MY TAKE by Rose McGlew
We are a movie-loving family.
Ever since we’ve had Replay TV (just like TiVo) installed, we very rarely watch regular television anymore. We record the shows we want to watch, skip the commercials and, voila… we catch up on a whole season of "Scrubs" in three hours. We no longer watch one show while actually waiting for the next one to come on and we don’t channel surf, either. Not even my husband.
We do, however, watch a good number of movies at home and, compared to my own childhood, we watch a huge number of movies at the theatre. There have been some great ones released in the last couple of years but it looks like this summer has only a couple good ones on tap for families with younger-than-teen children so we may be hitting the video store a little more frequently this summer.
The first one to hit the screens that we’ll be taking in is "Shrek 2" which opens nationwide Wednesday, May 19. The first movie was phenomenal and even though it strayed quite a bit from the children’s book by William Steig, "Shrek" has become one of our family’s favorites that we can all watch repeatedly. It’s nice to have moved on from "There Goes a Fire Truck." While we all love Shrek for his surly lovability, our favorite character is definitely the Donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy. We also love any movie that can entertain both children and adults on two different levels and "Shrek" is one of those movies. We hope "Shrek 2" will live up to its predecessor.
Another sequel that our family has been waiting what seems like ages for is "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Our kids have already bought into the marketing for this movie, which opens Friday, June 4. They bought a Lego set last week that has a hippogriff included. If you have to ask what a hippogriff is, you obviously don’t have Harry Potter fans in the house and you should find a 7- to 12-year-old who can fill you in. I have a couple if you need to borrow them. The boys have been waiting for this movie for ages and I am interested to see what the new director, Alfonso Cuaron, has done with this one. It is supposedly much darker than the first two movies which were directed by Chris Columbus and that makes me a little hesitant to bring our youngest son. But the deal is that if he reads the book by the time the movie comes out he may go. Since he’s on book number four, and movie is book number three, I have to hold up my end of the bargain. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) my husband and I will be in Maine on the movie’s opening day so we won’t be able to take the boys immediately. Not to worry my brother-in-law has graciously offered to take them in our absence. Even though HE’S only on the first book.
There are several other movies coming out this summer, but "I, Robot" starring Will Smith looks like it may be a bit too techno-violent for my comfort level, even though I’d be interested to see a more dramatic version of Isaac Asimov’s classic story than Robin Willams’ "Bicentennial Man" of a few years ago. Another pseudo-remake already in theatres is "13 Going on 30" starring Jennifer Garner. From my understanding, this is a girl version of Tom Hanks’ modern classic "Big." Since I have boys at home, I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be into the girl-accidentally-becomes-a-grown-up-and-wacky-things-ensue kind of movie. Remember "Freaky Friday" of last summer? Yeah, that wasn’t high on the thumbs-up list at our house.
If you need a couple titles that are already out for rental that you’d actually enjoy watching with your kids, I do have a few suggestions. As mentioned above, "Shrek" is great. You could do a "Harry Potter" warm-up marathon and rent "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" followed by "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" before heading off to the theatre. I am a big old sellout fan of almost all Disney movies and "Finding Nemo" is a good one for all ages. Who doesn’t love Ellen DeGeneres as Dory? "Just keep swimming… "
Another Disney favorite is "Monsters, Inc." where kids of all ages can learn that there really isn’t anything to be afraid of in your closet except for that hideous blouse that seemed so stylish when you bought it. Reaching back a few years into the Disney/Pixar files is the double billing of "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2." I have to admit these are two of my favorites not just for the laughs but for sentimental reasons, too. "Toy Story" was the first movie our older son went to see in the theatre with us and "Toy Story 2" was the first one our younger son saw with us. Woody and Buzz and the gang have a special place in our hearts and if you pop a big bowl of popcorn, turn off the living room lights and curl up together, I’m sure they’ll be a favorite of your family as well.
Rose McGlew is a resident of Robbinsville. Her column appears weekly in The Messenger-Press.