Movie/TV Reviews

Meet Dave

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

Eddie Murphy knew what he was doing when he skipped the premiere of his new movie; he was avoiding a public embarrassment.
In this sci-fi comedy, Murphy plays a human-sized spaceship and its tiny captain controlling the craft from a deck in the spaceship’s head. With his home planet Nil facing extinction, Dave Ming Chang (Murphy) and his crew are dispatched to Earth to mix with the humanoids while searching for an essential device that was intended to absorb all the water from our oceans so the Nilians can have the salt. That involves Dave’s landing at the Statue of Liberty in his pristine white suit and gaining the trust of a young boy, Josh (Austyn Lind Myers), and Gina, his hippie single mom (Elizabeth Banks).
While the outlandish alien set-up is amusing for about 15 minutes, the sloppy script by sit-com veteran Rob Greenberg & Bill Corbett (“Mystery Science Theater 3000”) quickly sputters and stalls, leaving director Brian Robbins (“Norbit”) little to work with except toilet humor, cultural references like “Star Trek” jibes, and Murphy’s usual slapstick shtick, turning all too often to maudlin moments with Elizabeth Banks and Gabrielle Union, who plays his inch-tall extraterrestrial cultural officer. Miniature menace comes from Dave’s power-hunger “No. 2” (Ed Helms).
Going back to his raunchy “Beverly Hills Cop” days and subsequent hits like “48 Hours,” “Doctor Doolittle,” “Coming to America,” “Shrek,” even “Dreamgirls,” Eddie Murphy has proved himself as one of the screen’s most engaging comedian/actors. So his participation in debacles like this and “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” is inexcusable. He desperately needs better advisors.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Meet Dave” is a tedious, time-wasting 3, apologizing to family-friendly audiences with, “Sorry, Earth, sometimes No. 2 happens!”

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Brick Lane

Susan Granger’s review of “Brick Lane” (Sony Pictures Classics)

There are many stories about immigrants’ feelings of alienation – and this one revolves around a subservient Muslim girl’s gradual transformation into a decisive woman.
When she was young, Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) vowed never to leave her younger sister and their beloved Bangladeshi village, but as a teenager she was married off to a pompous, portly, older businessman, Chanu (Satish Kaushik), and expected to build a life in East London’s shabby, immigrant-filled Brick Lane district where, years earlier, carts rolled from kilns in the countryside to the city’s construction sites.
Two school-age children and 16 dutifully banal years later, Nazneen is still dreaming of returning ‘home’ to see her sister. Unable to afford the plane ticket, she obtains a second-hand sewing machine and begins working as a seamstress to make extra money. That’s how she becomes involved with young, politically militant Karim (Christopher Simpson), who brings her men’s pants to stitch. Far more than just ‘an affair,’ their relationship redefines how Nazneen views herself, her foolish husband, their daughters and their lives.
Based on Monica Ali’s expansive novel which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2003, writers Abi Morgan and Laura Jones faced the monumental challenge of choosing what to discard and what to retain. While their screenplay retains the clandestine romantic intrigue, its great complication comes from the events of 9/11 – after which anti-Muslim prejudice dominated much of Great Britain. And director Sarah Gavron indulges in a few too many shadowy pastoral reminiscences, augmented by Robbie Ryan’s lush photography.  On the other hand, the acting is uniformly good – with Satish Kaushik familiar from Bollywood films. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Brick Lane” is a poignant, subtle 6, tackling cross-cultural conflict and racial intolerance.

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Mamma Mia!

Susan Granger’s review of “Mamma Mia!” (Universal Pictures)

Meryl Streep is amazing! There is nothing this gifted actress cannot do – and she’s a sensational choice to bring ABBA’s irresistible frolic to the screen.
Set on a sunny Greek island, it revolves around bride-to-be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) who yearns to have her father give her away. Problem is: her feisty, free-spirited mother Donna (Meryl Streep) has never told her who he is. So when Sophie discovers her mother’s diary and realizes that, when was conceived, Donna was involved with three different men – Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) – she secretly invites them to her wedding. Chaos ensues and complications inevitably arise, yet Donna and her wickedly zany BFFs (best-female-friends Christine Baranski and Julie Walters) sing and dance their way through the celebration.
Unfortunately, writer Catherine Johnson and theater/opera director Phyllida Lloyd haven’t a clue about musical movie-making, nor does cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos. And if this genre is to enjoy the revival that was trumpeted when “Chicago” won Oscars, stage veterans must hone their cinematic credentials. Imagination must soar and the camera must swirl along with the dancers, and if the role demands warbling, singing talent is essential. Rex Harrison may have ‘faked it’ in “My Fair Lady” but Pierce Brosnan is no Rex Harrison; his foray into musical comedy ranks with Clint Eastwood’s “Paint Your Wagon.”
On the other hand, when Streep belts “Dancing Queen,” you just gotta move; her “The Winner Takes It All” breaks your heart; and her “Slipping Through My Fingers” causes misty eyes. And it’s brilliant using colorful locals as a glitzy Greek chorus. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Mamma Mia!” is an uplifting, finger-snapping, energetic 8. It’s awfully good, meaning “Money, Money, Money” at the box-office.

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dvd update

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, July 11th:

In anticipation of next week’s theatrical release of “The Dark Knight,” there’s “Batman Gotham Knight,” a two-disc anthology of 40-years of Batman animation history. Bonus features include a retrospective of villains, “A Mirror for the Bat: The Evil Denizens of Gotham City,” and “Sneak Peek: Wonder Woman.”
With summer in full gear, “Down the Barrel” is an exhilarating surfing documentary with four top competitors defying the uncontrollable ocean, catching the perfect wave from Hawaii’s Bonzai Pipeline to the Barrier Reef in Tahiti.
“Bonneville” teams Jessica Lange, Joan Allen and Kathy Bates on a middle-aged cross-country road trip, and Meg Ryan headlines “My Mom’s New Boyfriend” with Antonio Banderas as the man in question and Colin Hanks as her FBI-agent son.
The documentary “Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten” profiles the Clash frontman and self-described “punk-rock warlord” who died of a heart attack in 2002 at the age of 50, mixing concert clips, home movies and recollections from his associates.
From Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, “My Blueberry Nights” features singer Norah Jones as a brokenhearted young wanderer who bonds over blueberry pie with Jude Law, the owner of a tiny New York café; while each scene is beautifully composed, it doesn’t jell.
“The Tracey Fragments,” about a troubled teen, is a failed cinematic experiment except for a fine performance by Ellen Page (“Juno”). Canadian filmmaker Brian McDonald uses a dizzying split-screen technique, resulting in a video collage that’s a trial to endure.
PICK OF THE WEEK: In “Stop-Loss,” filmmaker Kimberley Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry”) angrily delves into what’s happening to troops currently serving their country in the Middle East, specifically, the government’s retention policy known as the backdoor draft; Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Abbie Cornish star.

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The Last Mistress

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

In the midst of summer froth, here’s an opulent French bodice-ripper from writer/director Catherine Breillat, who is obsessed with gender politics, specifically female desire and sexuality.
In 1835 in Paris, the elderly Vicomte de Prony (Michael Lonsdale) and the middle-aged Countess d’Artelles (Yolande Moreau) dine and dither vicariously about the mischievous dalliances of their fellow aristocrats. Their juicy gossip focuses primarily on dissolute Ryno de Marigny (androgynous newcomer, Fu’ad Ait Aattou), a notorious libertine who wishes to marry young, innocent – and very wealthy – Hermangarde (Roxanne Mesquida) and must first obtain the permission of her curious grandmother, Marquise de Flers (Claude Sarraute)…and there’s this complication of his 10-year involvement with a voluptuous, uninhibited, capricious Spanish courtesan, Vellini (Asia Argentino), who is said to be the illegitimate daughter of an Italian princess and a famed Spanish matador. Consumed with jealousy, the jilted Vellini then brazenly follows de Marigny and his naïve bride on their honeymoon and, scandalously, makes no attempt to be inconspicuous.
Adapting this costume melodrama from Jules-Amedee Barbey d’Aurevilly’s novel, Breillat (“Fat Girl,” “Romance,” “Sex is Comedy”) perceives post-feminist sexual politics through an angry, dark-hued lens, candidly equating passion with violence. There’s a scene where Vellini licks blood from her lover’s wound after he’s shot in a duel, murmuring “I want to drink his blood, no one can stop me!” And another in which she rakes a hairpin across de Marigny’s face, exciting him with the playful gesture. That viewpoint and the ensuing talkiness get a bit tedious. But the smoldering, uninhibited, simulated sex scenes add spice, so on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Last Mistress” is a steamy, sumptuous, sensual 7. Think of a 19th century “Fatal Attraction” in French with English subtitles.

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Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Susan Granger’s review of “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (Universal Pictures)

Another week, another comic-book superhero movie. But this one is different.
Back in 2004, before he made “Pan’s Labyrinth,” wildly imaginative writer/director Guillermo del Toro introduced Mike Mignola’s Hellboy (Ron Perlman) to the screen. Born in the flames of hell and brought to Earth as an infant to perpetrate evil, Hellboy was rescued from occult Nazi forces by Dr. Trevor Broom (John Hurt), who made him into a crime-fighter and defender of the human race.
So when the cat-loving, cigar-chomping, Tecate-swilling Hellboy is summoned by the elite, top-secret B.P.R.D. (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) in Trenton, New Jersey, he and his sarcastic, pyrokinetic (and secretly pregnant) girl-friend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) must battle the Underworld’s ruthless Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) with his lumbering troll henchman, Wink (Brian Steele) and the fantastical 16’-tall robots who comprise the Golden Army.
At Hellboy’s side are the half-fish/half mammal aquatic empath Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and the officious protoplasmic mystic Dr. Johann Krauss (John Alexander/James Dodd, voiced by Seth MacFarlane), along with perpetually flustered B.P.R.D. agent Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) and Prince Nuada’s twin sister, ethereal Princess Nuala (Anna Walton).
“Mythology and folklore have always been present in ‘Hellboy’ comics, and we didn’t go there in the first film,” Mike Mignola notes. “So instead of Rasputin, Nazis, mad scientists and H.P. Lovecraft-type stuff, we went for the supernatural.”
Among their most intriguing, creepy creations are the dainty-but-deadly Tooth Fairies, who ravenously devour calcium, and the plant-like Elemental, standing 70’ tall after water activates its growth. And their Troll Market evokes memories of George Lucas’ iconic “Star Wars” Cantina.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” is a chaotic yet spectacular 7, a dark fantasy/horror tale.

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Days and Clouds

Susan Granger’s review of “Days and Clouds” (Film Movement)

Back in 2000, Silvio Soldini struck an emotional chord with “Bread and Tulips.” Now he’s back with a middle-aged, upper middle-class Genovese couple caught in the throes of life crisis precipitated by a financial upheaval.
When Elsa (Margherita Buy) receives her doctorate as an art historian, her proud husband Michele (Antonio Albanese) gives her lovely antique earrings and invites all their friends to a lavish surprise party. But the next morning, he’s forced to reveal the truth that he’s been hiding for the past two months: he’s been pushed out of the company he founded and is now jobless. They’re going to have to downsize: cancel their vacation abroad, dismiss their maid, put their spacious apartment on the market, sell their boat and cut expenses.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Elsa wails. “I hate not knowing things.”
In the following months, as they work their way through embarrassment, frustration and shame, their basic marital commitment is sorely tested as they become increasingly alienated not only from others, including their grown daughter, but from each other.
In order to stay solvent, Elsa abandons a beloved fresco restoration project to work as a telemarketer and as a part-time secretary to a shipping company executive in the evening. Idealistic Michele takes a job as a motor bike courier and then turns to renovating apartments with two of his former employees.
The dilemma that Silbio Soldini and co-writers (Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli) delineate revolves around the interconnectedness of love, money and status, a timely, relevant topic. Superbly acted in Italian with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Days and Clouds” is a sensitive, subtle 7, sympathetically detailing the devastation of economic insecurity and the regeneration of a marriage.

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Journey to the Center of the Earth: 3-D

Susan Granger’s review of “Journey to the Center of the Earth: 3-D” (Warner Bros.)

Whoa! 3-D has come a long way since those early days of flimsy paper, color-tinted glasses. And this newest version of Jules Verne’s pioneering fantasy is the first all-digital 3-D narrative movie ever made.
Scientist Trevor Anderson (Brendan Fraser) has been tracking seismic events in Mongolia, Bolivia and Hawaii ever since his older brother went missing in 1997. So when a remarkable new surge occurs in Iceland, coinciding with a visit from his nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson), he has little choice but to tote the materialistic, bored 13 year-old along to Reykjavik. That’s where he hires Hannah (Anita Briem), a local mountain guide whose father happened to be a ‘Vernian,’ someone who believed Jules Verne was writing fact, not science- fiction.
The trio of adventurers inadvertently discover volcanic tubes, which bypass the magma layer, and enter a fantastic, subterranean world, filled with bizarre creatures, carnivorous plants, terrifying plesiosaurs – and rapidly rising temperatures.
Directed by f/x whiz Eric Brevig (“Total Recall,” “Pearl Harbor”) from an updated script by Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett & Mark Levin – and, of course, Jules Verne’s 1864 novel – it’s filmed by Chuck Schuman using the HD Fusion camera developed by James Cameron (“Titanic”) and Vince Pace.
The most memorable thrills include a runaway rollercoaster ride in an abandoned mine, ravenous flying piranha and prehistoric sea serpents in a secret, underground ocean but there are also lovely, magical moments, like when glowing white birds seem to flutter into the audience.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Journey to the Center of the Earth: 3-D” is an awesome, exciting 8. Don’t settle for 2-D – choose a theater with 3-D – and then hang on for an astonishing, eye-popping ride into another world!

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When Did You Last See Your Father

Susan Granger’s review of “When Did You Last See Your Father” (Sony Pictures Classics)

“When did you last see your father? Was it last weekend or last Christmas? Was it before or after he exhaled his last breath? And was it him, or was it a version of him, shaped by your own expectations and disappointments?” questions dour British poet Blake Morrison (Colin Firth), coming to terms with the life and death of his own father.
The man in question is Arthur Morrison (Jim Broadbent), a brooding, boorish country doctor, who bullies others to get his way, particularly his ever-patient wife, Kim (Juliet Stevenson), who smokes cigarettes and frequently seeks solitude, suffering from migraine headaches.
Adapted by David Nicholls (“Starter for 10”) from Blake Morrison’s 1993 confessional – and obviously therapeutic – memoir and directed by Anand Tucker (“Shopgirl,” “Hilary and Jackie”), it delves into how the loss of a parent can create in grown children confusing waves of unbridled emotion: blame, resentment, remorse, fear and pride. And it’s just as episodic, fragmentary and repetitive as those emotional moments tend to be, flashing back to Blake’s childhood memories. There’s the time Blake was humiliated by his father in front of the opposite sex, a look at his father’s suspiciously close relationship with “aunt” Beaty (Sarah Lancashire) and his father’s bout with terminal cancer.
Over the past few years, Colin Firth seems to have inherited Hugh Grant’s mantle as America’s Englishman but, this time, he’s mostly morose, except with his wife, Kathy (Gina McKee). On the other hand, Jim Broadbent can do no wrong and Matthew Beard is pitch-perfect as the teenage Blake. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “When Did You Last See Your Father?” is an unfocused, sensitive 6. It’s an agonized tear-jerker about loss and mourning.

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dvd update

Susan Granger’s dvd update for week of Friday, July 4th:

Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Matthew Fox and Sigourney Weaver star in “Vantage Point,” a terrorism thriller with a terrific premise about a Presidential assassination plot. Problem is: it fizzles into a far-fetched, forgettable formula.
In “Drillbit Taylor,” genial Owen Wilson plays an AWOL Army vagrant living on a Santa Monica beach, who is hired as a bodyguard by three stereotypical dorks who have been targeted by a bully during their freshman year in high school.
Michel Gondry’s “Be Kind, Rewind” is a surprisingly sweet, if slight comedy about two Passaic, New Jersey, slackers (Jack Black, Mos Def) who accidentally erase every tape in the video store in which they work. With angry customers lining up, they agree to remake any request, from “King Kong” to “Ghostbusters” to “Driving Miss Daisy.”
Propelled by sheer talent of Angela Bassett, “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns” continues that prolific writer/director’s fun-loving exploration of the sense and sensibility of the African-American community.
Actor/writer/producer John Cusack’s political views skew his common sense in “War, Inc.,” a mind-bogglingly awful satire set in a mythical Middle Eastern country that’s been invaded and occupied by a Halliburton-like corporation run by a former U.S. vice-president (Dan Aykroyd).
Fun-time for kids: “Bob the Builder: Let’s Build the Beach” shows the power of positive thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and follow-through, while “Fireman Sam: To the Rescue” is based on the UK television series set in the Welsh village of PontyPandy, where the Fire Brigade helps children out of all sorts of perilous situations.
PICK OF THE WEEK:  Freddie Highmore discovers a world filled with goblins, fairies and other fantastical creatures in “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” based on the best-selling book series. The two-disc special edition’s features take you further into the magical Spiderwick world.

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