Finding Dory (2016)

I finally got to see Finding Dory in the theater!  I am excited.  I really liked the movie Finding Nemo, I thought it was colorful and full of heart.  Dory is my favorite character.

Finding Dory expects you to have already seen the first movie.  They don't bother to re-introduce the characters, it just launches straight into Dory's quest to find her parents.  Dory has short term memory loss, and after years of being away from her parents, starts to remember things about her past.

Her parents lived at the Marine Life Institute in California, which is a really long way from Australia. Dory, Marlin and Nemo all hitch a ride on the sea turtles on the EAC.  There's no plot at all between the two places, all the action takes place in California.  My husband thought the fact that the stupid sea lion was named Gerald was hilarious.  That's his half-brother's name.

I've never been to the Marine Life Institute in California, but I have been to the Georgia Aquarium which looked almost exactly the same.  So in terms of aquariums it did look realistic.  They introduced a new character, a grumpy octopus named Hank who wishes to return to the ocean. He's mainly a way for Dory to travel across the land without having to swim everywhere.

A lot of the movie is really far-fetched.  I mean, the first movie involved them rescuing a fish out of a dentist's office, so we can only go up from there.  There's an octopus driving a truck; it's chaos.  The movie is a lot crazier than the first one.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Babe (1995)

Today's film is Babe.  It's nice to share a movie from my childhood with my own child.  I remember watching this film in the theater.

Babe is a little piglet.  Pigs only have one purpose, and that is to be eaten.  All the other animals know this, except Babe of course.  He is taken to a fair where he is meant to be a prize, and he is won by a farmer named Arthur Hoggett.  A pig adopted by Hoggett?  Is this fate?

Without his mother around, he looks to a Border Collie named Fly as an adoptive mother.  Eventually he finds a talent for sheep-herding, but he does it much differently than a dog.  Dogs see themselves as superior to sheep, so they talk down to them.  However, Babe speaks to them politely, so he has no trouble herding them.  Fly's mate, Rex, does not like Babe acting out of line.  Pigs should act like pigs and dogs act like dogs.  Babe is acting out of the natural order of things and this makes Rex angry.

While Mrs. Hoggett is away, Mr. Hoggett enters Babe into a sheep-herding competition.  Will they even accept Babe as a proper entry?  After much debate they do, and he is allowed to enter.  Now if he doesn't do well, then Mr. Hoggett will be the laughingstock of the entire county.  Rex can't allow his master to be embarrassed so he runs back to the sheep to ask for help, something a dog would normally never do.  They tell him a password to use, and this allows Babe to talk the sheep at the competition.  By speaking cordially to the sheep, he herds them the best way he can.

The scenes in the movie are split up like chapters in a book, so it's easy for kids to follow along.  Azalea really liked this aspect of the movie.  And of course she loves animals.  So this is a good movie for parents to watch with their kids.  I will give it an 8/10.

The Jungle Book (1967)

So I figured since I reviewed the live action version last month, I really should review the original Disney version of The Jungle Book.  You can read the review of the 2016 version here.  I actually like the newer version better.

I had the great fortune to watch The Jungle Book in the theaters when it was re-released in the early 90's.  It was originally made in 1967 and was one of the last films approved by Walt Disney himself.  This film is especially rare since the earlier ones focused on princesses more, and there are almost no female characters in this.

The whole film feels a bit rushed.  They also tried to cram too many songs in there.  All anyone ever remembers are Baloo and King Louie's songs so it's not like it matters.  My husband asked me why the vultures looked like the Beatles.  They didn't have the vultures in the live action film, and obviously their song was cut.  They actually were based on the Beatles because the filmmakers wanted them to voice them, but it didn't work out.  I think it would have been hilarious if they actually did.  That makes me think, what is the difference between vultures and buzzards? I really don't know.

The character of Mowgli is also a lot different.  The live action one makes all these inventions, which show off his human cunning and intuition whereas cartoon Mowgli doesn't do this.  The cartoon character also seems a lot younger and more immature.  Live action Mowgli chooses to leave the pack of his own volition in order to protect them from Shere Khan.  The cartoon one simply gets kicked out and doesn't understand.

My daughter really loved Shere Khan.  When he appeared on screen, she would jump out of her seat and yell,  Tiger! Tiger!!! RAWRRR!   I believe this is because my husband and I both went to Auburn and are huge Auburn Tigers fans.  We have tiger stuff all over our house and love tigers.  So Azalea simply can't see a tiger as a villain.

Overall, this isn't the best Disney film, but there are some good songs and it's great to watch with kids.  I will give it a 6/10.

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

Today's film is The Greatest Show on Earth, but it's definitely not the greatest movie on earth.  Why are Charlton Heston movies so long?  I remember watching this on tv when I was little, but all I remembered was the train crash, so I thought I should watch the whole thing.  So this marks the 50th best picture film I have ever seen.

I wouldn't call this a best picture, but compared to the other films nominated? Probably yeah.  There was like Ivanhoe and Moulin Rouge and stuff, so I can see that a super exciting circus picture would win it.  It's more of like an almost 3 hour long commercial for Barnum and Bailey circus.  The worst part was Betty Hutton's acting by a long shot.  They have scenes showing each of the acts, the animals, and a whole section about putting the tent up. They make sure to mention the tent's fireproof quality because just a few years before, a circus tent burned to the ground, killing over 100 people.  And no one has to worry about racketeers or thieving carnies at the circus, because they will get thrown in the mud.  No, literally they get thrown in the mud.

The main reason why I really don't like the circus and I'll never take my kids is because of the animals.  Animals are not meant to be locked in cages and only let out to perform for people.  That's a horrible way to live.  They are portrayed positively in this film, and an elephant trainer even uses her elephant to lift off a broken rail off the boss, when machinery could not.  Barnum and Bailey actually stopped using elephants in its acts this year, but is it too little, too late?

There's lots of subplots in this movie and there has to be because circuses take a lot of people to run.  The boss, Brad (Charlton Heston) hires a popular new act to ensure a full season.  The act is Sebastian, a hot either French or Italian, I cant tell, aerial act.  This forces Brad's girlfriend, also an aerial artist, out of the center ring which devastates her.

My little sister is actually an aerial artist for the circus which is one reason why I find circuses so interesting.  Aerial artists (they hate being called trapeze artists) take what they do really seriously and often feel invincible doing it.  That's why Holly used the wrong rope to do her spins and why Sebastian cut away his net.  They don't see the danger in what they're doing.

Another thing is they gave Buttons the clown wayyy too much screentime.  He's like in every scene.  And the big reveal is that he's actually a murderer.  Well of course he's a murderer, he's a clown.  I didn't need to see any of the movie to tell you that.

This may not be the best acted movie ever, but you don't go to the circus for the acting.  You go because it's exciting.  And there's a lot going on everywhere you look. And this film achieved that so I will give it an 8/10.

The Jungle Book (2016)

My husband really wanted to see this movie in the theatres, so he took me in the morning.  I was not looking forward to it, because I have already seen The Jungle Book, and its going to be the exact same movie.  The same story, same characters, and the same songs.

The difference is this film can be considered live action.  The animals are computer animated, but they look pretty real.  The main reason he wanted to see the movie is that Christopher Walken played King Louie and Bill Murray played Baloo the bear.  Mowgli is played by an actual human in a realistic jungle setting.  It is a lot different than the first live action Jungle Book film by Disney, the one from the 90s, because that one focuses more on Mowgli's adulthood.  This film is basically a shot for shot remake of the cartoon.

The film does have a more realistic feel to it.  There's nothing more realistic than a 30 foot monkey singing jazz.  There are actually a few scenes that more closely follow the book than the original movie.  They also gave the wolves a bigger part in the film, which makes sense because they raised him.  Also, the elephants are portrayed as wise stewards of the jungle, not a group of marching idiots.  That's because our knowledge of elephants has changed drastically since the 60s.  We now know how intelligent and caring elephants are, when before we thought of them as simply large and destructive.

If you're wondering if the animals sing, they really do.  They sing "The Bare Necessities" and "I wanna be like you".  I have never heard Christopher Walken sing and it is hilarious.  If I had to choose to watch a Jungle Book film again, I would choose this film over the animated one.  I will give this film an 8/10.

Cría cuervos (1976)

Today's film is Cría cuervos.  It stars children but it is not a child's film.

The term "Cría cuervos" means to "raise ravens (crows)".  This means to say if you raise a raven, they'll scratch your eyes out.  Same way if you raise a child poorly, they'll end up destroying you.

The film stars three orphan girls, Irene, Ana, and Maite.  Their mother was sickly, pale, and eventually died of cancer.  Their father was an army man who regularly cheated on her.  The mother gives Ana a jar of baking soda and tells her to throw it out because it is a dangerous poison.  Ana, not knowing what baking soda really is, keeps it for her nefarious purposes.  She puts it in her father's milk to "poison" him, and when he dies of  a possible heart attack, she believes the poison works.

Now that the girls are without both parents, their mother's sister, Aunt Paulina moves in.  Also, their invalid grandmother comes with her.  She is in a wheelchair and cannot speak.  At first, they are happy, but they realize that Aunt Paulina has the exact personality of their dad!  This does not please Ana at all, and she lets everyone know this.

The orphan girls - Ana, little Maite, and Irene.

Ana often dreams of her mother and father, and has conversations with them often.  We can tell these are really dreams instead of visions, because her mother always tells her it's late and she should be asleep.  Well she is asleep.

Aunt Paulina isn't even a good mom, often leaving to do who knows what while the eldest, Irene, has to babysit.  When she's not gone, she's busy at the house making out with married men.  The only person Ana has to talk to about her parents is the family housekeeper, Rosa, who has known her since birth.  But, Paulina quickly shuts them down and won't let her "gossip" about her sister.  Talking about her parents is a healthy outlet and Paulina actively seeks to stop that.  Paulina is incredibly rude towards Rosa.

Ana is so frustrated at Paulina's presence (who really is like father version 2.0)  that she plots to poison her as well.  So, she dumps baking soda in her milk and is shocked to see her alive the next day.  At the end, the summer is over and they are no longer cooped up in the house.  They dress for school and head out into the city.  Maybe being away from the house for awhile will be good for them.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (M. Hulot's Holiday) (1953)

Today's film is M. Hulot's Holiday.  It is a good, simple film.

So it takes place during vacation season when the whole country flocks to the seaside for relaxation.  A lot of the scenes, especially in the beginning, reminded me of the movie Airplane.  Most of the gags are visual in nature.  There is barely any talking at all.  In fact, there's not really a story or plot, it's just a bunch of people, including M. Hulot who are taking a vacation.

Most of the humor comes from M. Hulot's carelessness or lack of thought.  He leaves the door open while getting his luggage, and this causes the whole lobby to be windy.  Or, he doesn't put up the brakes while changing his tire, so his car rolls down the hill.

Other than that, a lot of the people are still mentally at work and can't relax on vacation.  We see that even worse today.  Work is work, vacation is vacation.  In this way this film will always be relevant.
I will give it an 8/10.

Must be nice to live in a time where no one would
associate your hair with Princess Leia.

Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) (1955)

Today's film is Pather Panchali.  It is part of a series, so don't expect any closure at the end.

So here we have a family living in India, and they are barely getting by.  The father is a writer, poet, and priest, who is artistic but doesn't have much money sense.  He even gave away his family's orchard to settle his brother's debts.  Did he know exactly how much his brother owed vs. how much the orchard was worth?  Was there anything on paper proving this?  No probably not.

To get by and put food on the table for her two children, the mother, Sarbojaya, sells what little possessions she has, including her wedding dishes.  The struggle is real.  Interestingly, this film was made on a tiny budget, and the director and his wife pawned their possessions to help fund it.

Her daughter, Durga, often steals from the orchard, but it did used to be her orchard, so I don't think she knows what she is doing is wrong.  Eventually, her kleptomania evolves to steal non-food items as well.  What's worse is that her family defended her the entire time and she actually did steal the jewelry.  There's like a total of ten people in her village, where was she planning on wearing it?

Durga has a little brother named Apu, who is sent to school, but it's not a very good school from the looks of it.    Most of the film centers around the two.  Even though they don't have much, they share simple joys every day.  Durga is a great example of a big sister, being a leader, motherly, but sometimes teasing too.  Got to keep the younger siblings in line.

Their dad decides to leave town to find work, and it takes a toll on the family, especially his wife.  After playing in the rain, Durga catches a cold, which develops into a high fever and she passes away.  Soon after, her dad returns home with gifts, but no one cares because Durga is gone.  The family decides to leave their ancestral home to find a new life elsewhere.

It is refreshing to see an Indian film without a ton of singing.  Also, the whole life in poverty theme is pretty universal.  I will give it a 7/10.

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Today is the first day of October! I celebrated by eating the first pumpkin muffin of the season. Today we are watching Hotel Transylvania, which until the constant ads for Hotel Transylvania 2, I honestly didn't know existed. But we need to watch the first one in order to appreciate the second.

This film is very family friendly. It is especially good if you have already seen any classic horror films with your children. The monsters are all voiced by top billing comedians such as Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Molly Shannon and many others. There are so many stars in this film. The monsters are Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Werewolf man, and The Mummy. There are many others in bit parts that add to the fun.

Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) builds a hotel as a monster's safe haven from scary humans. He does this by request of his late wife in order to protect their daughter, Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez). Fast forward to her 118th birthday (which is 18 in monster years apparently) and Mavis is itching to see the world beyond the hotel. Dracula goes to great lengths to prevent this, until a human stumbles onto the hotel.

Obviously it's love at first sight for Mavis and the human, Johnathon, who Dracula quickly disguises as a monster.  Dracula is unable to hypnotize Johnathon into forgetting about the hotel and Mavis and leaving, because he is wearing contacts.  However, Dracula has no problem hypnotizing the airline pilots through a thick glass windshield.   Mavis is most intrigued by Johnathon's lifestyle as an adventurous backpacker, which is the polar opposite of her.  Dracula forces him to leave, but later teams up with the rest of the monsters to get him back.  

There are a lot of one-liners and lots of visual action, which is great for kids.  It may not be a princess movie, but with so much going on, they won't even care.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Inside Out (2015)

Today's film is Inside Out!  I actually watched this a while ago, but am posting it now.  Mainly because every time I hear the term Inside out, I think of the song by Diana Ross. "Upside down, boy you turn me, inside out, and round and round".  So I figured posting would get the song out of my head.  The movie is a look at what goes on inside people's heads and personifies everything.  We specifically are looking at the mind of 11-year-old Riley.

I really enjoyed this movie, because a lot of times I watch a Disney (or Pixar) film and I think, I really wish there was more Lewis Black in this.  And now I finally get my wish!  He plays Anger, and doesn't need to act because he's just himself and he's awesome.  The "leader" emotion is Joy, who is played by Amy Poehler.  There are so many celebrities voicing characters in this movie.  One of my favorites is Disgust! She's played by Mindy Kaling and her job is to protect Riley from disgusting things, like broccoli.

Riley is an only child growing up in Minnesota.  She has lots of friends, and is a natural at playing hockey.  Her parents start a new business venture and they all move to San Francisco.  This is a huge culture shock for Riley, and she tries to handle it the best she can.  The emotion Sadness starts to touch her core memories, making her sad.  Joy, the leader, does not ever want to upset Riley and tries her hardest to silence Sadness.  Through a series of events, Joy begins to realize that Riley needs Sadness.  She needs to be able to miss her friends and old way of life so she can grow and begin a new chapter in a new place.

There's a lot of gags and adult jokes that are fun to look for.  Also, they show other people's minds too, and that's pretty funny.  As the emotions learn to work better together, they see that Riley's thoughts and memories become more mature.  As she turns 12, they build new control panel to handle all these changes including a switch for "puberty".  Joy doesn't worry about this because she helped Riley get through the whole "moving to a new state" crisis; what could possibly happen to her in the next few years?  This is one of the best Pixar films in a long time.  I think it's an even better family film than The Incredibles.  I will give it a 9/10.

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Ever since Disney bought Marvel, I have been waiting for a Disneyesque Marvel animated feature and here it is!  My family loved this film.  It has everything we love about Disney movies and everything we love about Marvel movies.  Today's film is Big Hero 6.

The animation has come a really long way in the past ten years.  The human characters in this film look ten times better and more realistic than in The Incredibles.  Also, it's set in the fictional city of San Fransokyo (a combo of San Francisco and Tokyo) so if you watch it more than once (like if you have kids that insist on watching the same movie 100 times) have fun looking for famous buildings from both cities.  I found quite a few.

The story centers around two brothers, both geniuses in the robotics/engineering world.  One, Tadashi, is a college student who builds Baymax, a white inflatable robot nurse.  The younger one is Hiro (the hero of the story, you get it?) a fourteen-year-old who participates in illegal battlebot games.  Tadashi convinces Hiro to apply to college by taking him to his lab (once, he's not a hard sell) and meeting his friends and all their neat inventions.

Go Go is a tough girl who tells people to "Woman Up!" and works on a frictionless bike, and Honey Lemon is a Rapunzel look-alike (seriously look at her face.  Azalea had a phase where she watched Tangled several times a day.  I'd recognize that face anywhere.) who works with chemical reactions.  Wasabi (who is called that because he spilled wasabi one time) is a neat freak who works with lasers, and then there's Fred, who doesn't attend school, but loves science.

Hiro invents mind-controlled microbots to impress the college enough to let him attend.  The masked villain steals the microbots and Hiro, along with Baymax and his friends, track him down.  Also, Disney has finally graduated from killing off parents during children's movies because they died before the story even starts.  Hiro turns Baymax from a sweet healthbot into a fighting machine.

My favorite character is Fred, whose dream is to become a fire-breathing murloc.  Follow your dreams.  Also, Baymax is the real star of the movie.  He was programmed to treat pyshical ailments, but when Hiro is depressed, he downloads an entire database of depression and grief help just for him.  He unquestioningly follows him on his quest to turn him into a armor clad superhero, and only stops to prevent killing someone else.

The movie is funny and self-aware at times. "This is our origin story!", Fred cries.  He is also the one to realize they are being chased by a supervillain.  And, we get to watch their training as well.  They are not as good as they could be.  Since it's a Marvel film, we know the villain is going to open some portal (this time a Stargate-like teleporter) and they have to fight him to stop it.  And they succeed.  The animation is wonderful and is one of the best parts of the film.  The city looks beautiful and the people look real.  This film won best animated picture this year.  I will give it a 9/10.

A Christmas Story (1983)

Today's film is A Christmas Story.  Every year in school we had to read this story, and then we watched the movie before winter break.  Every single year.  I have seen this movie like way too many times.  The teachers would break up the story into bits and we would have to write papers about it.  Watching this film just feels like another assignment to me.

Even though this movie takes place in the 40s, it could have taken place when I was a kid or even today.  Ralphie wants a BB gun even though his mom thinks its a bad idea.  Well, kids are always wanting stupid gifts.  Kids still act the same way they did a long time ago (when they are not buried in their smartphones).  There are still bullies, fighting, and daring your friends to do stupid things.  Ralphie is engrossed in listening to his Little Orphan Annie show and even buys a secret decoder ring to be part of her club.  Guess what movie just came out in the theaters?  Annie!

While in school, the teacher makes them do theme writing, and the theme is "what I want for Christmas".  I find this ironic because I had to do lots of theme writing on this movie.  So he's doing classwork and I'm doing classwork at the same time.  He writes about his BB gun and all its features.  The teacher marks it as C+.  Notice that there are no red marks anywhere on the paper, meaning there are no mistakes, nothing to justify such a low grade.  Maybe the teacher simply didn't like the paper.  Sometimes the teacher bases the grade on her opinion rather than actually grading it.  Sometimes teachers are just bitches.  Fuck you Mrs. Haines.

One thing I really like about this movie is that there's no magic in it.  Every Christmas movie we're forced to watch as kids has to have magic in it.  The gift he wanted the whole time was given to him by his dad, who, by up to this point hadn't appeared to be the most caring person.  He was a stereotypical hardass yet kind of stupid dad we see on too many comedies. It wasn't Santa Claus who gave him his gift, it was his dad.  Even though he couldn't afford a new furnace, he still managed to get his kid the gift he wanted the most. I like the dad and his obsession with his precious sexy leg lamp.  Where did that even come from.  I have to rate this movie pretty high because I was forced to watch it every year and I don't hate it.  So I will rate it a 7/10.

Badkonake sefid (The White Balloon) (1995)

Today's film is Badkonake sefid (The White Balloon) and it comes to us from Iran.  It's a pretty simple film with some decent children acting (child acting? I don't know).  If your kids are able to read subtitles (or if you describe it like I do) they might enjoy this film too.

So, in Iran, people are getting ready for the new year celebration.  This isn't the worldwide new year in January everyone celebrates, this is the solar new year, which next will happen on March 21st. Sort of like a Spring Equinox celebration.  Anyway, everyone puts a goldfish in their house to welcome new life for the new year.  A little girl named Razieh desperately wants a new goldfish.

Her family's pond in the courtyard is full of goldfish, except she wants to buy one, because you know how kids are.  Razieh reminds me of my daughter, Azalea, in a lot of ways. Except the speaking part of course.  They are both determined to get what they want and are very stubborn.  Also, they can whine like nobody's business.

Finally, the mom relents and lets her go buy a goldfish.  They cost 100 tomans, and she has a 500 bill she gives her.  I would have never given her money much less let her go by herself.  She almost loses it a few times, and finally it falls down a grate.  Some adults try to help her, and some don't.  Later, her brother comes and helps her fish it out.  Even though Razieh was careless in dropping the money, she was mature enough to figure out how to retrieve.  Still, I wouldn't give my child cash and expect something not to happen.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Captains Courageous (1937)

Today’s film was enjoyed by both my daughter and I together.  It is an old film, but still can be enjoyed by kids today. Today’s film is Captains Courageous.

So, our main character is Harvey, who is a spoiled brat.  His father is a business tycoon, who is very busy doing business all the time.  He shows his love to his son with gifts and money, not by spending time with him.  Harvey is the worst kind of child, who already at his age is using his wealth to get his way and also to be mean to other children.

Since Harvey was suspended from school for his behavior, his dad decides it's time for them to spend more time together.  He takes him on a boat trip to his next business trip.  While on the boat, Harvey falls overboard and is picked up by a fishing vessel.

Harvey soon learns that his money means nothing to these fishermen.  He has to wait a few weeks before going to shore because they're not going to give up on their fishing season.  Nobody coddles him and no one puts up with his whining.  The fisherman who watches over him the most is Manuel.  The only problem I had was having a hard time understanding Manuel, and yes, I speak Portuguese.  I just couldn't place his accent anywhere.  I looked it up, and apparently, Spencer Tracy based it on a Yiddish accent he used this one time in a theater performance.  So, just so you know, Yiddish=Portuguese obviously.

Harvey bonds with his new father figure, Manuel, who spent more time and attention on him than his real dad ever did.  Unfortunately, Manuel dies accidentally before they reach the shore.  At the shore, Harvey is reunited with his father, who is surprised at how mature he's become.  Well no shit, somebody actually parented him during that time.  Moral of the story: Spending time with kids is more important than spending money.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Today's film is Kramer vs. Kramer.  Ted Kramer's wife, Joanna, is tired of her life and fed up with her workaholic husband.  One day she packs up and leaves.  As a result, Ted has to learn how to be a parent for the first time.  I enjoyed watching him grow as a parent.

 For example, the first morning, he is impatient and makes gross terrible french toast.  But by the end, his french toast is perfect.  At first, he drops his son off and rushes to work, not even glancing behind them.  By the end, he looks behind him the entire way as he goes away to work.  First, his priority was work work work, but now his child is his priority.  In fact, he even changes jobs to one that will better allow him to take care of his child. 

Dustin did an amazing acting job.  I really believed that he was a frustrated workaholic that magically transformed into a superdad when his child needed him the most.  I didn't really like Meryl Streep's character, because she abadoned her child, but maybe she had her own reason for doing that.
Then one day, Joanna reappears and wants her son back!  What follows is a bitter hateful custody battle in court, where lawyers coerce them to be mean to each other.  Later, Joanna realizes that Ted is the best person to take care of her son, and she gives up her custody battle.  I will give this film an 8/10.

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Today's film is Good Bye Lenin!  A long time ago, Germany was split into two different countries: East Germany and West Germany.  East Germany was communist while West Germany was not.  In this film, Alex lives with his family in East Germany.  His dad runs off to the West, and his mother breaks down.  We learn throughout the film that Alex's mother really cannot take any kind of shock.

Eventually, his mom leaves the hospital and returns to take care of Alex and his older sister.  Fast forward several years later, and people are protesting the regime more and more.  Alex's mom witnesses him being arrested during a protest, and collapses due to a heart attack.  She stays in a coma for 8 months.  During this time, Alex forms a relationship with a cute nurse, while the two sides of Germany reunite.  Mom finally wakes up, but the doctors say she cannot take any kind of shock or it may kill her.  Alex wants to bring her home.

The problem is that Mom loved her country, and was very active in the communist community.  If she learned that everything she believed in and worked for is gone,  she would be shocked to death.  So, Alex goes out of his way to pretend like everything is the same.  This gets harder and harder as Western capitalism, think: Coca Cola, invades their precious country.  Alex's friend helps him make fake news reports to "explain away" all this Western influence.

As time goes on, we learn that not only is Alex preserving the old country for his mom, but perhaps he is doing it to instill a sense of nostalgia, like he's remembering the good old days of when his family was all together.  But, perhaps his mom has some secrets of his own.  Alex's girlfriend and sister think he is taking it too far with all this pretending.  But, I see it the same way we tell our children about fairy tales.  It's making a perfect pretend world where everything is safe and nothing has changed.  His mom doesn't have very long time to live, so he's making her last few months comfortable.  He wanted her to die happy.  If she would have lived for several more years, then he would have had to explain that their country had reunited and that communism had failed.  However, he does find his dad because she wanted to see him one last time.  After she died, they put her ashes in a firework and shot it into the sky.

This film shows how an adult child will go out of their way to make sure their parent is safe and happy in their final moments.  Even though we may not understand or agree with how they do it, we know that his mom died where she was happy.  I will give this film an 8/10.

Cool Runnings (1993)

We're excited about the Olympics this year!  This year is the first in a long time that the Jamaican bobsled team has qualified.  The Winter Olympics feels so strange to us, since we're watching others compete in snow and ice, and we never get that here.  In fact, my co-film critic has never seen snow in her entire life.

In the 1980s, the Jamaican bobsled team qualified for the Winter Olympics in Calgary.  This was a huge surprise, especially since no one expected a snowless country to even consider joining.  The film Cool Runnings was inspired by these events.  There are many differences between the film and real life, because the filmmakers wanted to play it up for drama.  The main difference is how the other teams treated the Jamaicans.  In real life, they welcomed them, but in the film they did not like them at all and didn't expect them to do well.

This year, the Jamaicans ended up last, but at least they tried.  The movie is very humorous, and I enjoyed how they practiced for the games.  They used a makeup sleigh and slid down a huge hill.  That must have been scary!  We laughed so much during this film.  I think it's great for the whole family.  Athletics are number one in my household, and film watching/blogging is second.  Then comes secondary things like school and work and eating food.  And this film is funny and has sports! You can't beat that.  It's hard to find a film that kids can enjoy and doesn't alienate adults.  And this one is inspired by true events.  We're going to give this film a 7/10.

The Croods (2013)

Today's animated feature is The Croods, nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.  It is a lot better than I expected it to be.  Dreamworks has really stepped up its game in the animation department, especially in the portrayal of humans.

Eep is a cavegirl (a Neanderthal) living with her family, the last one in the area.  They're the last ones because they spend all their time in the safety of the cave.  Due to the constant earthquakes and changing of the Earth's landscape, their cave is destroyed and they have to leave for the first time to find higher ground.  Meanwhile, Eep meets a boy, who looks like a more modern human.  He is full of ideas, like shoes and fire! He impresses her family, except the jealous dad, who up until now has protected the family.

All of the animals in this movie are animals that either never have existed, or could never exist, like giant flying turtles.  One such animal is the big cute tiger with colors reminiscent of a macaw.

This is an animation the whole family can enjoy.  It's funny and full of heart.  I will give it a 7/10.

Le gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike) (2011)

Today's film is Le gamin au vélo (The Kid with a Bike).  It's my first film from Belgium, and I have to say, I'm not very impressed.  The story appears to be no different than a Lifetime Original Movie.  The story is okay but predictable, but the acting is great.

The kid with a bike is Cyril, who lives in a group home and has not heard from his dad, his only living relative, for a month.  He goes out of his way to find his dad's apartment to see where he could have gone, and also to retrieve his bike, which is his prized possession.  He runs into a hairdresser while doing this, and she finds out where the bike is.  His dad sold it to someone else, and she bought it off him.  The hairdresser, Samantha, goes to the group home to give the bike to Cyril.  He asks her if she could be his foster family for the weekends.  She agrees and everything goes well.

However, he's still determined to find his dad.  Samantha tracks down his address and they find out where he works.  Cyril wants to go at that moment so they head over to the restaurant where he's prepping for lunch.  It is clear that Cyril's father doesn't want him around, even for a visit.  He confesses to Samantha that now that he's the only one left to take care of Cyril, he wants to start over in a new life and that doesn't include Cyril at all.  Cyril has a really hard time taking this and I don't blame him.

Soon Cyril becomes manipulated by a young local drug dealer to help him rob somebody.  Cyril agrees to help him by knocking the victim out with a bat and robbing him.  He goes out against Samantha's wishes and completely ignores everything she's done for him to help someone who doesn't care.  Cyril gets caught and gets punished and has to repay what he stole, and apologizes to the man he hit.  The man's son, who he also hit with a bat, won't accept his apology.  The son chases him down and Cyril climbs a tree to get away from him.  Cyril falls out of the tree and is unconscious for a good while.  The men he hit discuss how to deal with his body when Cyril just up and walks away without a scratch.  The movie just ends right there.  Not only does he take Samantha for granted when she's the only person to take him in, he obeys a greasy drug dealer without question.  He needs to learn how to be grateful because he's an entitled brat.  He feels that he deserves his bike, he can leave her house through a window even though he's not supposed to go out at night, and doesn't respect her at all.  He even got her boyfriend to leave her.

There's nothing inherently bad about this movie at all.  There's just nothing great either, nothing that grabs my attention and leads me to believe that I absolutely have to see this before I die.  I will give this film a 7/10.

Kolja (1996)

Today's film is Kolja (or Kolya in some areas).  It's from the Czech Republic, and is a very sweet film.  It's about a cello player named Franta Louka, who totally looks like Sean Connery. After being let go from the philharmonic orchestra, he does odd jobs, including playing where he can, to make money.  His friend tells him about having a fake marriage so this Russian woman can have Czech papers so she won't be deported.  At first he's totally against it because it's a terrible and also illegal idea.  They don't even speak the same language.  She also has a five year old son, Kolja, and he has no idea how to interact with a child.

Right after she gets her papers, she goes to West Germany and leaves Kolja behind in the care of a relative.  Problem is, she's there to stay.  The relative suffers a stroke and Kolja is brought to Louka's house.  His friend convinces him to let him stay because it would look good for him to take care of his wife's child and the police are now suspicious of their fake marriage.

Despite being a confirmed bachelor, since he beleives that he can't have a musical career with a family, Louka proves to be a caring stepdad.  It's a challenge, mainly because they don't speak the same language.  However, Kolja is a good listener and picks up on the language quickly.  At night, Louka calls his friend, a Russian language teacher, to tell Kolya bedtime stories in his language.

Soon, the Russians leave the area for good, meaning Louka is no longer in danger from police.  Kolja's mom returns to pick him up.  But by this time, Kolja and Louka have bonded and are sad to see each other go.  This film is very sweet and everyone should see it.  I'm giving it an 8/10.