Ben Stiller’s spoof of war movies is–without doubt–the summer’s funniest comedy. Read the rest of this entry »

Re-making Asian horror films has become a Hollywood B-movie staple, so this run-of-the-mill entry simply serves as a reminder that Kiefer Sutherland can be as intense, yelling “Damn it!” on the big screen as he is as Jack Bauer on TV’s “24.” Read the rest of this entry »

Having just completed their first year of college, the four lifelong friends of Ann Brashares’ “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” are back for another summer of drama and discovery, sharing the magical pair of thrift-shop jeans as a way of staying connected to their past and each other. Read the rest of this entry »

The deserved winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Courtney Hunt’s “Frozen River” tells the 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.

Just before Christmas, Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) realizes her gambling husband has run off with all the money she was saving to buy a new double-wide trailer. Abandoned with only a part-time job at the Yankee Dollar Store, she’s destitute. Her squalid trailer is falling apart, her kids (Charlie McDermott, James Reilly) have only popcorn and Tang for dinner, and there’s nothing for holiday presents. So when she spies her husband’s car at a bingo parlor on the barren Mohawk reservation, Ray follows the woman who stole it. It’s Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a single mother who is trying to regain custody of her child by using the Dodge Spirit - with its pop-up trunk - to smuggle aliens from China and Pakistan. While neither woman truly trusts the other, their mutual struggle forms a bond of shared economic need. Racism is endemic with the border police, so a white woman driving is much less likely to be questioned than a Native American. Yet it’s a dangerous decision for both.

Writer/director Courtney Hunt creates a completely believable, wintry world that’s filled with suspicion and extreme anxiety, eliciting gritty, grounded performances from her entire cast, particularly Melissa Leo (”21 Grams”), who should certainly be on the short list for Oscar consideration. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Frozen River” is a compelling 9, as a compassionate, cross-cultural chronicle of humanity besieged by hard times.

It’s revisiting “Brideshead Revisited,” since many vividly remember that lavish, 11-episode British mini-series first shown on PBS in 1982 and released on DVD in 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

The primaries are over and the Presidential election looms ahead. So how important is your vote? Read the rest of this entry »

“Here we go again,” sighs intrepid adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser), turning his sights on China. Read the rest of this entry »

There are no alien abductions, no space invaders, no conspiracy theories, nothing spooky or supernatural - just Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) at odds over whether a pedophile priest really has the psychic ability to solve a string of grisly murders. Read the rest of this entry »

This cautionary thriller should be a wake-up call about America’s outrageously archaic laws insofar as defending the sanctity of home and family. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t be fooled by expectations emanating from the family-friendly trailers revolving around a collapsing bunk-bed. This is NOT a movie for kids! It’s an R-rated, crude, comedic rumination on contemporary parenting and sibling rivalry. Read the rest of this entry »