Back to the Future Day, October 21, 2015

The future is here!

Remember Marty, Doc Brown, Einstein? If you haven't introduced your kids to these classic characters, it's way past time. It's now available on DVD as a trilogy.

But if you don't want to shell out the $23 on Amazon, then it's available on Amazon Prime (all three movies), or Netflix (DVD only, not streaming) or just pick up from the library which is what I did for my middle grade daughter. She loved all three movies. My prediction is that you'll have to put a hold on each movie at the library in the trilogy because it's probably going to be a very hot item for a little while.

Did everything that happened on BTTF on October 21, 2015 become reality? I'll let you see for yourself.

https://www.facebook.com/NowThisEntertainment/videos/958893424172220/

Flixy Mom is back with Hotel Transylvania 2

Flixy Mom is back after a loooong hiatus. I apologize but I must blame the high cost of movie-going, my move to the country where the nearest theater is more than 20 miles away, and plain laziness. I'd rather stay home and watch streaming on my TV than venture out from my safe country abode to tell you the truth. However, I do miss the giant theater screen, the surround sound and the big, comfy seats. Oh, and the theater recliners that are all the rage now? Love them.

I enjoy a good kids flick, so I'm glad to be back at the movies. My daughter begged me to see Hotel Transylvania 2 (Rated PG) since we love the first one, so I wholeheartedly agreed to travel the 20-plus miles and fork out $10 for admission (matinee) to get us in the mood for Halloween, my girl's favorite part about fall.

I'm afraid I don't have good news regarding this movie. I really wanted to like it since the first one was so enjoyable for us. Adam Sandler has co-written this sequel, and honestly the jokes were flat and not funny at all. One might call them forced, predictable and boring. Totally dissing a movie is not my style because I love movies so much, and, again, I really wanted to like this one.

Basic plot: Mavis (Selena Gomez) and Johnny (Adam Samberg), our zinging love birds from the first flick, have shacked up at Hotel Transylvania and popped out a kid. The big story question is whether or not little Dennis will be half vampire/half human or just plain human. He hasn't gotten his fangs yet and Dracula (Adam Sandler) is convinced that he's a late bloomer. There's some cringe-worthy scenes in which Drac tries to scare the fangs out of his grandson that had me shaking my head at Drac's sheer stupidity, but I won't mention them here.

As always, I'm reluctant to hash out the whole plot here so I won't be accused of spoiling it, so I'll just leave it at that.

What I love about the movie was the grand cast. Mel Brooks as Vlad, Drac's father, Dana Carvey as a camp director at the lamest vampire camp there ever was, Megan Mullally, who's brilliant as Johnny's human mother, Selena Gomez who is just adorable as Mavis, and the usual cast of monsters: Kevin James as Frank/Frankenstein, David Spade as the Invisible Man and Steve Buscemi as Wayne the werewolf.

My opinion aside, my 9 year-old girl said she really liked it, and on the way home from the theater, campaigned to purchase the DVD when it came out so we could have both movies. Not sure which way I'm going to go on that one.

If you need a monster movie to get your family in the Halloween mood, then by all means, go see Hotel Transylvania 2. You might enjoy it better than I did.

Happy Halloween!

Fly into stores to get Planes for the little people on your list!

 

Planes, 1 hour, 32 min, 2013

Rated PG for mild action and some rude humor

Starring Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Priyanka Chopra, John Cleese, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Carlos Alazraqui, Roger Craig Smith

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for your entertainment-addicted grandson, or any male family member with a passion for flying, then Planes is it. And, it’s not just for boys. My daughter (7 y.o. Giggly Girl) said she loved it. GG watched the race scenes again the following day after we viewed it. The Disney Cars spin-off features gorgeous animation and a great premise that will be enjoyable for family movie nights with your toddlers, preschoolers and school-aged children, girls and boys alike.

The basic plot: Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cook), a little cropduster with big dreams competes in the Wings Around the Globe race and finds himself up against some big name competitors like the British veteran Bulldog (John Cleese), the sweet and sleek Ishani (Priyanka Chopra) and the arrogant Ripslinger (Roger Craig Smith) who likes to play dirty. In the beginning Dusty was the object of ridicule, but this courageous underdog wins their hearts and yours. His friends back home, a very silly tanker truck, Chug (Brad Garrett), the genius mechanic, Dottie (Teri Hatcher) and the veteran war hero, Skipper (Stacy Keach) know how special Dusty is and by the end of the movie you do too. I try to avoid spoiler alerts, so I won't say who won the race, or tell you anything else about the story.

From a marketing standpoint, I’d say John Lasseter (Cars’ famous producer) and his crew were pretty smart making this film even though I felt that some parts of the Planes story were taken directly from Cars. Chug and Mater both play the idiotic sidekick. Skipper is the crusty mentor who has not been completely honest about his past like the beloved Doc. Ishani takes Dusty on a romantic flight over the Taj Mahal that reminds us of the charming cruise Lightning McQueen and Sally took through the desert.

Despite all that, Planes is a good movie, and worth the price as a surprise addition to your family’s movie collection or as a gift for any age boy or girl.

Happy Holidays!

Let Flixy Mom help with your holiday DVD shopping...here's a review for Epic!

Flixy Mom is back! Just in time to help super-busy parents with their holiday shopping. If you’re wondering which 2013 movies to purchase for your darlings to stuff into their stockings, check out the first holiday edition of Flixy Mom….starring Epic.

 

Epic, 2013, 1 hour, 42 min

Rated PG-13 for mild action, some scary images and brief rude language

Starring Colin Farrell, Beyonce Knowles, Amanda Seyfried, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz and Steven Tyler

Epic is a CG adventure comedy with stunning animation and an all-star cast. I saw this film in the theater over the summer, and I wish I had forked out the extra cash for 3D because the artwork of the rich forest setting was stunning.

My 7 year-old daughter laughed at the appropriate parts like the Giggly Girl she is. When I asked GG for a quote, she said, “I think it was a great movie” and that she really liked it. Personally, I thought the jokes fell flat especially from the sidekick slug and snail who were so obviously written in as comic relief. I overheard two other Moms discussing these very characters afterwards, and they thought they the slug and snail were funny. Maybe it was just me that didn’t appreciate the film’s humor, but I found myself checking the time halfway through the movie.

With most action fantasies, the basic plot was good versus evil. Epic takes you deep down into the forest underworld where tiny humans live with cute pinecone and dandelion creatures, among others, birds are as intelligent and tough as horses, and mice and chipmunks are dangerous. It’s a world where warriors, the Leafmen, ride hummingbirds and preserve the beauty of the forest. There’s a wholesome message about protecting Mother Nature’s aesthetics that’s hard to miss. Except evil doesn’t come in the form of a carbon footprint but rather a villain named Mandrake (Christoph Waltz). He and his minions try to destroy the balance of nature with their rot—a fast-growing fungus that kills and blackens the lush greenness of the land.

Enter the stompers, or humans, which are tall, slow-talking beasts that are quite comical when we are in the point of the view of the tiny creatures. MK (Amanda Seyfried) comes to live with her Dad, a bumbling, genius naturalist who seeks to capture an image of the Leafmen so people don’t think he’s crazy. MK starts to believe that dear old Dad is, indeed, cray-cray until she finds herself transported into this secret universe where she meets Queen Tara (Beyonce, who is as beautiful in Epic as she is in real life), and then teams up with a rogue Leafmen, Nod (Josh Hutcherson), a Leafmen general, Ronin (Colin Farrell), the slug and the snail, on an adventure-filled journey to save their world, and the human world, from the rot-filled wrath of Mandrake.

Now, there’s at least four creatures to provide the comedy for the movie and my vote goes to the Professor’s disgusting yet likeable three-legged pug who slobbers his way into your heart. Nim (Steven Tyler) plays the all-wise keeper of the scrolls, and I believe he didn’t quite reach his character’s potential. At one point, Nim belts out a rocking tune that reminds the audience that Steven Tyler, rock-god, is indeed honoring us with a song.

Maybe Epic is not one of those brilliant kids films that adults enjoy just as much as their offspring, and I don’t like to give it a bad review, so my official opinion is that it was a good flick and worthy of a place in your family’s DVD library. Kids from seven to seventeen will enjoy it.

Thanks for stopping by Flixy Mom. Happy Holidays!

The Croods

The Croods

 

Rated PG for some scary action

Starring Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener and Cloris Leachman

98 minutes

We joined the masses one Tuesday afternoon during Spring Break for a discount movie. Oy, do those masses (read: kids) leave a messy theater. We wanted to see Oz: The Great and Powerful, but our friends suggested this movie instead. What an entertaining choice The Croods turned out to be!

It had been a long time since DD and I frequented a theater. Since we moved out to the country, movieplexes are not plentiful like they were in the city. I was happy to discover that a nearby theater (still a 45 min drive) has $5 Tuesdays. My wallet and I did a happy dance over this joyous news.  (Thanks, Gina for this golden nugget of information!) I urge you to check your local theaters to see if they have discounted movie times. I know that AMC has $6 tickets on movies before noon every day. I mean, who wants to pay $12 to see a movie? I certainly don’t.

First, a quick word about upcoming shows. Summertime is just around the corner and the previews gave a taste of some fine future entertainment. MU or Monsters University will be high on the must-see list, followed by Smurfs 2. I’m on the fence about Despicable Me 2 since I didn’t really care for the first one, (I’m a Megamind fan) but the preview looked funny so, who knows? And, there seemed to be a forest-creatures trend in Hollywood as Turbo, (a snail infused with nitros oxide races at the Indy 500), and Epic (a good-vs-evil-save-the-world adventure featuring a caterpillar, a snail, a slug, a toad and a few “humans” too) with a stellar cast: Beyonce, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Josh Hutcherson and Amanda Seyfried. DD and I both agreed that when Epic is released, we will be running, not walking, to the theater.

Now, I wouldn’t call The Croods a great flick but it’s the next best thing. It got some big laughs from the audience, myself included, and with the annoyingly endearing caveman family and the incredibly imaginative prehistoric creatures, what’s not to love?

Just a reminder since Flixy Mom has been quiet for a while: I don’t like to post the whole plot of the movie (that’s for you to discover), just a quick introduction of characters with the basic premise.

The Croods sleep like a pack of animals, sharpen their teeth before bed, and rarely go outside of their comfort zone of the cave. Grug (Nicolas Cage) keeps a firm hand to force the family inside the darkness and away from danger. Eep (Emma Stone), the eldest daughter, runs like a jungle cat and is as strong as a dinosaur. She just wants to get out into the light, and she and Grug butt heads as any over-bearing father and rebellious teenager would. She meets Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who introduces her to fire and entices her with life on the outside. But, Guy brings a dire warning, the world is changing, like near-apocalyptic, continents-shifting type of changing. So, when the family’s cave is destroyed, they embark on a journey with the help of Guy and follow the sun to tomorrow. Those might seem like flowery, generic words, but I’ll just say that “the sun” and “tomorrow” have more meaning than you think and they do not denote the end of the movie.

The funniest part of this movie is the family and their dumb-as-a-caveman, crude and barbaric ways, and they are, of course, the brunt of most of the jokes. Eep is my favorite character, and I got the impression that she just wants to club Guy over the head and drag him by his hair to the nearest, well, you know.

As we were leaving the theater, DD said “she liked it” and “it was funny.” She did mention the scary parts (a few prehistoric animals tried to eat the Croods once or twice), but I didn’t think it was as scary as say, Brave, when Mama Bear goes after her cubs.

So, if your Spring Breakers are bored playing video games and you need to get them out of the house, I whole-heartedly recommend The Croods. Enjoy!

 

Coming Soon...

We've had some technical difficulties, but Flixy Mom will premiering another family-friendly movie review very soon.

Our star reviewer recently renewed her frequent movie-goer card (or rather she waited for the winter Hollywood slump to end and more kids movies to come out), and treated her daughter to the newest Dreamworks film, The Croods.

Now that spring has sprung even if it doesn't feel like it where you live, Memorial Day and summer are snowballing toward and you'll be planning what to wear at the beach before you know it.

We'll be there for all the new releases.

So, come back soon!

Brave

Rated PG for some scary action and rude humor
Starring Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, and Emma Thompson
Running time:  100 minutes

First, let my say from the get-go:  Parents, make note that this is NOT a G rated movie!  There are scary scenes that can definitely frighten younger and/or sensitive children.  I saw at least two families leave the movie theater because their children were scared by the large, loud, angry bears.

There, I got that warning out  of the way.  Now, let's talk about the movie.  Did I enjoy it?

No.

Did my thirteen year-old daughter enjoy it?

No.

Did my eighteen year-old, Pixar-loving son enjoy it?

No.

In fact, if I hadn't been writing this review, I might have left before the movie was over.  It just isn't up to Pixar standards -- not by a LONG SHOT.

In summary, Merida is the daughter of Fergus, King of the Scottish clans. She's a feisty, active girl whose personality and desires don't match those befitting a princess.  Her mother, Elinor, is a strong queen and steadfast in her determination to groom Merida toward the fate of marrying a boy from one of the other clans - a fate (surprise, surprise) that Merida fights, by seeking the help of a witch to "change" her mother and thus change the direction of her own destiny. Unfortunately, the change is quite literal, and Elinor is transformed into a monstrously large, black bear. Merida must face her own pride and mend the horrible mistake she has made before the spell becomes permanent and she loses her mother forever. Does this happen? Yes. (surprise, surprise)

Now, it's not the predictability that makes Brave a yawner of a movie (literally - I yawned several times).  Most good kids movies - especially Disney and Pixar films - are predictable.  But it's the characters and the execution of the storytelling that make those movies shine and compels us to buy the DVD as soon as it's released (and watch it over and over again).  The characters in Brave are flat and stereotyped. There isn't one character, not even Merida that really tugs at the heart strings or makes you wish you knew them.  As for the storytelling - that is where I am especially disappointed.  The premise of a young, strong girl successfully fighting and overcoming obstacles while coming to a deeper understanding of being true to her roots, is a fantastic plot. We need more movies with strong female character role-models for girls and that is why I was so excited about Brave.  Sadly, for me, Pixar just didn't pull it off.  Not this time.

That being said, I saw some people in the theater who seemed to enjoy the movie.  If you saw Brave and thought it was worth seeing, please leave a comment and share your opinions.

My recommendation though:  if you want to see a good movie, rent any of the Toy Story movies or Up.  You'll have a much better time.  As for me, I'm going to pretend Brave didn't happen and hope that Pixar raises their standards back up for their next release.

Reviewed by Karen Cantwell