Movie/TV Reviews

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.

Susan Granger’s review of “The International” (Columbia Pictures/Sony Entertainment)

With prescient timeliness, bankers are the bad guys in this globe-hopping, contemporary thriller, but the plot is so confusing that the tension quickly dissipates.
The story begins with a mysterious assassination on the streets of Berlin, accidentally witnessed by a scruffy Interpol agent, Louis Salinger (Clive Owen), who is hot on the trail of ruthless Luxembourg-based bankers from the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC) who are brokering a huge deal for weapons sales. He’s working with New York Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) but European officials balk when they realize that IBBC is involved, even after the powerful conglomerate is linked with a political assassination in Milan. It becomes obvious that the gunman is The Consultant (Brian F. O’Byrne), who escapes to Manhattan, where there’s a blood-splattered shoot-out amid the video installations on the circular ramps lining the interior of the Guggenheim Museum, an Upper East Side architectural landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Then it’s off to Istanbul for the final rooftop showdown.
First-time screenwriter Eric Warren Singer drew on the real-life demise of the Bank of Credit and Commercial Intl., a Pakistani institution that specialized in arms dealing, money laundering and financing mercenaries and terrorists from the 1970s until 1991. In this case, the aim of the fictional financial institution called IBBC is to use the massive debt engendered by these weapons transactions to gain long-term leverage over people in power throughout the world. It’s a sinister, sophisticated premise that needs more compelling, three-dimensional characters.
Director Tom Twyker (“Run, Lola, Run”) dutifully puts Clive Owen, Naomi Watts and their international cohorts through their paces but never develops a cohesive emotional investment for the audience. Villainous Armin Mueller-Stahl has the best line of dialogue, noting the difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense – which this doesn’t. So on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The International” is a frenetic, far-fetched 5, an intense, often incoherent indictment of insidious capitalism.

Susan Granger’s review of “He’s Just Not That Into You” (Warner Bros.)

It’s all about relationships, right?
Based on the revelatory best-seller from “Sex and the City” writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo, this fun, frothy ensemble romantic comedy, set in Baltimore, blithely touches on pithy dilemmas like “He’s Not Calling You.” “He’s Not Having Sex With You” and “He Doesn’t Want To Marry You,” aimed at insecure women yearning for marriage.
Unable to read signals from the opposite sex, naïve Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) is emotionally vulnerable and admittedly desperate. She’s smitten with uninterested Conor (Kevin Connolly), who is crazy about ambitious Anna (Scarlett Johansson), who takes up with Ben (Bradley Cooper), whose marriage to controlling Janine (Jennifer Connelly) is floundering. Meanwhile, after living together for seven years, Beth (Jennifer Aniston) is frustrated by Neil’s (Ben Affleck) avowed aversion to marriage; Mary (Drew Barrymore) has become a cyber-dating victim; and Alex (Fairfield native Justin Long) has removed himself from the emotional fray by becoming the advice-giver from a male perspective.
As directed by Ken Kwapis, these interconnected characters – both male and female – seem remarkably immature and reluctant to take responsibility for their choices. Are young singles really so deficient in sensing and understanding others? They have jobs, of course, but spend a minimal amount of time at them, concentrating, instead, on the conflicts in their personal lives. After awhile, it’s difficult not to become irritated with their callow, whining, self-centered superficiality. But that was true, too, of the wildly popular “Sex and the City,” so perhaps I’ve been out of the dating pool too long.
A stand-out in this top-heavy cast is Ginnfer Goodwin, followed by Jennifer Aniston in her best role since “Friends.” Scarlett Johansson continues to ooze sex appeal while Jennifer Connolly has become scary-skinny and, among the episodic angst, Kris Kristofferson offers welcome diversion as Beth’s outspoken father.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “He’s Just Not That Into You” is a bright, breezy 6, conveying a pop-psychology message about hope, picking up the pieces, starting over and moving on.

Susan Granger’s review of “Coraline” (Focus Features)

Cinematic wizardry never ceases to amaze, and now director Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”) and author Neil Gaiman (“Sandman”) have created first feature-length fantasy to be conceived and photographed in stereoscopic 3-D.
Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is a lonely 11 year-old whose family has relocated from Michigan to Oregon. Missing her friends and reminded that her parents (voiced by Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman) are preoccupied with writing a garden catalogue, she makes friends with the eccentric neighbors in the quaint Pink Palace apartment house. Downstairs are retired British actresses (voiced by Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French) with their faithful Scotties and, upstairs, a Russian acrobat, Mr. Bobinsky (voiced Ian McShane) who trains acrobatic circus mice. And she’s also befriended by annoying Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.,), a local boy about her own age.
But Coraline’s real adventure begins when she uncovers a secret passageway. Crawling through, she discovers an alternate version of her life – only better. At home, where her dad cooks and her mom cleans, Coraline is expected to stay out of their way. But in this weird realm, her button-eyed Other Mother (also voiced by Teri Hatcher) plies her with yummy treats.
There’s just one problem: her Other Mother insists that if Coraline wants to stay, she must have shiny buttons sewn over her eyes too. That’s terrifying – and Coraline senses that beneath her Other Mother’s schemes, something’s terribly wrong. With the help of a wily cat (voiced by Keith David), she finds three ghost children who were lured in by the manipulative Other Mother and soon realizes her real parents are in danger.
This inventive story is full of dark surprises and nightmarish images, along with moments of lush, surreal beauty, as resourceful Coraline learns valuable life lessons. At the animation studio LAIKA, two separate photos were taken for every frame of the film, then precisely interfaced to achieve the depth perception. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Coraline” is a scary, sinister 7, aimed at children age eight or over. But be sure to view it in 3-D because that’s where the creepy magic is hidden.

Susan Granger’s review of “Push” (Summit Entertainment)

At its best, sci-fi is fascinating, like “2001: A Spacey Odyssey.” At its worst, it’s ridiculous, like “Battlefield Earth.” The psychic espionage thriller, “Push” falls somewhere in-between and should not be confused with the Sundance sensation: “Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire.”
The prologue states that the U.S. government is continuing to perform those eugenics experiments started by the Nazis during W.W. II in order to create superior beings. There are different categories for these paranormals: “watchers” are clairvoyant, “movers” use telekinesis, “stitchers” heal any ailment, “pushers” influence the thoughts of others, “bleeders” scream so loud they burst people’s blood vessels, “shifters” change the appearance of things, “wipers” erase people’s memories, “sniffers” track anyone by utilizing their olfactory sense and “shadows” hide people from “sniffers,” concealing them from “watchers.”
But it seems a black-ops Division of the Defense Department is determined to enhance the usefulness of these mutant mindbenders with remarkable telepathic and clairvoyant abilities by administering mega-drug therapy. There are many fatalities in experiments such as this. But Kira (Camilla Belle) is a survivor, a promising “pusher” who has escaped into a clandestine Asian underground. She’s sought by her ex-boyfriend, a rogue, second-generation “mover” Nick Grant (Chris Evans) and a gifted 13 year-old “watcher,” Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), who is trying to free her mother from government custody. With ruthless “pusher” Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) in relentless pursuit, Nick and Cassie must find Kira and retrieve a powerful syringe filled with an “ability enhancer” hidden in a briefcase somewhere in crowded, neon-lit Hong Kong.
“Bring me every sniffer we have!” Carver demands in his determination to find the fugitive, and it’s hard not to giggle at his glowering intensity.
Screenwriter David Bourla and director Paul McGuigan (“Lucky Number Slevin”) are long on style and short on substance, not to mention logic. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Push” is a baffling, frenetic 5, defeated by its own chaotic cleverness.

Susan Granger’s DVD Update for week of Fri., Jan. 30th:

Samuel L. Jackson stars in Neil LaBute’s “Lakeview Terrace” as a widower/father and 28-year veteran of the LAPD who becomes enraged when a young, bi-racial couple (Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington) moves into his upscale suburban neighborhood, so he decides to psychologically torture and intimidate them, a menacing move that ultimately turns tragic when they decide to fight back.
“RockNRolla” is yet another “Pulp-Fiction”-like contemporary crime caper from writer/director Guy Ritchie. Set in London, it involves a Russian billionaire (Karel Roden) who concocts a crooked land deal, attracting many denizens of London’s criminal underworld (Tom Wilkinson, Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton). Narrated like a graphic comic with several labyrinthine plotlines, it’s very British, meaning that the mobsters spurt occasionally undecipherable Cockney.
“Pride and Glory” is a conventional corrupt cop melodrama revolving around a multi-generational police family who are forced to choose between their loyalties to each other and their loyalty to the department. Jon Voight stars as the Chief of Manhattan Detectives with Noah Emmerich and Edward Norton as his sons and Colin Farrell as his son-in-law.
“Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger” is a new 90-minute special featuring footage from three of the comedian’s shows in New York, South Africa and the United Kingdom. In addition, a 3-disc collector’s edition includes full-length performances from London, Johannesburg and Manhattan, plus behind-the scenes conversations.
Ron Livingston stars in “Holly,” which takes a hard look at child prostitution, focusing on a 12 year-old girl brought back to a Cambodian brothel after trying to escape. Playing an American expatriate and gambler, Livingston takes a paternal interest in the vulnerable child and she sees him as a potential savior.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Oscar-nominated Penelope Cruz co-stars in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” a charming romantic comedy that chronicles the adventures of two American tourists (Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson) spending the summer in Barcelona. It’s a cleverly crafted meditation on love – in all its many permutations.

Susan Granger’s review of “New in Town” (Lionsgate Films)

There’s nothing much “new” in this predictably formulaic romantic comedy that seems to be populated by rejects from “Fargo” auditions, muttering “gotcha,” “ooh-yah” and “okey-doke.”
Based in balmy Miami, Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger) is an ambitious dairy food company executive who agrees to relocate temporarily to New Ulm, a small town in Minnesota, to supervise the downsizing of a local factory. Trekking off to that obscure locale in the middle of winter in a miniskirt and spike heels, carting a mountain of matched luggage, she finds some folksy, droll characters like Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr.), a single-father snowplow driver/fireman/union rep, and Blanche Gunderson (Siobbhan Fallon Hogan), her perky assistant. Some chilly chemistry ignites with Ted, while Blanche elicits most of the chuckles. There’s also the usual inquisitive realtor (Frances Conroy) and impudent plant manager (J.K. Simmons).
Screenwriters Kenneth Rance and C. Jay Cox (“Some Sweet Alabama”) never develop Lucy’s character enough to illustrate the life-altering decisions she makes at a pace that’s all-too-quick to be credible, and the bantering between her and Ted lacks the wry wit and verve necessary for this genre. And was it deliberate that Blanche Gunderson’s last name is the same as Frances McDormand’s pregnant cop character in the Coen brothers’ Minnesota-based “Fargo”?
Danish director Jonas Elmer (“Nynne,” “Monas Verden”) is making his English-language film debut – and it shows – as Renee Zellweger demonstrates pitifully little of the charm that epitomized her previous “Bridget Jones” forays. And cinematographer Chris Seager’s insistence on “Natural Exposure” light is less-than-flattering, particularly in the repetitive close-ups. On the other hand, Harry Connick Jr. exudes an easy, breezy charm that should serve him well in attracting future – and hopefully, better – projects.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “New in Town” is a frostbitten 3, as bleak as the landscape. What’s in their favor is the topicality of financial distress caused by job losses. But that’s not enough, particularly when weighed down with tapioca pudding.