogue as they prepare for their perennial competition against the Panthers, led by gnarly Gwyneth (Annalynne McCord).
Two aspects of this sexual conquest project astounded me. First, how much prolific profanity, crude partying and male buttocks nudity now qualifies as PG-13. I mean, this is a really raunchy movie. And, second, how the casting director didn’t seem to care that these supposed ‘teenagers’ are far older – and look it. Nicholas D’Agosto (“Heroes”) is 28 and Eric Christian Olsen (“Eagle Eye,” “License to Wed”) is 31, as is David Walton (“Stateside”), while Sarah Roemer (“Disturbia”) is the youngest at 24.
While the insipid script with its stereotypical characters and double-entendres is enigmatically credited to someone’s pseudonym, “Freedom Jones,” longtime TV writer-producer Will Gluck is a first-time feature director – and his inexperience shows. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Fired Up!” is a smarmy 3. It’s an adolescent boy’s callow pom-pom fantasy.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Fri., Feb. 13:

Not sure what to get your sweetheart for Valentine’s Day? You can’t go wrong with the first group of new releases from TCM Greatest Classic Film Collection, which includes romantic comedies (“Philadelphia Story,” “Bringing Up Baby,” “Adam’s Rib,” “Woman of the Year”), romantic dramas (“Rebel Without a Cause,” “East of Eden,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, “A Streetcar Named Desire”) and Best Picture Winners (“Gigi,” An American in Paris,” “Casablanca,” “Mrs. Miniver”). They’re packaged in four-title sets, each affordably priced at $27.92.
Adapted from Nicholas Sparks’ novel, “Nights in Rodanthe” shows that when it comes to love, it’s never too late for a second chance as two lonely people (Diane Lane, Richard Gere) spend a stormy weekend at a seaside inn on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Topical and timely, the Italian drama “Days and Clouds” explores economic ruin and the fragility of love as a middle-aged Genovese couple (Margharita Buy, Antonio Albanese) is caught in the throes of a life-crisis precipitated by a financial upheaval.
President George W. Bush is gone but not forgotten as Oliver Stone’s docudrama “W,” starring Josh Brolin, delves into his privileged background, Yale frat-boy days, career-choice screw-ups, struggles with sobriety and psychological problems with his father.
Eccentric inventor Wallace and his faithful, four-legged friend Gromit star in three new animated films available on separate DVDs for the first time: “A Grand Day Out,” “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave.”
For tiny tots, there’s “Barney: Be My Valentine,” filled with heartwarming songs and dances, and “Thomas & Friends: Railway Friends,” which encompasses six new engine adventures, encompassing loyalty, responsibility and friendship.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Both writer/director Courtney Hunt and actress Melissa Leo were Oscar-nominated for “Frozen River,” the compelling, suspense-filled story of two desperately poor women – one Caucasian, one Mohawk – in dreary upstate New York who form an uneasy alliance to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen, yet treacherous St. Lawrence River that separates Canada from the United States.

Susan Granger’s review of “Friday the 13th” (Warner Bros.)

It doesn’t take a genius to realize why campers have returned once again to Crystal Lake. That’s where the money is. This horror/slasher franchise has repeatedly paid off on an inexpensive filmmaking investment. Even a previous “failed remake,” costing $20 million, earned $80 million at the box-office.
Audiences line up for this kind of creepy slaughter because it’s mindless diversion with just enough scares to make you scream but not enough credible threats to give you nightmares – unless you’re under 18 and should not be allowed in the theater.
According to the extended prologue, back on June 13, 1980 (which happened to fall on a Tuesday, not a Friday), Whitney Miller (Amanda Righetti from TV’s “The Mentalist”) decapitated Mrs. Voorhees, who had murdered the camp counselors she deemed responsible for the accidental drowning death of her young son, Jason (Derek Mears). Now Whitney’s brother, Clay (Jared Padalecki from TV’s “Supernatural”) is searching for his sister, the sole survivor, while revenge-crazed Jason – in his signature hockey-mask – is after her and some pot-puffing, partying clods (Trent Van Winkle, Jonathan Sadowski, Ben Feldman, Nick Mennell, Aaron Yoo) and insipid coeds (Dana Panabaker, America Olivio, Juliana Guill) who, predictably, shed their shirts as danger approaches in the dark woods. Predatory Jason’s machete is sharp and his victims’ wits are dull, so the corpses pile up as the cold-blooded carnage unfolds pretty much as expected.
Producer Michael Bay and director Marcus Nispel, who collaborated on the 2003 remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” once again work with cinematographer Daniel C. Pearl, as screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon (“Freddy vs. Jason”) reinvent psychotic Jason as a victim of parental neglect who turns to murderous mayhem. A bizarre homage to Lauren Bacall’s classic “Put your lips together and blow” line from Howard Hawks’ “To Have and Have Not” is beyond incongruous.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Friday the 13th” is an angry, grisly, gory 3. And, according to cash-counting New Line studio executive Toby Emmerich, a similar remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street” is coming next.