Movie/TV Reviews

Susan Granger’s review of “Mirrors” (20th Century-Fox)

Re-making Asian horror films has become a Hollywood B-movie staple, so this run-of-the-mill entry simply serves as a reminder that Kiefer Sutherland can be as intense, yelling “Damn it!” on the big screen as he is as Jack Bauer on TV’s “24.”
He’s Ben Carson, a boozy, troubled former New York City police officer who was forced off the job after the accidental shooting of a fellow cop. Separated from his medical examiner wife, Amy (Paula Patton), and two young kids (Erica Gluck, Cameron Boyce), he crashes in Queens with his bartender sister, Angela (Amy Smart), sleeping on her couch. In need of money, he lands a job as a security guard, spending his nights roaming the spooky, charred remains of what was once a stunning department store. While everything else seems to have crumbled since the fire five years earlier, the mirrors are mysteriously intact, holding terrifying, supernatural images that threaten his life and the lives of his estranged family.
“What if the mirrors are reflecting something that’s beyond our reality” he wonders, pondering the existence of weird, evil forces.
Adapted from South Korea’s “Into the Mirror” (2003) by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur, directed by Aja and filmed primarily in Romania, it’s simply ludicrous, a shallow disappointment after Aja’s previous work in “High Tension” and the remake of “The Hills Have Eyes.” Mirrors conjure up so much more eerie drama than Aja ever takes advantage of.  The paranormal pacing is plodding, the special effects are second-rate, the 110-minute running time is tediously long and the gory imagery is more disgusting than shocking.
Ranking far below the adaptations of “The Ring” and “The Grudge,” on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Mirrors” is a creepy 2. It certainly needs polishing.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 15th:

In “Smart People,” a self-absorbed literature professor (Dennis Quaid) has turned his daughter (Ellen Page) into a friendless, overachieving teen. Sent to dig them out of their self-inflicted misery are his inept, irresponsible adopted brother (Thomas Hayden Church) and former student-turned-doctor (Sarah Jessica Parker). It’s a potentially provocative dysfunctional family situation that drifts into a predictable conclusion.
Paul Soter, part of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe that did “Super Troopers,” tries directing with “Watching the Detectives,” a screwball comedy starring Cillian Murphy as a repressed video store geek enticed by a mysterious woman (Lucy Liu) who delights in dangerous practical jokes.
“Confessions of a Superhero” is Matthew Ogens’ chronicle of four celebrity impersonators who spend their days dressed as superheroes, posing cheerfully for photos on Hollywood Boulevard; homelessness, addiction, humiliation and fear are their constant companions as they search for some kind of meaning in their lives.
“Brand Upon the Brain!” is a wildly imaginative, extremely peculiar concept of Canadian director Guy Maddin; it’s not only black-and-white but silent as well, narrated by Isabella Rossellini, embellishing on limited information contained on primitive title cards. And “CJ7” is Stephen Chow’s Cantonese homage to “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” as a construction worker gives his son a toy he finds in a landfill that turns out to be an adorable alien creature with remarkable powers.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Straight from the heart, Helen Hunt’s directorial debut, “Then She Found Me,” is the fresh, funny, feel-good emotional journey of a schoolteacher (played by Hunt). Following a separation from her unfaithful husband (Matthew Broderick) and death of her adoptive mother, she’s contacted by her birth mother (Bette Midler), a brassy TV talk-show host and comforted by the parent (Colin Firth) of one of her students.

Susan Granger’s review of “Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics)

The deserved winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Courtney Hunt’s “Frozen River” tells the 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.
Just before Christmas, Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) realizes her gambling husband has run off with all the money she was saving to buy a new double-wide trailer. Abandoned with only a part-time job at the Yankee Dollar Store, she’s destitute. Her squalid trailer is falling apart, her kids (Charlie McDermott, James Reilly) have only popcorn and Tang for dinner, and there’s nothing for holiday presents. So when she spies her husband’s car at a bingo parlor on the barren Mohawk reservation, Ray follows the woman who stole it. It’s Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a single mother who is trying to regain custody of her child by using the Dodge Spirit – with its pop-up trunk – to smuggle aliens from China and Pakistan. While neither woman truly trusts the other, their mutual struggle forms a bond of shared economic need. Racism is endemic with the border police, so a white woman driving is much less likely to be questioned than a Native American. Yet it’s a dangerous decision for both.
Writer/director Courtney Hunt creates a completely believable, wintry world that’s filled with suspicion and extreme anxiety, eliciting gritty, grounded performances from her entire cast, particularly Melissa Leo (“21 Grams”), who should certainly be on the short list for Oscar consideration. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Frozen River” is a compelling 9, as a compassionate, cross-cultural chronicle of humanity besieged by hard times.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 8th:

After acclaim for “Super Size Me,” Morgan Spurlock headed to the Middle East for “Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?” a dumbed-down travelogue documentary that tries to be funny despite its serious subject matter, as Spurlock faux-quizzes ordinary folk in Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. The answers may surprise you.
Dublin-born Steve Barron’s quirky drama “Choking Man” is about a shy, lonely Ecuadoran immigrant, Jorge (Octavio Gomez Berrios), struggling to make a life in New York’s Jamaica, Queens, while working as a dishwasher at a diner run by Mandy Patinkin; the title comes from a Heimlich-maneuver poster hanging over Jorge’s work station.
If you’re a Paul Hogan fan, “Crocodile Dundee” and “Crocodile Dundee 2” are finally available, chronicling the adventures of the irrepressible Aussie and his reporter girl-friend, played by Linda Kozlowski.
Continuing the legend of Batman, “Birds of Prey: The Complete Series” was produced in 2002 for the WB network and is loosely based on the DC Comics series of the same name; it’s just been released with a host of special features including “Gotham Girls S1-3,” an animated series of shorts starring the “Birds of Prey” characters.
Everyone’s favorite morning-loathing, Odie-taunting, tart-tongued tabby is back in “Garfield’s Fun Fest,” a full-length computer animated feature, about the town’s annual talent show; having won every year, Garfield’s convinced he can’t lose. And “The Super Fun Show!” hosted by Shawn Brown gets kids moving and grooving, learning aerobics and burning (calories).
PICK OF THE WEEK: Winner of the Best Foreign Language Oscar, “The Counterfeiters” is a true W.W.II drama that poses a provocative moral dilemma about Jewish collaboration with the Nazis. What makes it worthwhile is its depiction of a struggle of conscience, chronicling the currency of desperation.

Susan Granger’s review of “Man On A Wire” (Magnolia Pictures/Discovery Films)

When aerialist Philippe Petit walked, even danced on a wire some 1,350 feet in the air between the towers of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974, reporters who were covering the story and police who arrested him had one primary question: Why?
“I did something magnificent and mysterious, and I got a ‘why’ – and the beauty of it is that I don’t have a ‘why’” was then and is today his reply.
So documentary filmmaker Jordan Marsh examines how the Frenchman and his stealthy accomplices accomplished this daredevil stunt, utilizing vintage footage, re-creations and modern-day interviews.
Back in the late ‘60s, Petit was practicing in his backyard before an awestruck girl-friend, Annie Allix, and preparing himself by prancing on the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia and the spires of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Single-minded, egocentric and remarkably persuasive, he was able to recruit a number of cohorts to help him in the obsessively meticulous planning and the strategic smuggling in of his heavy equipment, right under the noses of  the security forces supposedly guarding the World Trade Center. Even the Port Authority considered his feat a publicity coup for their enormous – but unheralded – edifices.
Today, at almost 60, Petit still oozes self-indulgent pride recalling his spectacular feat, projecting his profound belief that the Twin Towers were created for him to walk between. Admittedly, there were no real consequences for his “criminal” act except the contrition of a ‘walk’ over Belvedere Lake in Central Park as token ‘community service.’
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Man on a Wire” is an engrossing, exhilarating 8, barely mentioning the tragedy of 9/11 – because it doesn’t need to.

Susan Granger’s review of “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (MGM/Weinstein Co.)

While London made Woody Allen edgy with suspense in “Match Point,” “Scoop” and “Cassandra’s Dream,” Spain returns him to his romantic comedy roots.
Best friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are American tourists spending the summer in Barcelona. Shortly after their arrival, they meet Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a painter who brazenly invites them for a weekend in the picturesque town of Oviedo. Engaged to be married and assertively conventional, patrician Vicky quickly declines, but adventurous Cristina is obviously turned on by the suave, disconcertingly straight-forward Spaniard. So Vicky reluctantly agrees to accompany them. But when Cristina gets food poisoning, it’s Vicky who succumbs to Juan Antonio’s seductive charms.
Back in Barcelona, guilt-stricken Vicky agrees to marry her fiancé (Doug Messina) earlier than planned while Juan Antonio persistently pursues Cristina, who moves in with him, only to discover that his passionately volatile ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), is determined to make it a ménage a trios. So it’s all about how restless Cristina and stability-seeking Vicky navigate the tense, unsettling and often bizarre emotional boundaries set by their amorous desires and bohemian expectations.
Throughout his cinematic career, Woody Allen has relished complicated emotional relationships and he embraces with exuberance the sensual essence of the Catalan capital, albeit through an omniscient third-person narrator. In contrast to his terse performance in “No Country for Old Men,” Bardem oozes debonair charm, yet it’s Cruz (“Volver”) who steals scenes. Scarlett Johansson has become Allen’s mercurial muse du jour and newcomer Rebecca Hall (daughter of British theater director Peter Hall) is enchanting.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a sublimely delectable 9. It’s a witty, cleverly crafted meditation on love – in all of its many fascinating permutations.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” (Warner Bros.)

Having just completed their first year of college, the four lifelong friends of Ann Brashares’ “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” are back for another summer of drama and discovery, sharing the magical pair of thrift-shop jeans as a way of staying connected to their past and each other.
When Lena (Alexis Bledel) goes back to Greece for her grandfather’s funeral, she discovers her beloved Kostas (Michael Rady) is married. Heartbroken, she throws herself into her art studies at the Rhode Island School of Design and becomes romantically involved with the male model (Jesse Williams) who poses for her class.
While working in a video store and trying to write a romantic comedy for her NYU film project, rebellious Tibby (Amber Tamblyn) takes her relationship with Brian (Leonardo Nam) too far and fears she may be pregnant.
Still struggling with her mother’s death, Bridget (Blake Lively) travels to Turkey, where she works on an archeological dig until her mentor (Shohreh Aghdashloo) makes her aware that that the memories she needs to unearth are in Alabama with her estranged maternal grandmother (Blythe Danner).
And since Carmen’s (America Ferrera) recently re-married mother (Racel Ticotin) is expecting a baby, she impulsively goes to Vermont to work backstage at a theater festival where she discovers talent – and courage – she never dreamed she had.
Although the screenplay’s kaleidoscopic structure is distracting, interweaving the four coming-of-age adventures, writer Elizabeth Chandler and director Sanaa Hamri should intrigue their target audience of teenage girls with lessons about love, disappointment and forgiveness.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” is a familiar 5. And Fairfield County audiences will recognize scenes filmed at Yale and the Westport Country Playhouse.

Susan Granger’s review of “Pineapple Express” (Columbia Pictures/Sony)

Those “Superbad” dudes, Seth Rogen and James Franco, are back in another buddy comedy. This time, they’re potheads on the run with heavy helpings of graphic, gratuitous violence.
At first, their relationship is simple: process-server Dale Denton (Rogen) buys weed from Saul Silver (James Franco). Then Saul sells him some Pineapple Express, a high-grade of marijuana that’s so rare that, as Saul says, “It’s almost a shame to smoke it.”
Shortly after, when Dale witnesses a murder by a crooked cop (Rosie Perez) and a notorious drug lord, Ted Jones (Gary Cole), he flees, dropping his smoldering roach. Because it’s Pineapple Express, Ted traces it back to Saul. Soon Dale and Saul are running for their lives, pursued by Ted’s goons (Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson) and betrayed by Saul’s distributor, Red (Danny McBride).
With the success of “The 40 Year-old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” etc., Judd Apatow is Hollywood’s reigning comedy czar and he’s anointed director David Gordon Green (“All the Real Girls,” “Snow Angels”), teaming him with scripters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“Superbad”), and Apatow credits inspiration for this stoners-on-the-run parody to Brad Pitt’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s “True Romance” (1993).
Much of the weird, half-baked humor is based on the smug idea that watching clumsy stoners being high is amusing but, unless you’re joining them, it isn’t. And, except for Katherine Heigel’s pivotal role in “Knocked Up,” women are barely noticeable in Apatow productions. While it will inevitably rate higher with its core audience of men, ages 16-30, particularly those who are stoned while viewing, for the rest of us, particularly adults, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Pineapple Express” is a silly, reefer-raunchy 5. What’s most hypocritical is the cautionary warning against pot; that’s self-serving hypocrisy.

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, August 1:

Ever feel like you just don’t fit in? Glenn Gers’ “disFigured” humanly and humorously tackles the topic of women’s weight, exploring the unlikely friendship between a fat woman (Deidra Edwards) and a recovering anorexic (Staci Lawrence). Gers explores issues of isolation, appearance and control.
Those raunchy, pot-loving Jersey dudes are back in “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.” Harold Lee (John Cho), a Korean-American investment banker, and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn), an impulsive Indian-American wannabe medical student, are mistaken for terrorists when they sneak a homemade “smokeless bong” onboard a plane.
Peter Watkins’ “Privilege” revolves around a rock music phenomenon (Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones) whose life changes when an artist (supermodel Jean Shrimpton) is paints his portrait. After the controversy surrounding his “The War Game,” Watkins tackles corporate culture, church and state.
Filmed in 2005 & 2006, “Love Story” is a feature-length documentary about the legendary Los Angeles band Love and the late Arthur Lee. Love was one of the first inter-racial bands and the first rock band to be signed by Elektra Records.
Children ages 2-5 will have a g-r-r-r-eat time at “64 Zoo Lane,” following the adventures of Lucy, who lives next-door to a zoo. Every night, she climbs out of her window, slides down the long neck of Georgina the giraffe and listens to the animals’ stories.
PICK OF THE WEEK: If you like taut British crime capers, “The Bank Job” stars Jason Statham as a small-time crook duped into lifting compromising photos of Princess Margaret from a Lloyds vault. Extras include an awesome documentary on the real-life robbery that inspired the film and how the robbers spent a weekend digging a tunnel from a leather shop, under a chicken restaurant, into a bank.

Susan Granger’s review of “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (Universal)

“Here we go again,” sighs intrepid adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser), turning his sights on China.
Two thousand years ago, the power-hungry Dragon Emperor Han (Jet Li), builder of the Great Wall, sought immortality. But he made the mistake of betraying a beautiful sorceress, Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh), who imprisoned him in stone, along with his 10,000 warriors.
Now it’s 1946 and Rick’s ambitious son Alex (Luke Ford) is excavating Han’s tomb, bragging, “It’s the greatest find since King Tut!” Coincidentally, the mysterious diamond that Rick and his wife, Evelyn (Maria Bello, replacing Rachel Weisz), have been asked to deliver to China holds the key to awakening the ferocious despot, who summons his long-dormant terra-cotta army.
Rick, Evelyn and Alex are joined by Evelyn’s brother Jonathan (John Hannah) who owns a nightclub, plus immortal Zi Juan and her daughter Lin (Isabella Leong), who not only serves as Alex’s love interest but possesses the only dagger that can kill Han. So the spectacular CGI battles begin in exotic Shangri-La with its irrepressible Yetis (a.k.a. Abominable Snowmen).
Director Rob Cohen (“The Fast and the Furious,” “Stealth”) makes a major mistake by casting Luke Ford as Brendan Fraser’s son. While it was credible that 39 year-old Fraser had a 13 year-old nephew in “Journey to the Center of the Earth: 3D,”  he couldn’t be the father of the 27 year-old Aussie. Do the math. Plus, screenwriter Stephen Sommers has been replaced by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the creators of “Smallville,” who rip off the “Indiana Jones: Crystal Skull” father/son concept.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” is a noisy, frenetic, futile 4. It’s time to wrap this tale “Mummy” franchise.