Category: Family
By sasori on Jan 26, 2012 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Trailer | 0 Comments
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is back in his latest kid friendly flick, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. He takes on the role of buff stepfather to Sean, the teenaged kid involved in the “Journey to the Center of the Earth” adventure. (Brendan Fraser couldn’t be bothered to make the sequel apparently). This adventure takes the [...]
By Cal Knox on Jan 24, 2012 in Comedy, Drama, Family | 0 Comments
Red Dog is a real charmer of an Aussie movie. Directed by Kriv Stenders, the film is based on the true story of a Kelpie who won the hearts of Western Australia during the ’70s. With its myriad of heart and soul, the movie is a heart-warming, endearing, humorous and affecting portrayal of a mining [...]
By David Ferguson on Dec 30, 2011 in Comedy, Drama, Family | 0 Comments
Director Cameron Crowe has finally emerged from his cocoon — seven years after the abysmal Elizabethtown. Yes, he has had a couple of projects in that time, notably the Pearl Jam documentary, but he has avoided anything related to his dramatic film roots of which produced Say Anything, Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. With We [...]
By sasori on Dec 8, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family, Trailer | 1 Comment
Haven’t Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Melman the Giraffe or Gloria the Hippo made it back to their New York enclosures yet? I guess so long as DreamWorks Animation can come up with ways to keep them lost in the great big world they won’t. In Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the displaced zoo [...]
By Cal Knox on Dec 3, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 3 Comments
Making a genuinely good, original Christmas movie is a difficult task in this day and age. Added to this, after Fred Claus, The Polar Express, The Santa Clause and other such motion pictures, it seems impossible to put another fresh spin on Santa Claus and his North Pole universe. Enter the British animation studio Aardman, [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Nov 24, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy | 6 Comments
There’s a lot of hoopla surrounding Martin Scorsese’s latest, Hugo, which is the director’s introduction to family films, and the only one to utilize 3D technology. Not run-of-the-mill praise, I’ve heard phrases like “timeless,” “a masterpiece,” and “one of the best movies about filmmaking ever made,” being thrown about. And because I have no life [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Nov 23, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Musical | 12 Comments
During the mid-fifties American puppeteer Jim Henson, and his muppets, a varied collection of custom marionettes, took the entertainment world by storm. Through the years, the most iconic has been Kermit the Frog, the only “amphibian” to address the Oxford Union, and also the first to receive an honorary doctorate from Southampton College. But although [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Nov 21, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 3 Comments
In 2006 George Miller, Warren Coleman, Judy Morris, and John Collee brought us Happy Feet, which proved that despite being confined to the barren, icy wasteland of Antarctica, penguins can have fun too (usually by singing radio hits). Despite mild controversy over the film’s environmentalist stance and its supposed polar reconstruction of an urban environment [...]
By Cal Knox on Nov 20, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family | 0 Comments
2005’s low-budget, halfway-charming Hoodwinked! developed into a minor hit despite its humble origins, but does anyone out there honestly remember it? More pertinently, who genuinely wanted to see a sequel? Limping into cinemas almost six years after its predecessor, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil is easily one of the worst animated movies ever made to [...]
By sasori on Oct 27, 2011 in Animated, Family, Trailer | 2 Comments
From Universal Studios and Illumination Entertainment (Hop, Despicable Me) and the flighty imagination of Dr. Seuss comes the timely tale of The Lorax. Timely in such that it is about the loss of environment at the hands of corporate greed. In it a boy, Ted, seeks out the wispy and colorful Truffula Tree to win [...]
By sasori on Oct 25, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family, Trailer | 0 Comments
Every year or so a claymation project gets greenlit, to, I suppose, offset the plethora of computer animated features clogging cineplexs nowadays. The feature for 2012 is The Pirates! Band of Misfits, a Sony Pictures Animation and Aardman production that borrows a story from Gideon Defoe’s The Pirates! book series. In this adventure, Pirate Captain [...]
By Robert Karim on Sep 27, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family | 2 Comments
Ah, those lovable, enchanted, small blue creatures known as the Smurfs — many of us Generation Xers grew up with Peyo’s creation on Saturday morning with a bowl of cereal. Our children have not, and seeing a vast untapped resource, Sony Pictures decided to do a remake of the classic cartoon. Now some critics have [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Aug 21, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family, Science Fiction | 0 Comments
In 1991 Columbia Pictures introduced you to an extraordinary new filmmaker, and an unforgettable new vision. The director was 23-year-old John Singleton, the film, Boyz ‘N the Hood. Next year, the studio presented a remarkable new film, from another phenomenal talent. The film was Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi (the above is a tongue-in-cheek reference to [...]
By sasori on Jul 27, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Trailer | 2 Comments
A second trailer for Happy Feet Two has been made available by Warner Bros, giving us more of the same — singing and dancing penguins. Animation-wise the movie gets high marks but from a watchabilty standpoint, this one looks like a bitterer pill to swallow than its predecessor. Children, however, will gobble this up like [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Jul 19, 2011 in Animated, Family | 1 Comment
Prior to my screening of Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall’s Winnie the Pooh, an adaptation of the beloved A.A. Milne and Ernest Shepard books, a military recruitment ad (complete with tattooed musclemen who, cradling monstrous rifles, ran through enemy-fire, barking orders) terrified the young audience made up of rampageous toddlers that parents had brought [...]
By General Disdain on Jul 18, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Romance | 2 Comments
Only in the movies. Only in the movies will an unemployed stammering fool be found dating a supermodel (Transformers: Dark of the Moon). Only in the movies will an underemployed fat guy be found dating a model and ultimately have two beautiful women fawning for him. This particular movie is Zookeeper. The fat guy is [...]
By sasori on Jul 11, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family, Trailer | 0 Comments
A follow-up international trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn has been made available by Paramount Pictures. Expanding greatly on the first trailer, this one delves further into the mystery surrounding the Unicorn and those that wish to wrest its answers and bounty from the hands of the boy reporter. The film [...]
By Greg Eichelberger on Jul 5, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 0 Comments
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. It gave me an allergic reaction. I suppose if I had cared anything for the original live-action Garfield (based on Jim Davis’ once-popular comic strip, from 2004), I would have liked this one better. Suffice it to say, however, if you have children, there are certainly worse movies you [...]
By Greg Eichelberger on Jun 21, 2011 in Comedy, Family | 4 Comments
Just because a film is made for children does not mean it needs to be childish; just because a film stars Heather Graham does not mean it has to be awful; just because a film attempts to salute the nostalgic summers of our past youth does not mean a person should want to put a [...]
By Greg Eichelberger on Jun 21, 2011 in Comedy, Family | 1 Comment
What is the obsession many Hollywood writers have with bathroom humor? Have American standards of comedy sunk so far that the only way to illicit a laugh nowadays is to resort to the lowest possible denominator? Have the Three Stooges (once the lowest of lowbrow comedy) become the gold standard of guffaws? I ask these [...]
By sasori on Jun 19, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Trailer | 0 Comments
The parody teaser trailers are done (at least for the moment). Disney has finally released the first theatrical trailer for my new most anticipated movie of 2011 — The Muppets. This trailer promises a movie filled with action, adventure, heroes and driving. All of that and more is being done to save the world renowned [...]
By sasori on Jun 16, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Trailer | 1 Comment
If Disney wasn’t doing this so well, this would get old super fast. Today, they released a 3rd teaser trailer for The Muppets titled “Being Green.” In this one, the play is on the upcoming Green Lantern flick, which, coincidentally, features a green guy. A major take away from this trailer is the promise that [...]
By sasori on Jun 15, 2011 in Family, Trailer | 0 Comments
Move over Willie, there is a new ocean creature to focus our collective love upon. Inspired by true events comes Dolphin Tale, a story about a boy who builds a bond with Winter, a dolphin that lost its tail in a crab trap. Guaranteed to make you cry, the film chronicles the life and death [...]
By sasori on Jun 13, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Trailer | 4 Comments
With Cars 2 right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to drop a tease as to what Disney Pixar (although the Pixar name is ominously missing from the trailer) has in store for us in the next few years. On tap, Planes. From an animation standpoint, it’s nothing more than replacing the cars from [...]
By sasori on May 26, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Trailer | 1 Comment
Disney has released another teaser trailer for The Muppets. Like the previous trailer which was shown just Monday, the antics on the screen don’t appear to have anything to do with the actual film itself (which has the Muppets regrouping to stop a greedy oil tycoon from leveling their theater). After an explosion which has [...]
By sasori on May 26, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Trailer | 0 Comments
You can’t keep a good penguin down (especially one that saved the Emperor penguin population and made Warner Bros. Pictures a lot of money in the process). In Happy Feet Two the savior in Happy Feet, Mumbles, is all grown up with a wife and son. The issue at hand this time around isn’t that [...]
By sasori on May 25, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family, Trailer | 5 Comments
Fa la lalalala fa lala la laaa — the smurfy blue creatures from our 19080s Saturday morning cartoons are coming to the big screen in The Smurfs. In a 3D (2D too) offering from Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Grouchy Smurf, Jokey Smurf and a bunch of other adjective named Smurfs [...]
By sasori on May 23, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Trailer | 1 Comment
I didn’t think it could happen, but fond childhood memories washed over me after watching the teaser trailer for The Muppets! Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal and others are back for another adventure which is sure to be comically interesting (Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller wrote the screenplay). Word is the puppet-marionette creations of [...]
By sasori on May 17, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Romance, Trailer | 0 Comments
When you have lousy luck with the ladies, who do you seek advice from? A brother? A best friend? Griffin Keyes, the zookeeper at Franklin Park Zoo gets his tutelage from the animals he cares for. In the trailer for Zookeeper, he can be seen basking in those “making an ass of himself” moments which [...]
By sasori on May 17, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family, Trailer | 2 Comments
The much talked about trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn has arrived. In it (although this teaser trailer doesn’t divulge much), the young reporter finds himself — and his trusty dog Snowy — embroiled in a mystery involving ancestral and pirate lore while on the trail of sunken treasure. In the [...]
By Cal Knox on Apr 19, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 0 Comments
Consisting of five main volumes and three supplemental books, Rick Riordan’s popular Percy Jackson series must have been an easy sell for any studio. It contains heroes, villains, monsters, wish fulfilment, and epic feats of magic and courage while also tackling popular Greek mythology. Topping this off, the whole package is reminiscent of Harry Potter. [...]
By Cal Knox on Apr 12, 2011 in Comedy, Family, Fantasy | 1 Comment
Remember Judd Apatow’s 2009 project, Funny People? While a lousy and flat film, it at one stage cleverly poked fun at actors who have long renounced their dignity for the sake of a paycheck. Tooth Fairy is exactly the type of noxious family entertainment parodied in Apatow’s flick. It mixes a few recognizable faces with [...]
By Cal Knox on Apr 4, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 1 Comment
Even for a consistently-reliable studio like Pixar, the notion of Toy Story 3 seemed risky due to the time-honored tradition of part threes being unnecessary and below-par. The Godfather: Part III, Lethal Weapon 3, Batman Forever, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Alien 3, Jurassic Park III and Superman III are a few examples of [...]
By Cal Knox on Apr 4, 2011 in Comedy, Family | 0 Comments
The premise behind 2010′s Furry Vengeance — a live-action cartoon featuring woodland mammals — is tolerable. However, the film is rendered insufferable due to its soulless, mean-spirited, moronic script, the repetitive, obnoxiously unfunny slapstick comedy, and the ill-conceived attempts to inject this cinematic stool sample with an environmental message. It is a film with no [...]
By General Disdain on Apr 1, 2011 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 0 Comments
There are at least 100 Christmas movies in circulation (go ahead and count them, I’ll wait). I’m guessing maybe a dozen or so movies with a Thanksgiving theme. Easter movies? I can’t think of a single one (those made for television specials like Yogi the Easter Bear don’t count). With such a gaping void ripe [...]
By Marco Duran on Mar 11, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family | 1 Comment
Try as he may, Robert Zemekis cannot find his way out of the uncanny valley — that deep gorge where his other forays into motion-capture like The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol have fallen. For those who are unaware of what this valley is, look at the “human” faces in any of those [...]
By Chris Sawin on Mar 6, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 0 Comments
13 years have passed since Alice first visited Wonderland. She was just a little girl back then — a mad, little girl plagued by a nightmare. Now, almost 20, Alice finds herself thrust headfirst into adulthood yet continues to have the same dream for as long as she can remember. On the verge of being [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Feb 24, 2011 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family | 2 Comments
Regardless of what other people say, creativity is the lifeblood of any civilization. You think that without visionaries we’d have computers, automobiles, and toilet paper? No, we’d still be Neanderthals and trust me, wiping your ass with leaves isn’t as appealing as it sounds. Then again, that brings up the question: Where’d all the inventiveness [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Dec 19, 2010 in Action/Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy | 0 Comments
Spike Jonze’s visual retelling of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are chronicles the story of Max (Max Records), a young boy who feels abandoned by his mother (Catherine Keener) and his sister (Pepita Emmerichs). He runs away to a world of his own, which is inhabited by large creatures, which sport large sharp chompers, [...]
By General Disdain on Dec 12, 2010 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 0 Comments
It will be 2014 or later when the seventh installment of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia saga finishes up its cinematic run. That’s a long way away and, if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t dare put a wager on seeing that happening. That’s because the third of the series — The Chronicles [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Nov 28, 2010 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Musical | 2 Comments
Based on a popular Brothers Grimm fairy-tale and helmed by Nathan Greco and Byron Howard (screenplay by Dan Fogelman), Tangled is the simple yet elegant tale of a young princess named Rapunzel (voiced by Mandy Moore), who is born of a mysterious and all-healing flower, whose abilities have transferred over to her golden hair. But, [...]
By MovieGoddess on Aug 14, 2010 in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family | 1 Comment
As I watched Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, a few questions came to mind. Will the children who comprise the film’s target audience understand the allusions to James Bond, Austin Powers, The Terminator, and Silence of the Lambs? Will the unfortunate adults in the audience for whom these allusions are no doubt [...]
By General Disdain on Jul 9, 2010 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 2 Comments
I think, unless the product is a bankable franchise like Harry Potter or, God forbid, the Twilight saga, the future of cinema is in family friendly computer animated movies. Disney/Pixar blazoned the trail with fantastic imagery and strong underlying stories (Up, Toy Story 3, to name a few). DreamWorks Animation followed suit with their Shrek [...]
By Mariusz Zubrowski on Jul 3, 2010 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 8 Comments
M. Night Shymalagong came to mainstream recognition through his work on The Sixth Sense, which he both wrote and directed. It was nominated for several Academy Awards including: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Oops, excuse me, before I continue on with this review, I must correct myself — I’ve been informed that [...]
By General Disdain on May 21, 2010 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Fantasy | 6 Comments
How many of us have thought about how things would be have turned out had we made a different choice? It’s a rhetorical question, of course — we all have at one time or another (you’re only lying to yourself if you say otherwise). And so, seeing as it makes a great plot (made famous [...]
By General Disdain on Jan 3, 2010 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Romance | 4 Comments
To think after the undeserved success of Alvin and the Chipmunks that a sequel wouldn’t be made, you would be considered a madman. The only surprise to be found is it took two years to concoct one. You’d think, however, with all that extra time, an interesting premise could have been formulated. Sadly, the extra [...]
By General Disdain on Oct 25, 2009 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family, Science Fiction | 7 Comments
For the most part, and don’t dare ask me why, American audiences have become mesmerized with the anime sensation that has swallowed up Saturday morning cartoons with lazy animation and piss poor stories. Why have I mentioned this morsel of worthlessness? So I can come to this conclusion of course: Kids love anime. Anime comes [...]
By General Disdain on Sep 22, 2009 in Animated, Family | 4 Comments
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is one of those enlightening pick me up kind of movies great for a rainy day. It’s great for the kids too. This 3D animated adventure, based on a popular children’s book by Judi and Ron Barrett, delivers a “never give up on your dreams” message in a most [...]
By General Disdain on Jul 4, 2009 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family | 3 Comments
It didn’t take long for me to realize that after a cute intro involving Scrat the sabertoothed squirrel, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was the worst of the Fox animated trilogy. While it still has its cutesy characters — wooly mammoths Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah) and Manny (voiced by Ray Romano), sloth Sid [...]
By General Disdain on Jun 8, 2009 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family | 3 Comments
Admit it, you’re just like me — you really had no idea what Disney Pixar’s latest animated adventure, Up was about. For me, all I knew was it had a grumpy old man, a fat kid, a talking dog and a colorful bird in it. Oh yeah, how could I forget, there was also a [...]
By General Disdain on Mar 30, 2009 in Animated, Family, Science Fiction | 1 Comment
DreamWorks Animation has steadily been trying to chip away at the animation throne held by Pixar Animation Studios for years. To their credit, they’ve had more successes (Kung Fu Panda and the Shrek series being the most notable) than failures (think Bee Movie). The latest weapon in their arsenal for animated supremacy comes in the [...]
By General Disdain on Feb 4, 2009 in Action/Adventure, Family | 9 Comments
I can’t claim to have seen any of the movies in the “Air Bud” series (Air Bud: World Pup, Air Bud: Spikes Back, Snow Buddies and 50 others) but if they’re anywhere near as bad as this latest installment, I’m glad I can’t make that claim. Here is a rundown of my viewing experience of [...]
By General Disdain on Nov 27, 2008 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Fantasy | 1 Comment
Step to the side Krypto, you’re not the only superdog in town. At least that’s what we’re initially led to believe in Disney’s new animated offering Bolt. After all, the dog has powers that enable him to outrun helicopters and motorcycles, lay waste to any objects in his way and incapacitate people with a mere [...]
By General Disdain on Nov 10, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family | 9 Comments
You just knew the sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa was in the coming. Not only because New Yorker animals Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Melman the giraffe (voiced by David Schwimmer), Marty the zebra (voiced by Chris Rock) and Gloria the hippo (voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith) were stranded on an island and [...]
By General Disdain on Oct 5, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family | 2 Comments
Miniature dogs may be the most annoying creatures on earth. At first I felt that way because they all tend to have that “yip-yip” bark that can drive any sane person crazy within seconds. Recently a new, more pronounced and powerful reason to hate them has emerged — the super rich dress them in horrendous [...]
By Caitlin Maggs on Aug 11, 2008 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 3 Comments
Disney tends to be the main culprits of taking classic stories like Sleeping Beauty and C.S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and adapting them to film. Out of the blue comes Kanbar Entertainment with Hoodwinked! – a fresh, original tale of the well-known story of Little Red Riding [...]
By General Disdain on Aug 9, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family | 1 Comment
It is official. At the age of five, my children hate me. How did I come to this conclusion? Simple, they dragged me to see Space Chimps, that’s how. I tried repeatedly to convince them they’d rather see Pineapple Express to no avail. In the end though, I think they learned a powerful lesson – [...]
By LaRae on Jun 27, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family, Romance, Science Fiction | 6 Comments
WALL-E is the latest in the line of stellar features from the powerhouse Pixar. It is a romantic story of a small, lonely garbage cleaning robot that finds his purpose is greater than simply gathering trash into piles. Beautiful, charming and with an important message interwoven, WALL-E is flawless. When the people of earth cover [...]
By LaRae on Jun 6, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Comedy, Family | 16 Comments
Po (voiced by Jack Black), a clumsy panda and the son of a noodle vendor, dreams of becoming a great kung fu fighter and meeting “The Ferocious Furious Five”. This team of kung fu masters is comprised of Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie), Monkey (voiced by Jackie Chan), Mantis (voiced by Seth Rogen), Viper (voiced [...]
By General Disdain on May 22, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 4 Comments
Has 1300 years passed already? In the fictional land of Narnia it has and things haven’t been so good for the Narnians since Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Lucy (Georgie Henley), Susan (Anna Popplewell) and Peter (William Moseley) left to return to the real world. Actually, saying things haven’t been so good is a bit of an [...]
By LaRae on May 9, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Family, Sporting | 15 Comments
My husband and I have been playing a free race car game called TrackMania and we’ve become addicted. You fly off ramps, go upside down and avoid obstacles. It is fun because it is just realistic enough to be believable but novel enough to be fun. Movies have to find that same mix of novelty [...]
By General Disdain on Apr 12, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family | 5 Comments
Nim’s Island is the latest addition to the ever growing list of children books that have been adapted to the big screen. This time however, instead of taking place in part or in whole in some fantastical fantasy realm (Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), this movie [...]
By General Disdain on Mar 23, 2008 in Comedy, Family | 11 Comments
How high can one set their expectations when all the trailers for a movie are about a domesticated pig doing backflips? I suppose you can set them high if the movie was Charlotte’s Web, but surely not about a movie like College Road Trip which is about a girl and her father bonding as they [...]
By General Disdain on Mar 22, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family | 12 Comments
Horton Hears a Who! is number three of Dr. Seuss books brought to the big screen by Hollywood looking for a new avenue to draw cash from. This movie is slightly different from The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas though. Whereas those two films were really just vehicles for their [...]
By General Disdain on Feb 28, 2008 in Drama, Family, Fantasy | 7 Comments
Is it me or does it seem like there is a glut of fantasy novels starring children being adapted for the big screen lately? It’s almost as if they’ve become the new hot thing in Tinsletown giving the comic book hero a run for their money (nothing can actually replace them from the top spot). [...]
By General Disdain on Jan 25, 2008 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family | 3 Comments
With very little on the cinematic horizon for the young ones, I decided to take the boys to see the only game in town that met their demographic: The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie. I really had zero interest in this but that didn’t stop the kids from wanting to see it. [...]
By General Disdain on Dec 23, 2007 in Comedy, Family | 4 Comments
I’ll admit it, when I was a youth I watched the 1980′s Saturday morning cartoon the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie is based upon. Don’t ask why, I’m still trying to understand what would have compelled me to watch it (I’d like to know why I watched the Smurfs also). But based on old habits, [...]
By General Disdain on Dec 19, 2007 in Action/Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy | 5 Comments
I’m not sure what all the hoopla was surrounding The Golden Compass. I believe it has something to do with the atheistic stance the author of the book from which the movie was adapted from had. Sure there are a few themes that indicate religion is a bad institution, but I don’t recall seeing anything [...]
By General Disdain on Dec 8, 2007 in Animated, Family, Fantasy, Musical, Romance | 14 Comments
With time to spare and the need for something lighthearted and cutesy being introduced into my system (I had just reviewed Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door), Enchanted seemed like the perfect choice. And let’s be realistic, has Disney ever led anyone astray when they needed this kind of infusion? The answer is yes, they [...]
By General Disdain on Dec 2, 2007 in Family, Fantasy | 4 Comments
On a whole, you’ve got to root for a movie whose sole purpose is to celebrate the inner child so many adults have lost. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium sets out to do this by combining the quirkiness of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and the zaniness of The Cat in the Hat. With such [...]
By General Disdain on Nov 21, 2007 in Comedy, Family, Fantasy | 6 Comments
A Christmas movie in early November? That’s almost like having a Halloween movie released in August. If I didn’t know any better I’d think the Hollywood marketing machine had lost their concept of time. But since I know they haven’t, my guess is that they wanted to start the movie buzz early and get a [...]
By General Disdain on Nov 9, 2007 in Animated, Family | 7 Comments
For those of us who have been anxiously waiting for something new from Jerry Seinfeld (Comedian doesn’t count), our wait has ended. The animated adventure Bee Movie marks his return to the spotlight – or does it? Sadly, this is not the breakout feature I had been hoping to see. The reasons are stinging (pun [...]
By General Disdain on Oct 2, 2007 in Comedy, Family, Sporting | 8 Comments
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has some broad shoulders. The question is whether they’re broad enough to hold afloat a movie like The Game Plan. It’s a movie type in which many have tried to succeed in (Hulk Hogan in Mr. Nanny and Vin Diesel in The Pacifier come to mind) and failed. There’s a general [...]
By General Disdain on Aug 12, 2007 in Comedy, Family | 9 Comments
Trash comes in many forms. In 2003, it came in the form of Daddy Day Care. Today, it comes in the form of it’s sequel Daddy Day Camp. How do I know it’s garbage? Simple, when the star of the first movie (Eddie Murphy), or hell anyone from the first movie passes on the script, [...]
By General Disdain on Jul 15, 2007 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 5 Comments
Here comes Harry Potter for round number five. Will he come out of the corner with the heart of a champion or limp like a homo coming out of a bathhouse? That’s the question I asked as I finally found myself fighting the crowds and going to the cinema last night. It’s a legitimate question, [...]
By General Disdain on Jun 27, 2007 in Comedy, Family | 4 Comments
Hot off the heels (if you call 4 years later a quick turnaround) of the successful Bruce Almighty, Hollywood brings to us Evan Almighty.This time however, instead of Jim Carrey carrying the load, the baton has been handed off to the new funny man of cinema – Steve Carell. Unfortunately, the baton was dropped during [...]
By General Disdain on Jun 25, 2007 in Animated, Comedy, Family | 11 Comments
Pixar and Disney are back. This time instead of talking dolls (Toy Story), talking fish (Finding Nemo) or talking cars (Cars), we’ve got talking rats. That’s right, those cute and cuddly carriers of the Bubonic Plague are the main characters in Ratatouille! Can Pixar transform rats into an animal that’s sweet and caring? Read on, [...]
By General Disdain on Jun 21, 2007 in Animated, Family | 4 Comments
Another penguin movie. First there was March of the Penguins and Madagascar. Then came Happy Feet. I swear to Christ, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. Who in hell told advertisers and Hollywood that penguins are cute, adorable birds? News flash — they’re not. They’re ugly and mean. Anyways, obviously someone is laughing at [...]
By General Disdain on May 21, 2007 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Fantasy | 2 Comments
Here it is. The second of the most anticipated movies of the summer is here. No, I’m not talking about Gracie. I’m talking about Shrek the Third. If the title didn’t give it away, it’s the third installment of the animated juggernaught — the first being aptly titled Shrek and the second even more aptly [...]
By General Disdain on Apr 8, 2007 in Action/Adventure, Animated, Family, Science Fiction | 3 Comments
Approximately ten times a year, to the theaters come those animated children movies we, as parents, cringe at. Our children want to go, no matter how bad the movie appears — so long as it has animated animals or dinosaurs or vehicles or rugs. Of those times only one or two of them are worth [...]
By General Disdain on Mar 4, 2007 in Drama, Family, Fantasy | 6 Comments
Preconceived notions are like mother nature – a bitch. Especially to someone who likens themselves to an unbiased critic. So with a heavy heart, I admit, I went into the theater to see Bridge to Terabithia thinking it was going to be a weak runner-up to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and [...]
By General Disdain on Jan 16, 2007 in Comedy, Family, Fantasy | 1 Comment
After a hard week of working around the house, I definately needed some downtime. And what better way to enjoy some rest and relaxation than to sit back with an ice cold beer and watch the latest comedy romp starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson – Night at the Museum? The story certainly seemed funny [...]
By General Disdain on Nov 26, 2006 in Animated, Family, Musical | 2 Comments
Yeah, I’m beyond bored. Of course I could find something important to do around the house, but I find I prefer to lay around and sleep. For some strange reason between naps, I figured I could fill and hour or so with one of the latest CGI dominated movies Happy Feet. Happy Feet is like [...]
By General Disdain on Jun 26, 2006 in Animated, Comedy, Family, Sporting | 6 Comments
Ah, the child in me resurfaces just in time to watch the latest offering from Pixar and Disney. Usually, the inner child shines through after drinking like a NYC hobo, but this time it was in anticipation of Cars. I love being a kid! This time around, the story revolves around a egotistical race car [...]
By General Disdain on Jan 2, 2006 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 2 Comments
Although, I had never actually read the book – “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (review title shortened, obvioulsy), I had heard a great many good things about it. So, I had high expectations going in to see this movie. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the [...]
By General Disdain on Nov 28, 2005 in Action/Adventure, Family, Fantasy | 6 Comments
I won’t call myself a devoted follower of the Harry Potter phenomenon dreamed up by J.K. Rowling, while she slept on the streets of Edinburgh. I would say, however, that I am a man who enjoyed the first three movies enough to look foward to seeing the latest incarnation: Harry Potter and the Goblet of [...]
By General Disdain on Sep 4, 2005 in Family, Fantasy | 7 Comments
There are few movies that I watch every time they are rerun on TBS. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is one of those movies. So you can understand my initial hesitation when I heard that it was remade and released as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a story [...]
By General Disdain on Jun 22, 2005 in Animated, Family | 7 Comments
Once again, Hollywood has decided to bring the masses another cute and cuddly CGI feature film with, you guessed it, animals! Who woulda thunk that? As has been said in previous reviews, Hollywood sticks to a format that works. Therefore, Madagascar should be no different from Shrek or Robots. . . Am I correct? Basically. [...]
By General Disdain on Apr 3, 2005 in Animated, Family | 6 Comments
I like animation. Every Saturday I watch my morning cartoons (on the WB of all places!) Late at night I watch Cartoon Network to watch the crazy-ass anime imports. I am a true believer that watching this shit will keep you young at heart. Based on this I looked forward to watching the latest Hollywood [...]
By General Disdain on Mar 12, 2005 in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family | 2 Comments
Maybe you were like me and saw the hundreds of trailers on the television outlining a funny, good-hearted family film. Maybe you thought that movie had the possibility of being quite funny. What movie am I talking about? The Pacifier of course. I’ll admit it, in some confusing way, I was looking forward to seeing [...]