Movie/TV Reviews

The Guardian

Susan Granger’s review of “The Guardian” (Touchstone Pictures)

If you saw the harrowing aerial/sea heroics during Hurricane Katrina, you witnessed the daring, often unheralded work of U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers, who rescued or evacuated an estimated 33,520 people in the Gulf States. They courageously go out during the most treacherous storms in service to their motto: “So that others may live!”
After renowned Rescue Swimmer Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) emerges as the sole survivor of a deadly crash in which his best friend/partner perished – and his long-suffering wife (Sela Ward) asks for a divorce – he’s ordered to teach at “A” School, the elite training program that turns young recruits, like cocky hotshot Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher), into the best and bravest. Determined to prepare these athletes for the dangerous trials that they’re going to face in the future, Randall institutes intense, rigorous, unorthodox training methods, much to the consternation of his cohorts. Then, in the fierce, turbulent waters of Alaska’s Bering Sea, his feisty top student will be tested.
Conceived in the inspiring genre of “Top Gun” and “An Officer and a Gentleman,” written with metaphysical touches by Ron L. Brinkerhoff and directed with good-natured cynicism by Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive”), what it lacks is the kind of star charisma generated by a Tom Cruise or a Richard Gere. Given this serious, meaty role, Ashton Kutcher (“The Butterfly Effect”) oozes brash yet shallow blandness, offset only by Kevin Costner’s amiable, world-weary empathy and consummate professionalism.
The viscerally gripping cinematography of the dangerous missions and monstrous waves is spectacular – and one of the ‘students’ is Mark Gangloff, who won Olympic gold in Athens. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Guardian” is a crowd-pleasing, exciting 8, examining what it takes – physically and psychologically – to be a hero. Think of it as “Top Fin.”

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Open Season

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Open Season” (Sony Pictures)

Joining Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and Fox, Sony Pictures Imageworks jumps into the animation ring with its first CGI adventure comedy, based on comic strips by Steve Moore (“In the Bleachers”).
Set in the tiny town of Timberline, the tale revolves around Boog (voiced by Martin Lawrence), a delightfully domesticated 900 lb. Grizzly bear who has been raised since he was a cub by Beth (voiced by Debra Messing of “Will & Grace”), a gentle forest ranger. But living in a comfortable converted garage and his own TV set, and served eight square meals a day, Boog has never learned any essential survival skills.
So when he suddenly finds himself stranded in the woods only three days before Open Season, along with a scrawny, manipulative mule deer named Elliot (voiced by Ashton Kutcher), he’s aghast. Where are the comforts of home? While bewildered Boog searches for his inner grizzly, he and Elliot are forced to rely on one another, becoming unlikely buddies. Eventually, they rally the other four-legged forest creatures, including a squirrel curmudgeon, McSquizzy (hilariously voiced by Billy Connolly), a pair of fast-talking skunks, two shell-shocked ducks and members of Elliot’s former her, to protect their territory and retaliate against the villainous Shaw (voiced by Gary Sinese), a maniacal hunter, and the other prowling, predatory humans.
Directed by and Jill Culton (“Monsters, Inc.,” “Toy Story 2”) and Roger Allers (“The Lion King”) and co-directed by Anthony Stacchi (“Antz”), this is a PG-rated cartoon feature for an audience of tiny tots who may find the hunters’ guns a bit frightening. But rest assured that no vulnerable creature is harmed – and there’s a happy ending. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Open Season” is a mischievous, spunky 6 – aimed at family fun.

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Gridiron Gang

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Gridiron Gang” (Columbia Pictures)

Based on a 1993 Emmy award-winning documentary, this true story about inner city thugs in juvenile detention who come together to forge a winning football team, neither scores nor inspires, except on the most superficial level.
Sean Porter (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is a dedicated, hard-working probation officer at Camp Kilpatrick, the maximum-security last stop for violent teens before incarceration in an adult penitentiary. Dismayed over the recidivism rate, he believes that by forming a football team he can instill a sense of self-worth and discipline in these convicted felons. His first task is convincing the skeptical administrator (Leon Rippy) and his assistant (Kevin Dunn), then he has to find other high school coaches willing to compete against these repeated offenders.
“Let’s try the impossible,” he says. “The possible ain’t working.”
His biggest challenge is forming a cohesive squad since the grim boys, many from rival gangs, distrust one another. There’s surly Willie Weathers (Jade Yorker), who killed his mother’s boyfriend after his cousin died in a drive-by shooting in South Central L.A.; troubled Kenny Bates (Trever O’Brien), the token Caucasian; a surly Samoan known as Junior Palaita (Setu Taase); and Bug (Brandon Mychal Smith), the team’s water boy and mascot.
“This is your ‘hood now.You’re Mustangs!” Porter tells them.
Screenwriter Jeff Maguire has never encountered a sappy sports clichŽ or trite inspirational slogan that he doesn’t utilize. Director Phil Joanou peppers the predictable plot with some gritty glimpses of the real Camp Kirkpatrick in the Santa Monica Mountains but fails to navigate the melodramatic hurdles. So on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Gridiron Gang” is a formulaic 5, concluding with clips of the real Sean Porter and relating what eventually happened to each of the players.

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Jackass Number Two

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Jackass Number Two” (Paramount Pictures)

Idiocy comes in many guises, as do varieties of humor. So, here’s a quick quiz:
Do you have an obsession with bodily fluids?
Does a beer enema make you giggle?
Do you find vomit scenes hilarious?
Do you consider graphic proctologic trauma entertainment?
Do you really want to see someone defecate on-camera?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, buy a ticket for this sequel. It’s all here.
Blending the line between slapstick and sadism, Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius and director Jeff Tremaine have assembled a tasteless, repulsive series of life-threatening stunts and painful pranks, which began on MTV and jumped to the big screen. They wrestle snakes, cattle-brand themselves and pose as terrorists.
Redolent of recent headlines about the tragic stingray death of Aussie naturalist Steve Irwin, the guys perform what they call the Anaconda Ball Pit, involving three Jackassers, two snakes and a tank of plastic balls. Although – to his credit – after the Medicine Ball Dodgeball, Margera declares, “That was fun. Let’s never do that again.”
Even director Spike Jonze shows up to join these merry lunatics for some self-inflicted torture, most of which cannot be described in a family newspaper. And it all winds up at the end with a big Broadway/Hollywood-style musical number.
Adolescent boys are the prime audience, despite the R-rating for violence, language, nudity, alcohol and crude humor. I wonder what it takes to get an NC-17 these days. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Jackass Number Two” is a crude, depraved, imbecilic 1. It tells us something about the demoralizing state of movie audiences today when donkey dung like “Jackass Number Two” emerges as #1 at the box-office the week of its release.

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Flyboys

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Flyboys” (MGM)

Remember how film pioneer Howard Hughes was waiting for clouds in order photograph fighter planes in “The Aviator”? Director Tony Bill and cinematographer Henry Braham find clouds for the dogfights but are missing an emotional connection to their characters.
Opening in 1916, “Flyboys” are the American pilots who formed the Lafayette Escadrille, fighting for France against Germany’s Jagdstaffeln before the U.S. entered World War I. These idealistic Yanks report to Capt. Thenault (Jean Reno) for a brief training at a chateau in the French countryside.
Cocky Blaine Rawlings (James Franco) is an orphaned Texan whose family ranch has been foreclosed. William Jensen (Phillip Winchester) is the conflicted scion of a Nebraska military family. Briggs Lowry (Tyler Labine) is a rich kid trying to prove himself to a tyrannical father. Eddie Beagle (David Ellison) is a screw-up who has trouble hitting targets. Eugene Skinner (Abdul Sallis) is the boxer son of a former slave who appreciates Frances’ racial tolerance. Their squadron leader is jaded pilot Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson), a loner with a pet lion, who says their life expectancy, is six weeks. That makes Rawlings’ relationship with a local girl, Lucienne (Jennifer Decker), all the more poignant in the film’s epilogue.
In the sky, the scenes soar, as the French bi-planes look extraordinarily fragile against the superior German tri-planes, particularly when a zeppelin appears. Back then, pilots didn’t wear parachutes and their only “contingency plan” consisted of a self-inflicted pistol shot. But the ground story never takes off because the pedestrian screenwriting lacks in subtlety and subtext, relying on clichŽs. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Flyboys” is a nostalgic 5, recalling a time when combat honor was inherent and pilots not only recognized one another in the air but fought their own personal duels.

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The Departed

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Departed’ (Warner Bros.)

Legendary director Martin Scorsese, a master of the gritty crime drama, has pulled out all the stops in this violent, blood-drenched tale of corruption. With its tangled web of intrigue and paranoia, it’s reminiscent of “GoodFellas” and “Mean Streets.”
At the Massachusetts State Police Department, there are two young recruits, both with roots deep in the Irish-American community. Ambitious Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is chosen by the Elite Investigations Unit to help take down the local organized crime ring headed by powerful mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). But what the cops don’t realize is that Sullivan’s first loyalty, since childhood, has been to Costello.
In contrast, there’s hot-tempered, street-smart Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), who ostensibly gets booted out of the police ranks but is, secretly, sent back onto the rough streets of South Boston to infiltrate Costello’s inner-circle. Both are “moles” who, eventually, find out about one another – but not, ironically, through the risky relationship they share in common: a fondness for a particular police therapist (Vera Farmiga).
Sullivan and Costigan represent two sides of the same dented coin, each man choosing a different, but parallel path on a collision course littered with deception and betrayal.
Inspired by but not a remake of Hong Kong’s “Infernal Affairs,” it’s written with uncompromising film noir flair by William Monahan and wryly humorous input from Scorsese and Nicholson, who is astonishing and mesmerizing as the swaggering incarnation of evil. Nicholson dazzles! Leonardo DiCaprio captures the agony of Costigan’s internal conflict, while Matt Damon gives Sullivan a tough core of intelligence. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Departed” is a tense, terrific 10. But there’s a cautionary note in an unintended subliminal message: don’t join the Massachusetts State Police Dept. if you hope to remain alive!

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Employee of the Month

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of ‘Employee of the Month” (Lionsgate)

At a New Mexico-based branch of the Super Club discount megastore, there’s an underground battle for the “Employee of the Month” title which cocky, arrogant checkout clerk Vince Downey (Dax Shepard) has won 17 times in a row. Longtime box-boy Zack (Dane Cook) has heard rumors that the sexy new checkout clerk Amy (Jessica Simpson) will sleep with any guy who wins the award, which impels the perennial slacker’s sudden zeal for excellence.
Groundlings alum Dick Shepard and stand-up comedian Dane Cook draw on their skill and timing to elevate the marginal material, but pop singer/reality TV star Jessica Simpson (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) has yet to master the cinematic art of ignoring the camera, often staring right into it – with a vacuous expression – as if she were inadvertently caught on Alan Funt’s “Candid Camera.” Oops!
First-time feature film director Glen Coolidge – who wrote the screenplay with Dan Calame & Chris Conroy – exaggerates beyond credibility, including far too many moronic pratfalls and jokes about bodily functions. Plus, the story would pack far more of a punch if the outcome weren’t so predictable. There is one incongruous “in” joke revolving around the store manager named Glen Gary ((Tim Bagley) and his brother Glen Ross (Danny Woodburn), evoking Daivd Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
Costumer Denise Wingate squeezes buxom Simpson’s ample assets into low-cut tops that seem more appropriate for ogling at Hooters, and the fact that filming too place at a Costco in Albuquerque is barely disguised, considering the Kirkland house brand remains on the shelves. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Employee of the Month” is a relentlessly idiotic 3, mildly amusing only the most undemanding moviegoer.

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The Last King of Scotland

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Last King of Scotland” (Fox Searchlight)

Despite the incongruous title, this is a gripping drama about Uganda’s iconic president Idi Amin, featuring an extraordinary, Oscar-worthy performance by Forest Whitaker.
The story begins in Scotland as an idealistic young physician, Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), graduates from med school. Eager to “make a difference” and have some fun, he impetuously takes a remote post in Uganda, where he attempts a liaison with the wife (Gillian Anderson) of the village’s hard-working British physician (Adam Kotz). While attending a rally for Idi Amin, the fledgling democracy’s newly elected president, Nicholas is summoned to bandage the General’s injured hand. Having served in the King’s African Rifles, Amin has a soft spot for Scotland, and, later, a hilarious scene shows Amin wearing a kilt, surrounded by Africans singing a Scottish song.
Impressed by Nicholas’ outspoken honesty, Amin makes him a seductive offer he can’t refuse: becoming his personal physician in Kampala, where Nicholas discovers that one of Amin’s wives (Kerry Washington) has an epileptic son whom he keeps hidden.
Enjoying unparalleled access to the highest realms of the government, Nicholas becomes aware that Amin is a murderous megalomaniac and that his own life is in peril.
In an absolutely terrifying characterization, Forest Whitaker captures Amin’s charisma as well as his charm, while the selfish na•vetŽ of James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnus in “The Chronicles of Narnia”) evokes compassion. Based on Giles Foden’s novel, insightfully adapted by Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock and meticulously directed by Kevin Mcdonald (“Touching the Void, “One Day in September”), it interweaves historical fact with fiction. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Last King of Scotland” is an eye-riveting 8, an edgy tale that doesn’t let go – despite horrifying images of violence and brutality.

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Flags of Our Fathers

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Flags of Our Fathers” (Paramount Pictures)

Two-time Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood explores the story behind the most memorable photograph of World War II – and not since “Saving Private Ryan” has a historical wartime epic packed this kind of powerful emotional wallop.
On February 23, 1945, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped a picture of five Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi after a bloody, horrific 35-day battle in which 6,821 American soldiers were killed and 20,000 more were wounded. “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” made instant heroes of the random men in the picture. So, manipulated by the military, the three surviving flag-raisers (Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach) became an integral part of the government’s War Bond Tour. Trapped in the exploitive spotlight of symbolic adulation, they soon realized that the glory of celebrity fades fast, followed by disappointment and disillusionment.
Based on the best-seller by James Bradley with Ron Powers, the screenplay by William Broyles Jr. (“Apollo 13”) and Paul Haggis (“Crash”) reveals the fighting that led up to the photograph and what happened to the men after they returned home. Within their psychological conflict is justifiable skepticism of the mythology of hero-worship.
Produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Clint Eastwood (who also composed the musical score), there’s a spectacular visual scope although the complex, non-linear structure presents a challenge for the audience. Cinematographer Tom Stern fades out colors, often moving monochromatically between chaos and coherence – and the actors, particularly Adam Beach (“Windtalkers”), acquit themselves admirably. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Flags of Our Fathers” is a compelling 10 – to be followed in February, 2007, by Eastwood’s “Letters from Iwo Jima,” delving into the battle from the Japanese perspective.

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Marie Antoinette

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Marie Antoinette” (Columbia Pictures)

Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost in Translation” delved into themes of isolation but the disconnection in Barbie Goes to Versailles is sheer folly. The lonely, extravagant young Queen does little but acquire clothes and consume sweet confections. Clothes I can understand. She’s royalty. But eating all those delicious pastries, bon-bons and truffles and not gaining an ounce – that’s unforgivable.
Ah, the story. It should be dramatic but isn’t. To solidify an international alliance, 14 year-old Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is dispatched to wed the teenage dauphin (Jason Schwartzman) who will became Louis XVI. But try as she might, for seven years, Marie can’t get her mumbling, bumbling husband to consummate their marriage – until he gets some sex education from Marie’s brother, the Emperor of Austria. Then children arrive, along with the Revolution. But don’t expect to see heads roll on the guillotine – the plot peters out before that.
Coppola draws a satiric parallel between coddled Marie’s delirious decadence and the excesses of today’s pampered, partying pop princesses – like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Perhaps that’s why she serves discordant rock music – like Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy” – to accompany the costume drama and calorie consumption.
Sumptuously photographed by Lance Accord at Versailles and the Petit Trianon, it’s visually stunning, capturing the glittering, pompous opulence and Champagne-soaked gossip of the French court. But Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman are vacuous, expressionless ciphers in a baroque tableau – with caricature-like support from Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Asia Argento, Marianne Faithfull, Rose Byrne, Molly Shannon, Shirley Henderson and Jamie Dornan. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Marie Antoinette” is a lavish, fashionable 5 – if you’re fascinated by intricate shoes and towering coiffures.

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