Showing posts with label Family film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family film. Show all posts
Mars Needs Moms
I was pleasantly surprised by Mars Needs Moms. I really thought I was going to hate it and I didn't. Knowing that I would probably hate it might have lowered my expectations enough to actually give it a positive review, but that won't help this movie at all since it had the 12th worst opening weekend for a movie released on more than 3000 screens.
Clearly others weren't willing to give it the same chance I did, and with good reason. Other films that were created with the same motion capture animation have been horrible. The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol were filled with soulless, weightless characters; if you look into their eyes, you will see what death is like. The studio seems to be working it's way out of the uncanny valley, slowly but surely, as the characters in Mars Needs Moms are very much less creepy than in earlier films. I'm not sure, however, that Disney will be investing much more of their money into this style of animation.
Mars Needs Moms might already be out of theatres, but if you want a family night with your kids, give it a rent and help Disney make back some of the $150 million budget that it pretty much just flushed down the toilet.
Rango
Rango is a strange movie. I actually walked out of it not knowing if I liked it or not. It's rated PG and is animated, which implies that it's a kids movie, but, while it's definitely kid friendly, it's really geared more for adults.
The animation is outstanding. It's gritty and realistic, yet still quirky and fun to look at. The voice acting is good... the story is fine.
While it's certainly not the best movie of the year, Rango is an entertaining escape for a couple of hours. Kids may not really like it, though and adults probably won't know what to make of it.
Gnomeo & Juliet
This 84 minute movie is about an hour too long. I'd like to know what the thought process was leading up to the production of Gnomeo and Juliet. This concept is unoriginal, the title is NOT clever, the animation is pretty awful, and the inclusion of an entirely Elton John based score/soundtrack is pretty random and a strange decision. If they had included original Elton John songs, it might have been tolerable, but the whole movie is Rocket Man and Your Song and the score is, seemingly, a deliberate rip off of the score from Moulin Rouge!
At no point was I able to suspend disbelief enough to buy into this world. Why is there a laser security system in the red gnomes' yard? Was it put there by the homeowner? What are the legal ramifications of decapitating a child with a laser security system in your back yard if the kid loses a ball over the fence? Where are all of the bloody squirrel corpses?
Romeo and Juliet is a tragic love story. I honestly don't care if I give away the ending of Gnomeo and Juliet because I don't believe you should go see it anyway. If you're going to retell a classic tale, do it. You don't sugar coat Shakespeare. I probably sound snobbish, but I really don't care. I am not a Shakespeare scholar and I wouldn't even call myself a Shakespeare fan. I do, however, respect the work and would never bank on it's popularity in order to make a quick buck, and then change the whole story. No one dies in Gnomeo and Juliet. Gnomeo and Juliet has a happy ending. That has to be one of the most ridiculous, disrespectful ideas that has hit the screen as a G rated film. I'm really not surprised that Disney released this under the Touchstone banner; to rake in millions of dollars on a terrible product and not really be associated with it is sort of brilliant. The folks over at Disney are evil masterminds.
Do not take your kids to see Gnomeo and Juliet. Introduce them to Romeo and Juliet instead.
Tangled
Tangled, Disney's interpretation of Rapunzel, is a fun, colorful and entertaining addition to the holiday season. It's very girly and may not appeal to young boys, despite the suave, witty and adventurous swashbuckling male lead, who is actually going to appeal more to moms than he would to a young male demographic.
This is a princess movie through and through, and I have to say, it's about time Disney went back to their Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty roots. Other than The Princess and the Frog (which I really didn't like) the studio had abandoned their classic tendencies and relied heavily on Pixar or individual "talent" (Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Lindsey Lohan) to rake in the dough for them. While Tangled may not have appealed to me personally, it's success will, hopefully, encourage them to produce more titles like Aladdin, and The Lion King.
Tangled's one flaw is that it might be too quirky for it's own good. Movies like the aforementioned classics take place in a specific time period and region of the world and the characters act appropriately. Tangled is a cartoon and the characters "act" like they're in a cartoon instead of a medieval kingdom; making this movie lighter and cuter than the animated stories from the 1990's.
You should absolutely take the time to check out Tangled. It's beautifully animated and a fun story.
MegaMind 3D
MegaMind isn't bad. It just isn't really good either. It's just as forgettable as Monsters vs. Aliens but not as forgettable as say... Ratatouille (that's right, I said it. A Pixar movie is forgettable). The fact of the matter is that with the onslaught of "original" superhero movies/television shows, MegaMind doesn't really stand out as anything spectacular.
If your kids really want to go to the movies, you could do a lot worse than MegaMind. But you may want to stall, cause they'll forget about it eventually... whether you take them to see it or not.
Despicable Me 3D
Despicable Me is a fun, family friendly heist movie with adorable characters who get you to laugh, not because they're saying funny things, but because they are just SO cute. The kids are cute, the minions are cute as hell, and even Gru has his moments...
While it's a very entertaining 100 minutes, the only thing that will really stick with you when you leave the theatre is how cute it was. Despicable Me is great family fare for a rainy day when there is nothing else to do.
Toy Story 3
Yes.Very unlike the marketing campaign for Shrek 4 (which may have actually been called "Shrek: The Final Chapter"), Disney/Pixar hasn't stated outright that this is the final Toy Story movie. I'm really hoping it is, though.
Not because I hate the characters and never want to see them again. While the gang could go on any number of adventures in the future, the emotional end to every one of them would be a repeat of the journeys that they've already taken. Toy Story 3 provides a satisfying conclusion to the series. The Toy Story saga is complete and other than to make money, there is no reason to make another movie starring these characters.
The trilogy has had messages ranging from friendship and family, to jealousy, to loss and moving on. Pixar has made family friendly films with mature themes and no pop-culture references. They have never sacrificed the integrity of the characters or the story and for these reasons, the Toy Story films are truly timeless.
I can't blame them for releasing Toy Story 3 in 3D, but there really is absolutely no reason for it to have been except for, again, money. If you haven't seen it yet, definitely go, but don't stress about seeing it in 3D. Just see it.
The Karate Kid
No.No... No, why would you remake this? It doesn't make any sense, there are plenty of terrible concepts that turned into terrible movies that could use another shot at becoming successful entertainment. The original Karate Kid was sufficiently entertaining there is NO reason to try and fix it.
I have an idea, instead of rebooting it for a new generation, just re-release the original. Responsible parents should have a list of well-made family friendly films that their kids should see. They should then, take time and sit down and watch these movies with their kids. What they shouldn't do is rely on Hollywood to convince your kids that they want to see a new movie and then send your kids to the theatre with their friends to watch an inferior version of an already successful film.
Even if you forget that there was an original, this is still a failed attempt at entertaining cinema. The child actors are bad, the timeline is surprisingly rushed for a 2 hour and 20 minute running time and it's filled with unnecessary sub-plots that muddle the actual storyline.
Don't waste your time on this remake. Rent the original if you don't already own it; it's a classic that can never be outdone.
How to Train Your Dragon 3D
Yes yes yes. Definitely yes.How to Train Your Dragon is the first good movie, that I've felt it was important to see in 3D to get the full effect. Up was my favorite movie of last year and I still don't think it needed to be in 3D it was perfect in 2D. Avatar was the opposite. In order to even mildly like the movie, you needed to have seen it in 3D. The movie was crap and the whole thing was really just a spectacle. Take out the 3D and you have a movie I like to call Pocahontas 3000. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was OK, Final Destination 4 shouldn't even have been released, and Alice in Wonderland was worse than Avatar because the 3D didn't help make it a better movie at all.
How to Train Your Dragon is a mixed bag in terms of originality. First of all, it's not an original screenplay, the script is adapted from the book series by Cressida Cowell. I can't speak for the rest of the series, but the premise of the movie really is just E.T. with a dragon instead of alien. That being said, the characters are all unique and the scenery is relatively new to the animated world... I can't think of any other animated movies about vikings. Also... I want a dragon. Not just any dragon, I want Toothless. The scene where Hiccup is testing Toothless's boundaries and they are becoming friends was so heartwarming I almost threw up. Then, the friendship that they develop; risking their own lives to protect the other... I want a dragon.
I couldn't give a higher recommendation. I loved How to Train Your Dragon.
Alice in Wonderland
No. If someone were to as me to describe Alice in Wonderland in one word, it would be "lacking".Alice in Wonderland is as visually invigorating as you would expect from any Tim Burton film, unfortunately it's richness is severely diluted by it's lack character development, boring storyline, and it's overall wonderlessness.
The first two are clearly the fault of the screenwriter, but the worst offense is the "by numbers" approach that Burton took in his direction. It's almost as if he was really just phoning it in, using the same actors and composer he always uses... I think he even used the tree and windmill from Sleepy Hollow.
We are all, for the most part, familiar with these characters. We remember them from the original Disney animated classic and a few of you may actually have read the books. I remember the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit and the Tweedles. They're quirky... strange... but I'll tell you what, I knew plenty of quirky characters in high school. If I passed them on the street today and they started telling me about all of their problems, I honestly wouldn't give a shit and would probably be fidgety, looking for an excuse to continue on my way. I was very fidgety while watching Alice in Wonderland. I honestly didn't care about any of the characters because, even though I didn't need any character origin stories, I still needed to see some kind of emotional development. They were all just two dimensional cartoon characters behaving strangely.
I wish I had better news, I was really looking forward to Burton's vision of this wacky story. Unfortunately, no... you should not see Alice in Wonderland.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief
Yes...I was told that I would enjoy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightening Thief more if I left my brain at the door. I tried... I popped my brain right out (it has to be easily removable these days with all of the mind-numbing entertainment that's passing for Oscar-worthy films.) It wasn't long before I had to put it back in because there were just sooo many questions. "How shitty of a god does a god have to be to have his power stolen from him?" This question became even more perplexing when I found out who had stolen it. "If a mysterious black cloud begins forming over Europe, how would anyone be able to predict that it's final destination is America?" and the most baffling of them all: "Why do studios keep letting Chris Columbus direct movies when he fairly consistently ruins them?"
The writing and direction leave absolutely NOTHING up to your imagination. Every mysterious aspect of the story and the world they live in is explained immediately after the question is raised.
The kids in this movie were good, as were the special effects and it's for those reasons along with the hope of a new director on future installments that I'm recommending Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Just ask someone who is going to see Shutter Island to hold your brain for you so that you won't be tempted to think at all during the movie... besides, they may need the extra brain power.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
No.What a terrible, terrible movie. The animation is for shit, the story is boring, the voice acting is bad and this is the THIRD movie in the series. The Ice Age movies really only ever were worthy of a 21 minute cartoon on Saturday mornings and it is absolutely mind boggling to me that we are now in the $500 million range for the three movies combined.
Please stop going to see these movies so that I can stop having to watch them... please.
The Princess and the Frog
... no...I have to say that I was a little bored. I was expecting the magic of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid... even The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It could never have been as good as Beauty and the Beast, but at least it wasn't as bad as Pocahontas.
Every one of the songs was about living in the bayou/New Orleans or were message songs and none of them seemed to have any influence on the advancement of the plot (like Kiss the Girl and Be Prepared) they were all about things that we already knew (like Colors of the Wind).
This is definitely for little girls, at no point would a boy (young... or 30 years old) have anything to relate to during this movie. I'm happy that Disney is making an effort to go back to their roots, I was hoping their first attempt at "hand-drawn" animation in 5 years would be more significant. It's not. If you have 2-8 year old girls, they are the target audience for this... they might enjoy it more if they're black... otherwise, don't waste your money; any other demographic will just be bored.
A Christmas Carol
No...... or yes...
The animation still creeps me out a bit. They've made great advances in the motion capture technique adding weight to the characters and objects as well as a little bit of life to the characters eyes. In Zemeckis' previous motion capture efforts, the animators weren't able to convince me that the characters weren't dead inside.
Disney's version of A Christmas Carol is a well made, perfectly acceptable version of the Dicken's classic. You will LOVE this movie if you're a huge fan of the story and are looking for a new interpretation. The casual movie-goer, however, will most likely be bored with it. The only reason I didn't leave early was because of the 3D effects and some very cool animation.
Old Dogs
No... but are you really surprised?Old Dogs is a movie for adults with humor for children. That's the opposite of how to make a good family film. Some of the plot points include a one night stand that leads to the birth of twins, a business deal with some kind of Japanese sports agency or something, the mother of the twins being sent to prison for 2 weeks and needing a babysitter, and a divorcee and a self proclaimed 'ladies man' volunteering for the job.
Some of the jokes include a spray tanner on the fritz (with Robin Williams in a speedo), the old drug overdose gag when people take the wrong drugs and have hilarious side effects (very realistic and a great, fun message for kids), sneaking into a zoo and realizing that they're in the gorilla pen... oh my god, the list goes on and on...
How long have they been filming this? Has it just been sitting on the shelf? When did Bernie Mac die? It had to be a year ago and yet here he is... the only part of this movie that made me laugh was a dead man.
Every great family film has a simple formula: kid-friendly with an actual story, and SOME humor for the grown-ups. Old Dogs isn't particularly kid-friendly. It has no plot; it's just a sequence of set-up, punchline, heartfelt moment, set-up, punchline, heartfelt moment. I'm pretty sure that the only adults that would find 98% of the jokes in this movie funny, are people I don't or wouldn't like. So I guess if you want me to like you, and you think you might enjoy Old Dogs... don't see it.
Planet 51
No.The premise is there, but the execution is off for this silly, super colorful cartoon that is aimed only at young children and yet, at times, is highly inappropriate. One of the two risque jokes will go right over their heads and the other is a dirty joke that's right at their age level. Together they result in my total amount of laugh time from the whole movie... which is seconds at most.
Planet 51 is a high energy film that may entertain your kids while they're watching it, but I implore you to have a sit down with them after and talk to them about why it was a bad movie. We can't have these kids growing up thinking that this was acceptable filmmaking.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Ummm... sure, on DVD...... and as it turns out, that will be your only option since it's no longer in theatres. The 3D was cool and the story was cute, but the movie was too long (and at 90 minutes long, that's not a good thing).
The fact is that, probably by design, Meatballs has little emotional impact and you really don't feel any different walking out than you did walking in. That's not to say that it won't do it's job... this movie was created to entertain children, not change an adults outlook on life. It's just that, and I will continue to do this, when I compare this Meatballs to any Pixar film, it seems superfiscial... empty... bubblegum.
Rent Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs for your kids and get some housework done while they're distracted, but don't rely on it for wholesome family entertainment.
Where the Wild Things Are
Ummm, this can probably wait for home viewing.Where the Wild Things Are is a somewhat bleak film that could possibly influence some young viewers one way while others might see it from a completely different perspective. Fortunately, I think the director was going for the much more realistic perspective, which may have been the movie's downfall.
One way, and not necessarily the best way, to interpret the film (if you're a young child) is that you can use your imagination to create a world for you to escape into, and that that's a good way solve life's problems. I would love for that to be a good message to send to kids, however (and I have NO scientific evidence to prove this), if they never unlearn that message, they will probably grow up disillusioned, unhappy, and possibly homicidal.
The other way to interpret Where the Wild Things Are, is that you cannot solve life's issues by simply forgetting about them. I believe this is the message that the filmmakers were trying to convey, creating a very bland, in look and feel, cinematic experience. Max spends most of his time in solitude, in a desert, or just sad/angry. What could have been an interesting emotional journey ends up just being a stagnant escape until he misses his mother and wants to go home.
I do think it's worth a viewing, however, for the very naturalistic performance of Max Records as Max, and for the costuming/special effects of the "wild things". I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out how they were able to express so many emotions through the enormous Muppet heads of the characters. When Where the Wild Things Are comes out on DVD/Blu-ray, give it a rent and check out another thought provoking Spike Jonze film that may or may not be good for the whole family.
Shorts
No.This is really just an insult to kids. I never got into any of Robert Rodriguez's movies. Not the Desperado series, or the Spy Kids movies. I didn't really expect to like Shorts, but I really didn't expect to hate it either... and man, did I hate it. I got up and walked out of the theatre 3 times. I couldn't leave until the end of the movie and it made me feel like I was being punished.
It's really bizarre. Shorts seems like what you would get if Quentin Tarantino directed a family movie because the story was told out of order. It was all crass dialogue, lowbrow humor and over-the-top acting. It was just awful, so I feel silly bringing anything specific up, but there is a point when the kids are holding the wishing rock while they are being chased by bipedal alligators and it takes them what felt like four hours to realize that they could wish themselves out of the situation.
I can't even think about this anymore. It's terrible, don't watch it.
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