Tag: Movie review

If you look inside yourself and are honest, you know what to expect from a movie before you step inside the movie theater. Even if you don’t know what to expect, you probably have an inclining of how you’ll enjoy the film. “This is more of an animated feature, it’s not really a film” I glibly said to an adult next to me before Teen Titans GO! To The Movies started. It was partially because our 8 YO son had just asked what the film would be about and I had absolutely no idea. Within five minutes of the film starting I still had no idea what the film would be about, but I was laughing more than I had at any movie in years. Continue reading Teen Titans GO! To The Movies, the best family film of the year

Kids absolutely love Hotel Transylvania. Our 8 year old tolerated the first one the first time he saw it and has grown to love the second one. Hotel Transylvania 3 is his movie du summer. For him, Hotel Transylvania 3 is what being an 8 year old kid is about. It’s got monsters, laughs, familiar characters; just enough scares to be OK for any parent and twists that he imagines will entertain him for hours. For the elementary set that description is 100% accurate.

Hotel Transylvania 3 starts in the castle with Drac and his friends running the inn. Mavis and Johnny‘s son Dennis is growing up, their dog is as big as a dragon and Drac is seriously stressed out. Mavis books a vacation for Drac and their friends are inexplicably along for the ride. Apparently where Drac goes all monsters must follow, but this is the adult in me thinking. For this film your elementary school id needs to be in complete and total control.

<id drives>

Now that an 8 year old is controlling the ship-let’s have a montage of monster clichés that anybody over 15 has already seen! We’ll include some of these in the trailer, like the skeleton pulling up a table and then all of the food going through his body! But, we’ll extend it to about five minutes then, divide it into two segments so that short attention span audiences will laugh out loud.

<id smells bacon and sees a kitten outside, leaves to investigate>

Super ego here, driving the bus. Have you parents seen the introduction to Music and Lyrics, Pop Goes My Heart? Do you know that video montage where Hugh Grant cheesily runs with his girlfriend while a series of intentionally camp backgrounds flash behind him? Think of a training sequence from a Rocky film with predictable behavior that one would expect from a character in a situation that they’re in. This is mindless, benign fodder that is the equivalent of a candy bar laced with tryptophan. It’s a trite ploy that lazy film makers use to lull adults into thinking that the kid’s film that they’re watching will actually be entertaining for them. This is what you’ll think of Hotel Transylvania 3.

<id enters the room again and whops super ego over the head with a sack of stale potatoes, rendering him unconscious for 90 minutes>

What a buffoon. I couldn’t stand listening to their nonsense. That film was great! My friends in third grade have wanted to see this since January. I hope we have Mrs. Smith for our teacher this year. Can you believe school starts soon? And that finale!? With the octopus creature rising from the deep that Super Ego said was a Kraken! Awesome ending that I did not see coming!

<Ego thankfully takes control>

To older viewers the Hotel Transylvania series will seem a bit long in the tooth and Hotel Transylvania 3 doesn’t do anything to assuage their beliefs.  The film ends in a manner that the other two films did in that it can provide a jumping off point as a new relationship status between humans and monsters. It was a human, then it was a kid and now it’s a long forgotten grudge that upsets the monster apple cart. When Hotel Transylvania 3 finishes older viewers won’t really care if Drac comes back, but elementary school kids will absolute enthralled. See it as a matinee show and have the kid’s buy their own snacks and this will be a fun day out for all except the one that drove. Your Ego will rationally say that kids need to have their own movie, one that adults won’t try to make too emotional or pack with songs. It’s great for kids to have their own jam. Just tell mom and dad to bide their time until Wreck it Ralph or Toy Story 4 come out to bond with the animated features again.

Rare is the Disney PIXAR film that is action based. The only one that stands out with more action than humor or emotion is Cars 2, which was a silly-but still mildly entertaining, James Bond style romp with Mater taking center stage in Europe. Incredibles 2 picks up exactly where the first film left off in 2004. It also doesn’t miss a beat and quickly lays waste to any skeptical parents that thought the film was merely a cash grab trying to reel in memories of the first film.

Instead, what older viewers will find in Incredibles 2 is a quickly paced film that tells a fun chapter in the story of a normal family with super powers. This film does not reinvent the wheel. It’s the continuation of the family, their mannerisms, attitudes and people around them that people enjoyed from the first film. ‘Older viewers’ should be taken with a grain of salt as I say that just because they will possibly remember Incredibles more than some of the children in the audience.

Continue reading Incredibles 2, what it lacks in title, it makes up for in entertainment and fun

Avengers: Infinity War and the overall view of the cinematic MCU is fascinating. It’s an amazing cinematic experiment that, for better or worse, redesigned what people think of films. Avengers: Infinity War brings together almost all of the characters from the first ten years of the MCU on film in a fun-yet also quite dark at times movie that will satisfy most fans, but leave others in a lurch.

Bottom line: As an adult who has seen most of the Marvel movies I really liked it. It’s very quickly paced and has some great action sequences that will entertain people regardless of how many, if any, Marvel movies they’ve seen. The joy in seeing Avengers: Infinity War is the interaction that happens when the superheroes who don’t know each other finally meet.

Continue reading  Is Avengers: Infinity War OK for children?

We were compensated for this post. All thoughts are our own. I don’t remember much of my childhood. It was a lovely childhood, very happy and not traumatic or anything, I just don’t remember it. However, more often than not, I recall things that weren’t there, but not in a whiny or pity party way. For example, I recall not practicing anything. Now that I have children I know the struggle of ensuring that your kids practice things. They need to practice whatever sport they play, their studies and they need to engage with their friends. Life is practice and error. With The Miracle Season being released it’s worth refreshing just how important practice and mastery are to people of any age.

First up, do you know the story behind The Miracle Season? I remember seeing the reports of this in the news. A high school team’s star volleyball player, Caroline Found is tragically killed and that fact puts their legacy and final season for the seniors at stake. The movie reminds us that there was more to that story. “Line” as the team called her was also considered to be the heart of the team. She was enthusiastic, vivacious, a team leader and a team player, selfless in her acts on and off the court.

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Sherlock Gnomes is a children’s movie that makes parents yearn for the days when their children only watched Calliou. It’s a film that only bored garden clubs or for kids that value the taste of popcorn more than the time it takes for a film to earn a laugh. For me, the laugh count was two, two laughs during the entire film.

But you say, it’s a family film so surely the kids liked it more than you? I took that question to our 6YO. “No, it was boring”, he responded when I asked that question. I further prompted him to explain which parts of the film were boring and he said “all of it.”

Continue reading Sherlock Gnomes, a low rent garden variety family film