Epinions Recent Reviews for SusanGranger

Dickens Lite

Mon, 18 Nov 2002 16:42:33 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - In this surprisingly lighthearted version of Charles Dickens' classic story, writer/director Douglas McGrath ("Emma," "Bullets Over Broadway") focuses on the realities of Victorian life, particularly the extended family, which he defines as a group...

The Potter Posse Returns!

Mon, 11 Nov 2002 01:22:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - The second installment in the ongoing film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's series is scarier, darker, longer and even better than the first.

Assuming that everyone in the audience is familiar with the characters and the setting,...

Eminem Explodes

Tue, 5 Nov 2002 17:52:03 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - You don't have to be into rap music to appreciate the raw, visceral authenticity of Eminem's fictionalized biography.

Named after a road that serves as a physical and psychological boundary between black inner-city Detroit and its...

Vintage Social Taboos - Revisited

Tue, 29 Oct 2002 17:58:41 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - When Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore), a Hartford housewife/mother, discovers her successful sales exec husband (Dennis Quaid) locked in a secret embrace with a man, she's shocked and confused yet determined to save her marriage. It's 1957...as she...

Roger Dodger: Sex, The City and Misguided Seduction

Tue, 29 Oct 2002 16:43:03 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - First-time writer/director Dylan Kydd makes a distinctive debut with this comic, acerbic portrait of a glib, arrogant Manhattan bachelor introducing his dorky 16 year-old nephew from Ohio to the intricacies of casual sexual conquest.

...

Adventures of Bold, Bisexual Con Woman

Sun, 20 Oct 2002 10:27:04 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Sexy, statuesque Rebecca Romijm-Stamos goes the voyeuristic Sharon Stone "Basic Instinct" route in Brian De Palma's bizarre new thriller, assuming the titular role of Laura Ash, a bold, bisexual con woman.

The intricate story...

Hogan's No Hero Here

Wed, 16 Oct 2002 14:45:20 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Do you recognize the name Bob Crane? When I got my first on-air job at WICC radio back in the '60s, he had already left Bridgeport for a disc jockey gig at KNX in Los Angeles.

According to this obviously fictionalized biography, the...

Swept Away Sinks

Sun, 13 Oct 2002 10:26:40 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - It's quite understandable that, being married to talented British director/screenwriter Guy Ritchie ("Snatch," "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"), Madonna would want to work with him. It's also reasonable that Mr. Ritchie would want to try...

Haunting Halloween Horror Story

Fri, 11 Oct 2002 08:20:33 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - With a timely Halloween release, "The Ring" is the best horror film since "The Sixth Sense," "The Changeling" and "Psycho." Based on the Japanese hit "Ringu," the suspenseful story revolves around supernatural videotape filled with Gothic...

"Bring on the Zamboni"

Sun, 4 Nov 2001 10:21:03 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Add this giddy, good-natured French farce by Jean-Philippe Toussaint to the list of movies about making movies.

Ostensibly, an international cast and film crew are assembled on a skating rink to make "Dolores," a metaphysical...

"Light Look at Marital Infidelity"

Sat, 3 Nov 2001 12:01:02 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Originally conceived as a pilot for a television show, Rick Rosenthal's "Just a Little Harmless Sex" is a mildly amusing romantic comedy about the way men and women view marital infidelity.

The story opens with three guys ogling...

"We Scare Because We Care"

Fri, 2 Nov 2001 22:48:35 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Why do monsters hide in children's closets at night? If you buy into the Pixar magic, it's because they need to capture tiny tots' screams as energy to fuel Monstropolis, a mysterious world that exists just on the other side of the closet door...

"The INSIDE Story"

Tue, 30 Oct 2001 09:19:49 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Few people have had their lives chronicled more completely on film than the late, great Gary Cooper, whose film career spanned 92 features, beginning with "The Thundering Herd" (1925) to "The Naked Edge" (1961).

This...

"Scary Stepfather Saga"

Mon, 29 Oct 2001 16:07:38 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - A provocative, new National Research Group poll finds that 60% of people over 35 don't want to go out of the house to see violence depicted on the screen - which does not bode well for this fast-paced suspense thriller.

John Travolta...

"Starman Descending in an Earthbound Spiral"

Tue, 23 Oct 2001 19:34:53 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Prot (Kevin Spacey) is a curious fellow. Arriving, it would seem, on a dazzling beam of light, he emerges in the midst of a crowd in Grand Central Station, claiming he's from the planet K-PAX and eager to sample our fruit, particularly Red...

"House Construction as a Metaphor for Life"

Tue, 23 Oct 2001 14:56:28 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Take one dying man, add his drug-addicted son and dysfunctional family, toss in a dastardly neighbor, mix well with pathos and you have this old-fashioned inspirational drama that's guaranteed to be a two-hankie weeper.

Kevin Kline...

Captivating Crime Caper"

Sun, 21 Oct 2001 13:38:35 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Film-makers Joel and Ethan Coen score again with this pulpy film noir gem set in Santa Rosa, a small Northern California town, in the summer of 1949.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Ed Crane, a pensive, laconic barber working for his...

"Slasher Conspiracy"

Sun, 21 Oct 2001 10:30:46 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Jack the Ripper, who ritualized the slaughter of women in Victorian London, was the first tabloid-sensational celebrity killer. Indeed, before he began his killing spree, there were a few hundred newspapers in England; at the height of his...

"By Endurance, We Conquer"

Sat, 20 Oct 2001 16:14:21 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Based on the best-seller by Caroline Alexander and narrated by Liam Neeson, this is a remarkable documentary about human survival on a mythic level.

Director George Butler first chronicled Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated Antarctic...

"The Four or Five Big Days That Change Everything"

Tue, 16 Oct 2001 19:47:49 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - "I screwed up," admits Drew Barrymore as Beverly Donofrio, a rebellious, wayward teen who desperately wants to go to college and become a famous writer but refuses to heed her policeman dad's advice to "Keep your mind on books, not boys."

...

"Defiant Drama"

Mon, 15 Oct 2001 23:49:24 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Oscar alert! This high-tension military prison drama is the first real contender of the Fall season.

The story begins as idolized but court-martialed three-star Army General Irwin (Robert Redford) is delivered in handcuffs to a...

"Lynch's Dead-End Drive"

Sun, 14 Oct 2001 14:31:45 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - Whatever David Lynch is selling this time 'round, I'm not buying. From the writer/director of "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks" comes yet another dark, mysterious thriller that opens with an automobile accident on Mulholland Drive, the serpentine...

"It's a Very Hard-Knocks Life"

Wed, 10 Oct 2001 19:22:47 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - British director Stephen Frears, who set "High Fidelity" and "The Hi-Lo Country" in America, goes back to the smoky pubs and cobbled streets of Liverpool in the 1930s for this gritty story of a working-class family.

Stammering...

"Two Lost Souls on the Highway of Love"

Wed, 10 Oct 2001 16:03:16 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - It you enjoy heartwarming, feel-good movies, this is a must see! Actress Christine Lahti, who won an Oscar for her 1996 short film, "Lieberman in Love," turns feature-film director with this quirky, poignant tale of two people who get a second...

"Provocative Interlude for Adults"

Sun, 7 Oct 2001 17:37:21 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author SusanGranger - There's a decidedly feminist twist to this Australian bedroom romp in which Cynthia (Susie Porter) meets Josh (David Wenham) at a party. She's an attractive, intelligent costume-designer and he's an amiable, career-minded National Geographic...