Movie/TV Reviews

Bolt

Susan Granger’s review of “Bolt” (Walt Disney Studios)

Since he was a tiny puppy, all a little white hound named Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) has ever known is being acclaimed as a ‘superdog’ on television sound stage and ‘saving’ his owner and devoted co-star Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus) from danger. (Think “Lassie” or, better yet, “Rin Tin Tin.”) So when he’s accidentally shipped off to New York City alone, he’s stunned and confused to discover there’s a real world out there. Believing that his legendary feats of derring-do are real, not just special effects, Bolt kidnaps a savvy Manhattan street cat, Mittens (voiced by Susie Essman of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”), who cautions, “Nothing that you think is real is real.” They’re then joined by a hyperactive fanboy hamster, Rhino (voiced by Disney story artist Mark Walton), encased in a plastic ball. And the trio travels cross-country to get back to Hollywood to Penny, who %u2013 Bolt fears – could be in mortal danger from diabolical Dr. Calico (voiced by Malcolm McDowell) without him. As written by Dan Fogelman and Chris Williams and directed by Williams and Byron Howard, the vocal talent is pivotal. John Travolta captures the canine’s tender earnestness and contagious enthusiasm, while Miley Cyrus’s vocals radiate warmth, vulnerability and emotional depth. Susie Essman’s feline gives Bolt a needed reality check and Mark Walton’s Rhino provides comic relief. Under the animation supervision of Pixar’s John Lasseter, the CGI is both subtle and believable, particularly with 3-D projection. What’s lacking is original thinking. This concept is like “Homeward Bound” and “Incredible Journey;” there are no surprises. So on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Bolt” is a spunky 7, teaching tiny tots that – with friendship and love – you don’t need superpowers to be a hero.

07

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Two Lovers

Susan Granger’s review of “Two Lovers” (Magnolia Pictures)

How curious and somehow sad that 34 year-old Joaquin Phoenix (“Walk the Line”) has decided to retire from acting to pursue a career as in the rap music biz just when he delivers another impressive performance in “Two Lovers.”
Set in insular, working-class Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the story delves into the romantic ambivalence of awkward, troubled Leonard Kraditor (Phoenix), who suffers from a bipolar disorder and moves in with his parents after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. In an effort to draw him out of his depression, his parents (Isabella Rossellini, Moni Moshonov) introduce him to Sandra Cohen (Vinessa Shaw), the delightfully well-balanced daughter of an associate who is buying out the family’s dry-cleaning business. Instead, however, Leonard is inexorably drawn to a neurotic neighbor, Michelle Rausch (Gwyneth Paltrow), a radiant, willowy, blonde legal assistant who is involved not only with drugs but also with a married lawyer (Elias Koteas) who is paying her rent.
Director James Gray (“Little Odessa,” “The Yards,” “We Own the Night”), who wrote the screenplay with Richard Menello, elicits creditable performances from both Vinessa Shaw and Gwyneth Paltrow but Joaquin Phoenix cleverly captures every twitchy nuance of his wounded character’s rampant insecurity. And if some of the melodramatic themes seem familiar, they’re drawn in part from a Dostoyevsky story called “White Nights,” not to mention Elaine May’s “The Heartbreak Kid.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Two Lovers” is an unpredictably soppy, occasionally self-indulgent 6. Perhaps one should not take Phoenix’s abrupt ‘retirement announcement’ on “The Late Show with David Letterman” too seriously since sources close to the actor suspect it’s a hoax staged for the mockumentary that Casey Affleck is secretly filming about him – and, in case you didn’t know, it was heavily-bearded, not-quite-lucid Joaquin Phoenix whom Ben Stiller was impersonating on the Oscar broadcast.

06

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dvd update

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, November 14:

Even though the new Harry Potter movie was moved to 2009, “Pottermania” continues with “Harry Potter Years 1-5” gift set, encompassing all five single-disc Harry Potter films and the Blu-ray Hi-Def set will add over seven hours of special features.
“Planet B-Boy” uncovers the international world of B-boying or “break dancing.” Set in Osaka, Japan; Paris, France; Seoul, Korea; and Las Vegas, Nevada, there are intimate stories featuring misunderstood dancers struggling for their dreams.
“Mister Foe” is a self-conscious, coming-of-age drama starring Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliot”) as an antisocial Scottish lad who spies on his stepmother (Claire Forlani) whom he suspects killed his beloved mother. Kicked out of the house, he heads to Edinburgh, where his voyeurism transfers to his new boss (Sophia Myles) who resembles his mum.
From writer/director/actor Saul Rubinek, “Cruel But Necessary” is a dark comedy that follows a suburban housewife’s journey of self-discovery and self-destruction as she videotapes every aspect of her life.
Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” finds Hellboy (Ron Perlman), his pyrokinetic girlfriend (Selma Blair) and his bizarre cohorts battling the beasts of the Underworld.
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is a digital animation thrill-ride as Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are dispatched to aid in the rescue of Jabba the Hutt’s baby, Rotta the Huttlet.
PICK OF THE WEEK: For family viewing, “Kung Fu Panda” is an animated adventure with colorful, stylized characters voiced by a host of celebrities. Lumbering Po (Jack Black) loves martial arts and dreams of doing heroic deeds but it’s all wishful thinking for the pudgy panda until he’s unexpectedly recognized as the Dragon Warrior. The lessons he learns are to believe in himself and “today is a gift – that’s why it’s called the present.”

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Happy Go Lucky

Susan Granger’s review of “Happy Go Lucky” (Miramax Films)

In this bleak economic climate, are you looking for a glass that’s half-full instead of half-empty? Here it is a comedy to be thankful for. Filmmaker Mike Leigh creates a beguiling heroine who has chosen to approach life with optimism, an open heart and a beaming smile. Even after her bike is stolen, 30 year-old Poppy (Sally Hawkins), an upbeat London primary school teacher, sadly muses, “We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye,” but she simply can’t stay angry. Instead, she decides to take driving lessons from Scott (Eddie Marsan), a paranoid, racist who is riddled with negativity – and can’t stop thinking about her, especially when she becomes involved with the school’s social worker (Samuel Roukin). While Mike Leigh’s previous turns have often been downbeat and dysfunctional, like “Secrets & Lies,” “Vera Drake” and “Naked,” he switches gears with the greatest of ease, creating an endearing, character-driven portrait of a fearless, garrulous young woman who insists on wearing sexy driving boots (even though they impede her ability to find the clutch), gently teases sourpuss clerks, copes with a fierce Flamenco dancing teacher from Spain, counsels a little bully boy in her class and confronts a deranged derelict whose grunts and snarls she understands. On the home front, Poppy maintains close ties with her grumpier best friend and flatmate, Zoe (Alexis Zegerman), sharing pub binges and deadpan humor. Her catchphrase is “It makes me laugh!” Hopefully, Sally Hawkins, who won top honors at the Berlin Film Festival, will be remembered at Oscar-time. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Happy Go Lucky” is a lighthearted, life-affirming 10. When someone tells mischievous Poppy, “You can’t make everyone happy,” her retort is, “No harm in trying.” Think about it.

10

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Synecdoche, New York

Susan Granger’s review of “Synecdoche, New York” (Sony Pictures Classics)

First of all, no one knows how to pronounce it %u2013 and when you see this existential fantasia, you’re not sure what it’s about. But it’s created by Charlie Kaufman, who wrote “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Despite working with a therapist (Hope Davis), upstate New York theater director, Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) finds his marriage to painter Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) is on the rocks. They have a five year-old daughter, Olive (Sadie Goldstein), who expels radioactive-green feces and goes off to Berlin with her mother and her monstrous nanny (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Desolate Caden is a hypochondriac, his body riddled with mysterious symptoms. There’s no continuous timeline, so over the next decades, as Caden’s dismal world disintegrates into a surreal, synaptic blur, he stages a massive warehouse project that includes the pivotal women in his life, played by Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Dianne Wiest, using Tom Noonan as his alter ego with Emily Watson. Sound confusing? It is. Ever since New York Times critic Manohla Dargis gushed, “To say (this) is one of the best films of the year or even one closest to my heart is such a pathetic response to its soaring ambition that I might as well pack it in right now” %u2013 “Synecdoche” has become an “Emperor’s New Clothes.” Obviously, Dargis was not put off by its ambiguous incomprehensibility, channeling David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive.” The title is mispronunciation of Schenectady, where Cotard lives, and according to its Greek derivation ‘synedoche’ means “a receiving together.” On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Synecdoche, New York” is a weird, tiresome 3. Fellini did this rumination on love, hate and the creative process far better in “8 ½.” (1963).

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Quantum of Solace

Susan Granger’s review of “Quantum of Solace” (Sony Pictures)

This 22nd installment in the James Bond franchise is its first sequel, taking up an hour after “Casino Royale.” Arriving in Sienna, Italy, during the famous Palio horse race, Bond (Daniel Craig) discovers that mysterious Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), whom he shot in the leg before the closing credits, is just a cog in a complex global criminal conspiracy known as QUANTUM, stretching from Europe to Latin America, as Bond is pursued not only by bad guys but also by MI6 and the CIA. The Bond babe is duplicitous Camille (Ukrainian model Olga Kurylenko), whose villainous lover, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) of Greene Planet is negotiating with Bolivian general Medrano (Joaquin Cosio) to control South America’s water supply. Scripted by “Royale” writers Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, directed by Marc Forster (“Finding Neverland,” “Monster’s Ball”) and photographed by Roberto Schaefer, it’s less in the elegant, stylish Bond tradition and more like Jason Bourne’s slick, minimalist, plot-driven thrillers. Film editor Richard Pearson, second-unit director Dan Bradley and stunt coordinator Gary Powell are Bourne veterans. And the chase around the floating stage of a Bregenz Opera Festival is homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” Without the mischievous 007 wit and the iconic catchphrases, Craig’s tight-lipped superspy emerges as a humorless, vengeful killing machine. And the title bears no relation to Ian Fleming’s short story from the collection “For Your Eyes Only.” Moneypenny and gadget-master Q with his astonishing inventions are missing, supplanted by Judi Dench’s motherly M, support from Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton and Jeffrey Wright and countless product placements. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Quantum of Solace” is an eye-popping, action-packed 8. At 105 minutes, it’s the shortest Bond picture on record.

08

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How About You

Susan Granger’s review of “How About You” (Strand Releasing)

It’s late fall when free-spirited Ellie (Hayley Atwell) begs her uptight, widowed sister Kate (Orla Brady) for a job at her residential elder-care home in the Irish countryside. Rebellious Ellie’s saving for another round-the-world adventure, and her timing is perfect since Kate’s disgruntled staff seems to be leaving faster than the residents. So she begins to learn to care for the selfish, cantankerous crones who have nowhere else to go. There’s the retired actress, Georgia (Vanessa Redgrave), who hates to drink martinis alone; the former alcoholic judge, Donald (Joss Ackland), who demands his breakfast be served in his room at six a.m.; the bickering spinster sisters, artistic Hazel (Imelda Staunton) and domineering Heather (Brenda Fricker); and, briefly, ailing Alice (Joan O’Hara) who is determined to enjoy every last moment of her life. Just before Christmas, harried Kate abruptly departs to care for their ailing mother, leaving inexperienced Ellie in charge. How will she handle these bitter, hateful seniors over the holiday season? Adapted by Jean Pasley from a short story, “The Hardcore,” by Maeve Binchy and directed by Anthony Byrne, it tackles the edgy topic of old age with extraordinary empathy, capturing all of the poignant regrets, frustrations, resentments and loneliness, occasionally softening the agitation with marijuana, along with Christmas spirit. While it has the humor of “Grumpy Old Men” and “Calendar Girls,” it’s also touching, like “Enchanted April” and “Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont,” gently stressing the need for companionship, giving each character not only a backstory but also a transformation. As one would expect from this veteran cast, the performances are superb, inspiring newcomer Hayley Atwell. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “How About You” is an irreverent, sweetly exuberant 7, exploring loss in all of its ramifications.

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Madagascar Escape 2 Africa

Susan Granger’s review of “Madagascar Escape 2 Africa” (DreamWorks/Paramount)

Three years after the original “Madagascar,” the animals-on-the-run from the Central Park Zoo and their pals depart for New York on in a rickety plane operated by a canny, if pesky penguin crew and crash-land on the vast plains of Africa. That’s just where – many years earlier – Alex the lion (Ben Stiller) was lured away from his stern father Zuba (Bernie Mac) by hunters. It’s also where Marty the motor-mouthed zebra (Chris Rock) has an identity crisis amid his lookalike brethren. Sassy, self-confident Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) finds romance with a hot-to-trot waterhole heartthrob, Moto Moto (will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas), much to the consternation of Melman, the shy, hypochondriac giraffe (David Schwimmer) who truly loves her despite their genetic differences. While the others are discovering their roots, the Lemur King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his associate/cousin Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) are in their element with a new continent to conquer. Then there are peripheral characters, like scheming Makunga (Alec Baldwin), who aspires to be alpha lion in Alex’s pride. And Nana (Elisa Gabrielli), the feisty old lady who beat up Alex in Grand Central Station and is now on safari in a tourist-stuffed SUV. Amid the silly slapstick, constant jabbering and pop tunes, writer/directors Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, along with Etan Cohen, stick with the friendship theme as the plucky, pampered menagerie explores their emotional angst. And in the trivia trough, file the fact that Ben Stiller’s own son, Quinlan, voices Alex as a cub, while Jada Pinkett’s daughter Willow is baby Gloria. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Madagascar Escape 2 Africa” is a vivid, if scattered 6 and should satisfy kids who have been eagerly anticipating this sequel.

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Role Models

Susan Granger’s review of “Role Models” (Universal Pictures)

Taking its place among the raunchy, arrested development comedies by Judd Apatow, Kevin Smith and the Farrelly brothers, the aptly named “Role Models” revolves around two immature buddies with commitment issues. Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) work as sales reps for an energy-drink company, Minotaur, driving a fire-snorting monster truck to Southern California high schools, plugging their product as the safe alternative to illegal drugs. A wild man-child, Wheeler loves the job but underachieving Danny is dissatisfied and depressed, an attitude which so bugs his lawyer girlfriend (omnipresent Elizabeth Banks of “W” and “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”) that she breaks up with him. One day, Danny’s rope snaps and – after a public altercation involving a statue and the demolition of their vehicle – he and Wheeler are given the no-brainer choice: either go to jail for 30 days or devote 150 hours to community service at a Big Brother-type of facility known as Sturdy Wings. Following a stern, psycho-babbling lecture by Sturdy Wings’ crusading founder, Gayle Sweeney (scene-stealing Jane Lynch from “The 40 Year-Old Virgin”), they’re assigned troubled youngsters to mentor. Danny gets Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the nerdy sidekick McLovin in “Superbad”), a cape-wearing teenage dork who’s into role-playing in a Dungeons & Dragons-like game in the mythical, medieval kingdom of Laire, explaining: “In this world, I don’t have to be me.” Wheeler’s misfit charge is foul-mouthed, fatherless Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson). Written by Paul Rudd, David Wain, Ken Marino and Timothy Dowling and directed by Wain (“Wet Hot American Summer”) it’s a formulaic yet glibly funny examination of these guys’ inner goofball, culminating in a crowd-pleasing finale. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Role Models” is a profanity-laden, silly 6. Anarchy reigns.

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dvd update

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, Nov. 7th:

“When Did You Last See Your Father?” finds a dour British poet (Colin Firth), coming to terms with the life and death of his boorish, brooding country doctor father (Jim Broadbent). This therapeutic memoir delves into how loss of a parent can create in grown children confusing waves of unbridled emotion: blame, resentment, remorse, fear and pride.
In “Get Smart,” self-effacing Steve Carell (“The Office”) plays secret agent Maxwell Smart, a role originated by Don Adams on the ’60s TV series. The Cold War is still on when Smart is drafted into action as Agent 86, paired with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), and sent on a dangerous Moscow mission. The ensuing silliness misses by that much.
“What We Do Is Secret” is the true-life story of Darby Crash (Shane West), who was an L.A. music icon before committing suicide in 1980. This dvd follows the rise and fall of The Germs, the birth of punk rock and the rise of hardcore.
For sports fans, “Ringside Muhammad Ali” is a four-disc Collector’s Set with a unique and comprehensive look inside the life and career of a living legend.
For foreign film fans, Swiss-Bosian director Andrea Staka’s “Fraulein” is a highly acclaimed drama about the intersecting lives of three émigrés from the former Yugoslavia, detailing their hardships in war-ravaged Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Debunking his own superstar image, versatile Daniel Craig plays a debauched Hollywood hunk whose taste for high-priced drugs, liquor and hookers has ruined his career in “Flashbacks of a Fool.” When he hears about the death of a childhood friend, he swims into the ocean and floats not only out to sea but also back in time, recalling his intriguing past, filled with youthful mistakes.

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