Movie/TV Reviews

Taken

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

There’s no question that former government operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is still at the top of his game, working as a Los Angeles security guard and saving the life of a pop starlet (Holly Vance). But when his estranged 17 year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), begs for permission to spend a few weeks on holiday in Paris with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy), he’s understandably reluctant, even though his bitter ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and her new, wealthy husband (Xander Berkeley) are in favor of the trip which, incidentally, involves following U2 all over Europe.
Mills’ worst fears are soon realized when kidnappers grab Kim while she’s talking to her father on the phone. “I will find you and I will kill you,” he threatens them.
Rushing to his daughter’s rescue, he discovers that she’s being held by thugs from an Albanian underground in an Eastern European prostitution ring and, if he’s going to save her, he has to outwit a deceitful French secret service agent (Mathieu Busson). Meanwhile, the clock is ticking because Mills’ intelligence contacts have warned him that he has only 96 hours to find Kim before she vanishes forever into a sex slavery underground that’s seemingly propelled by slobbering Saudi oil sheiks seeking nubile virgins.
Written by Luc Besson with Robert Mark Kamen and directed by Pierre Morel, whose previous outings helming the low-budget “District B-13” and photographing “Transporter” and “Unleashed,” this is an urgent, hyper-kinetic thriller, marred by shaky camerawork and disconcertingly quick cuts, plus a particularly gruesome torture sequence that reflects what Mills learned in the CIA, not to mention the rampant racial/ethnic stereotyping.
Known primarily for his dramatic roles in “Schindler’s List” and “Kinsey,” Irishman Neeson proves himself as an unrelenting, vigilante action hero. Although the perfunctory script utilizes few of his finely-toned acting abilities, he manages to convey some depth of character, even in the fight sequences.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Taken” is a pulse-pounding 5. This exploitive jaunt to the City of Lights is brutal, intense – and soon forgotten.

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Inkheart

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

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

Novelist Cornelia Funke’s popular children’s story about the love of literature is not well served by this confusing fantasy adventure revolving around people called Silvertongues who, when they read aloud from a book, magically bring its characters to life. But then a person from the real world is sucked into the realm of fiction. Twelve year-old Maggie (Eliza Hope Bennett) lives with her book-collecting father, Mortimer “Mo” Folchart (Brendan Fraser). In a flashback, it’s revealed that Maggie’s mother, Resa (Sienna Guillory), mysteriously vanished years earlier. Then on a visit to the Swiss Alps, where Mo, who is a Silvertongue, comes across a rare volume of a mystical medieval tale called “Inkheart,” what happened to Resa quickly becomes clear %u2013 but bringing her home presents daunting and dangerous challenges when they land at the mansion of Maggie’s eccentric Great-Aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren), who has her own impressive library. There’s Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), the mysterious fire juggler, and malevolent Capricorn (Andy Serkis) with his knife-flashing sidekick, Basta (Jamie Foreman), who capture Maggie and demand that Mo bring other evil fictional characters to life. As the convoluted plot unfolds in a tiny Italian village, its creator, Fenoglio (Jim Broadbent), oddly enough, seems totally unaware of what is happening. Although adapted for the screen by Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist David Lindsay-Abaire (“Robots,” the upcoming “Spider Man 4”) and directed by Iain Softley (“The Skeleton Key,” “The Wings of the Dove”), the essential theme is overwhelmed by the eye-catching special effects and flashy production design which, rather than enhancing the supernatural narrative, create an emotional distance from the characters, who are never properly developed. That’s not to say it isn’t fun glimpsing the flying monkeys from “The Wizard of Oz” and the ticking crocodile from “Peter Pan” in Capricorn’s castle. But the concept that someone can simply change the endings of classics on a whim is a bit unsettling. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10 “Inkheart” is a folklore-filled 4, disappointing because of its poor execution.

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January 23 DVD Update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Fri., Jan. 23:

Movies changed forever on April 24, 1924, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer opened in Hollywood and assembled “more stars than there are in the heavens.” Patrick Stewart hosts “MGM: When the Lion Roars,” a fascinating three-part Emmy Award-winning series about the legendary Dream Factory, featuring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Gene Kelly, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy and rarely seen studio executives.
“City of Ember” is a post-apocalyptic tale about a crumbling subterranean refuge whose inhabitants are saved by resourceful teenagers (Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadway). Most intriguing are the inventive sound and visual effects, including Rube Goldberg-like contraptions reminiscent of German Expressionism and Machine Age design.
Told as a fable exploring everyday miracles, “Henry Poole Is Here” stars Luke Wilson as a depressed alcoholic whose neighbor (Adriana Barraza) interprets a water-stain on the wall of his house as an apparition of Jesus.
Appropriately named “Max Payne” is a vacuous bore with Mark Wahlberg as a NYC police detective trying to solve the murder of his wife and baby in an eardrum-shattering shoot’-em-up that started as a video game and should have stopped there.
Meg Ryan and William H. Macy team up in a romantic comedy, “The Deal,” about a veteran Hollywood movie producer who has a run of bad luck until a fantastic screenplay, literally, lands on his doorstep.
Children celebrate Chinese New Year with “The Adventures of Walker & Ping Ping,” a new series that takes teaching language a step further by displaying the Chinese words on-screen in both characters and phonetics.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Rising above the clichés of most sports movies, “The Express” tells the story of Ernie Davis (Rob Brown), star halfback at Syracuse University, who won the 1961 Heisman Trophy and became the first black awarded college football’s top honor. What’s fascinating is how he and his coach (Dennis Quaid) were affected by segregation, rampant racism and the burgeoning civil rights movement.

January 23 DVD Update Read More »

The Escapist

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “The Escapist” (IFC Films)

There’s an intriguing twist to this puzzling escape-from-prison drama, winner of the 2008 British Independent Film Award for Best Production and the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor for Brian Cox.
Frank Perry (Cox) is a lifer, sentenced to live behind bars until he dies. But when he receives a letter informing him that his only daughter – whom he hasn’t seen since she was six – is critically ill following a drug overdose, he’s determined to try to help her. That means an escape from the institution he’s regarded as home for many years, but he knows he can’t do it alone.
So he masterminds an intricate getaway plot, involving squeezing through air shafts, and surreptitiously enlists a handful of cellblock inmates: Lenny (Joseph Fiennes), Lacey (Dominic Cooper), Brodie (Liam Cunningham) and Viv (Seu Jorge) – with malevolent Rizza (Damian Lewis), the self-styled prison boss, as their common enemy.
Writer/director Rupert Wyatt, who collaborated on the screenplay with Daniel Hardy, was inspired by a famous 19th century short-story called “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce, which chronicles a hanged man’s near-miraculous escape. And the metaphysical concept is also reminiscent of “Memento” and “The Sixth Sense.”
But it’s Cox’s convincing performance that propels the flashback/flashforward suspense. Many people forget that it was barrel-chested Brian Cox who first brought to the screen one of the most famous prisoners in film history: Hannibal Lector in “Manhunter.”
Composer Benjamin Wallfisch’s naturalistic score stays mostly in the background, eschewing traditional music except for Leonard Cohen’s “The Partisan,” heard during the opening sequence, and Coldplay’s track for the conclusion. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Escapist” is a redemptive 6. “Imagination is what protects us – it’s what keeps us alive,” Frank concludes.

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Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

What you see in the theatrical trailer is what you get in this blubbery fat-joke silliness, slathered with peanut butter. The titular Paul Blart (Kevin James) is a single dad who lives with his anxious mother (Shirley Knight) and teenage daughter (Raini Rodriguez); his undocumented-immigrant wife abandoned the family when she obtained her citizenship. Blart has always dreamed of being a New Jersey State Trooper but a medical condition known as hypoglycemia, which causes him to pass out unexpectedly, foils his police academy plans. After flunking the exam eight times, he takes a security guard job at a local mall where Amy (Jayma Mays), the woman he worships, sells hair-extensions at one of the kiosks. So when %u2013 on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year %u2013 a loathsome gang of tattooed thieves on skateboards and bikes %u2013 led by the villainous Veck Sims (Keir O’Donnell) %u2013 invades the mall and takes hostages, including Amy, Blart %u2013 riding on his trusty Segway %u2013 is determined to thwart them singlehandedly. Best known on television as the amiable “The King of Queens,” Kevin James also wrote the screenplay with his longtime partner Nick Bakay. The whole concept is, obviously, “Die Hard” rip-off, in that a rejected law enforcement officer-turned-security guard saves the day. But some of the writers’ comedic efforts are undermined by continuity bloopers blissfully ignored by director Steve Carr (“Daddy Day Care,” “Dr. Doolittle 2”) and editor Jeff Freeman who, in one particularly jarring chase sequence, have Blart frantically racing around the mall and, suddenly, inexplicably, winding up on the roof. “You’re impossible to underestimate,” Blart’s told, and so is this vapid comedy. While Kevin James was hilarious as Adam Sandler’s friend/domestic partner in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry,” his talents are wasted here. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” is a witless, pathetic 3. It’s a trivial pursuit.

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January 16 DVD Update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s dvd update for Friday, Jan. 16th:

Hosted by Billy Crystal and narrated by Amy Sedaris, “Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America” is a PBS documentary series chronicling more than a century of funny entertainment moments, featuring Charlie Chaplin, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Sid Caesar, Woody Allen, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and many more.
With the Inauguration coming up, Kevin Costner’s gently satirical “Swing Vote” shows just how important one vote can be, when a boozing, foul-mouthed single father, at the urging of his conscientious daughter, finds himself determining who will be the next Commander-in-Chief.
As a boozy, troubled former NYC police officer, Kiefer Sutherland is haunted by “Mirrors” in a creepy remake of a far-more subtle Asian horror film. In “Baghead” four self-indulgent, mumblecore actors decide to write a horror/relationship movie in a remote cabin in the woods but not much happens. And “Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys” takes aim at an African-American audience.
Travel the globe with legendary snowboarder/skateboarder Shaun White in “Don’t Look Down,” showing out-of-this-world moves that have helped re-shape action sports.
“The Waltons: Complete Eighth Season” includes a two-hour bonus retrospective special, “A Decade of the Waltons,” while “Dallas: The Complete 10th Season” celebrates a decade of backstabbing, lies, greed, intrigue and lust.
For tiny tots, in “Barney: Once Upon a Dino Tale,” Jingles the Jester needs help with a fairy tale and in “Bob the Builder: Race to the Finish,” the community erects a new sports stadium. And when that fire alarm rings, “Fireman Sam: Saves the Day!” demonstrating the bravery and courage needed to get the job done.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Gather the posse and prepare for a shootout in “Appaloosa.” Set in 1882 in the New Mexico territory, the story revolves around Marshal Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his deputy Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) who a hired to bring justice to the crime-ridden town of Appaloosa, fighting a ruthless copper mine owner (Jeremy Irons).

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Bride Wars

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

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

June is the traditional month for brides but January is the month for Hollywood’s duds, so the timing for this chick flick is understandable. Yet the box-office appeal to women who lined up for “Sex and the City,” “Mamma Mia!” and “27 Dresses,” which occupied the same slot last year, is minimal. New Yorkers Liv (Kate Hudson) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) have been best friends since childhood, when their mothers took them to lunch at the Plaza’s Palm Court, so they’ve always dreamed of the perfect (i.e. extravagantly expensive) wedding at that luxurious hotel across from Central Park. When their respective boyfriends (Steve Howie, Chris Platt) propose, they rush off to chic wedding planner, Marion St. Clair (Candice Bergen). But because of a clerical error, both nuptials are scheduled for the same date, same time, same place. Oops! Immediately, Liv, the confident corporate lawyer, and Emma, the kind-hearted elementary school teacher, transform into “Mean Girls,” deceitfully sabotaging each other’s preparations. Liv sends Emma chocolates, day after day, so she’ll gain weight and burst out of her Vera Wang dress. Emma slips orange dye into Liv’s tanning salon formula so she emerges looking like a mango. And so it goes. Screenwriter Greg DePaul, Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael propagate the odious concept that women become snarling, selfish harridans when they cannot have their own way. Neither of the brats – I mean, Bridezillas – nor their friends, have a shred of self-realization, connecting their entire sense of worth to their ability to find a prospective husband and to drag him to the altar in high style. And director Gary Winick (“Charlotte’s Web,””13 Going on 30”) seems content to focus on the fluffy, childish fights. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bride Wars” is a floundering 4, particularly since the funniest moments are in the trailer; if you’ve seen that, you’ve seen the movie.

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January 9 DVD Update

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s dvd update for Friday, January 9:

“An American Carol” is a no-holds-barred, off-the-wall comedy that “lampoons contemporary American culture, particularly Hollywood,” written, directed and produced by the master of questionable taste, David Zucker (“Airplane!” “Scary Movie 3 & 4”).
Based on the same historical events that inspired Tom Cruise’s “Valkyrie,” “The Plot to Kill Hitler” is David Wolper’s historical recreation of the 1944 attempt by Nazi High Command Officers to seize control of the German government.
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro team up as veteran NYPD detectives in “Righteous Kill,” investigating 14 vigilante murders targeting those who slipped through the judicial system, including a pedophile priest. Much of it was filmed in Bridgeport.
Those “Superbad” dudes Seth Rogen and James Franco are back in the reefer-raunchy “Pineapple Express,” as stoners-on-the-run tracking a rare, high-grade of marijuana.
Nicholas Cage is a brooding, introspective hitman-for-hire in the toxic, tedious “Bankok Dangerous,” a misadventure more accurately described as Bangkok Boring. Even more dismal is “Babylon A.D.,” a futuristic, sci-fi thriller that’s been publicly disowned by its writer/director Mathiew Kassovitz as “pure violence and stupidity.”
Influenced by Woody Allen’s “Everyone Says I Love You,” Alain Resnais’ “Same Old Song,” is a series of interconnected love stories in which characters break into song – lip-synching popular French hits – to convey their unspoken thoughts. It’s an engaging adult romp.
PICKS OF THE WEEK: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson and Billy Bob Thornton star in “Eagle Eye,” a race-against-time thriller in which a mysterious phone call transforms two unsuspecting Americans into the country’s most wanted fugitives who become unwitting accomplices in a diabolical assassination plot. And Ricky Gervais channels the supernatural in the wryly sardonic comedy “Ghost Town,” as meddlesome spirits bedevil him after a ‘biochemical anomaly’ occurs during a routine colonoscopy.

January 9 DVD Update Read More »

Adam Resurrected

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Adam Resurrected”

If you’ve been waiting for a surreal, abstract film that tries your patience and defies comprehension, this cinematic ‘psychic crisis’ is for you. Adam Stein (Jeff Goldblum) is a Holocaust survivor, a German-Israeli circus clown and magician-turned-Berlin nightclub performer and sometime resident of the fictional Seizling Institute, a massive, Bauhaus-style experimental ‘rehabilitation’ center in the Negev desert. His mind is totally traumatized. He survived the death camps because he, literally, became the ‘pet’ of sadistic Commander Klein (Willem Dafoe), living in a pen with a Jew-hating German Shepherd and groveling obediently on all fours. When his own family, among others, was marched into the gas chambers, Adam was forced to serenade them on the violin as a Weimar diversion. A man in ruins, a shattered soul, floundering after the Allied liberation, he lives off money he stole from Klein and makes his way to Israel. While he astounds the asylum’s medical staff with his psychic abilities, Adam’s greatest challenge comes in the form of a barking boy who is introduced to him by the chief, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi). Raised on a chain, this feral child (Tudor Rapiteanu) actually believes he’s a dog. Can the unhinged man-treated-like-a-dog find redemption, even spiritual resurrection-to-sanity by rescuing the boy-who-believes-he’s-a-dog? Adapted by Israeli-born Noah Stollman from Yoram Kaniuk’s 1968 stream-of-consciousness novel and chillingly directed by Paul Schrader (“The Walker,” “American Gigolo,” “Affliction”), it veers into the complicated territory of edgy, dark comedy, as Adam struggles with the turmoil known as ‘survivor guilt,’ punctuated by sexy romps with beautiful Nurse Gina Grey (Ayelet Zurer). Jeff Goldblum (“Jurassic Park,” “The Fly”) traverses this psychological prism with compelling abandon, delineating and dissecting Schrader’s and cinematographer Sebastian Edschmid’s heavy-handed symbolism. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Adam Resurrected” is an inexplicable 3. It’s eclectic and esoteric, a sardonic turn-off to a mainstream audience.

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Last Chance Harvey

Movie/TV Reviews / Susan

Susan Granger’s review of “Last Chance Harvey” (Overture Films)

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, this wry romantic comedy about two lonely, middle-aged losers is filled with hearts and flowers. Struggling jazz pianist-turned-commercial jingle-writer Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) knows his job is in peril when he takes off from Manhattan for a weekend in London to attend his estranged daughter’s wedding. Hurrying through Heathrow airport, he ignores Kate Walker (Emma Thompson), who’s taking a survey for the Office of National Statistics. But their paths cross again at a bar where befuddled Harvey is drowning his sorrows after learning that his daughter Susan (Liane Balaban) has chosen to have her stepfather (James Brolin) walk her down the aisle, and spinster-like Kate is fending off incessant phone calls from her demanding, overbearing mother (Eileen Atkins) who’s convinced her mysterious neighbor is a serial killer. As destiny would have it, Harvey misses his flight back to the States and is subsequently fired over the phone by his sleazy, impatient boss (Richard Schiff). Gradually, despite a stumbling, awkward reticence on both their parts, a gentle, supportively comforting relationship between them grows, as Kate earnestly convinces Harvey he must overcome the hurt and humiliation of being so callously excluded from the ceremony and attend the upcoming reception, not only delivering a heartfelt toast but graciously dancing with his noxious ex-wife (Kathy Baker). While British writer/director Joel Hopkins’ (“Jump Tomorrow”) bantering dialogue flows naturally with emotional honesty, he scores the most points for his spot-on casting. Teamed once before in “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006), Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson work together with a mature, disarming ease, evoking poignant memories of Paddy Chayefsky’s “Marty.” If only Thompson’s supportive character had been as fully delineated as Hoffman’s, the story would rise to another level entirely. Nevertheless, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Last Chance Harvey” is a charming, sentimental 7, delightfully celebrating the hope for midlife love.

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