Kids/Family

Travolta and Cyrus do us proud: Bolt

December 3, 2008
By

Overall Rating: A
Filmmaking/Artistic: A+
MPAA Rating: PG

Overview

Fantastic action, great humor at Hollywood’s expense, and the joy of being a dog.  Bolt has it all, and is fun for kids and adults.  Could be a little scary for kids 5 and under, but overall a great film, well worth seeing.

Full Review

Your Movie Monkey had his doubts.  John Travolta has admittedly a great, familiar voice, especially for those of us old enough to remember Vinnie Barbarino.  (For those of you for whom Welcome Back Kotter was before your time, as a young actor, Mr. Travolta had the power to make us elementary school kids use the phrase “up your nose widda rubber hose” as an insult.  Seriously.)  But as an actor, he’s hit or miss, with one strong hit for every 25 to 50 misses, it seems.  And Miley Cyrus, well, some of us are still smarting from Billy Ray. 

But Bolt came highly recommended from friends, and it certainly did not disappoint.  As promised in the previews, the story revolves around a dog named Bolt who is the star of a popular action show on television.  But as we learn from the oh-so-Hollywood director of the show, Bolt has been raised from puppyhood to think the show going on a round him is real, and that he really does have his superpowers.  (And, wonderfully, the reason for this ruse is a form of method acting: he wants to be able to get shots of a dog who really believes he is an action hero, so it will be realistic.)

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Third Time’s a Smarm: High School Musical 3

November 24, 2008
By

Overall Rating: C+
Filmmaking/Artistic: C-
MPAA Rating: G

Overview

More of the same… better than HSM2 but not as good as HSM1.  A very, very long movie that could have benefitted from some editing.  Still, an upbeat, positive movie for kids, with two leads who only share a kiss.  Hurray for not growing up to fast.

Full review

Your Movie Monkey is one of those middle-aged dads who has been dragged into the High School Musical franchise by his charming daughters, Drama and Queen.  In the first installment, Your Movie Monkey was beyond impressed with this made-for-TV Disney production, because it was like Grease (if Grease were cleaned up) had essentially positive values, catchy songs, decent (if not terribly original) messages, depicted inter-racial friendships without alluding to the fact that they were inter-racial, and, perhaps most importantly, found a young actor who could some how pull off a realistic basketball star who was conflicted about his inner desire to croon show tunes.  As would be expected, the franchise had enough material for about 1.15 movies, and has now made 3 installments due to their success, so they are losing quite a bit of steam.  But, to make sense of #3, one must begin at the beginning, with the back story.

In part 1, we start at some kind of resort/dude ranch during Christmas vacation, where high school junior Troy communicates with his dad through their basketball relationship, and his mom encourages him to go to the kids party to celebrate New Year’s Eve.  There he meets Gabriella, who communicates through reading a book in the corner.  (Hollywood code: She’s smart!)  During a karaoke sing, Troy is handed the microphone at the middle of an unknown song, shrugs his shoulders, and sings like he’s been doing it since he was 3.  Gabriella chimes in and they sing well together, never missing a beat or a handoff, and they bring down the house, but go off sad to never see each other again.

Well, until the next scene, where she’s the new kid in his high school in the hot bed of theatre arts, Albequeque.   Read more »

Archives

Critics
Marvel's The Avengers93%
Dark Shadows42%
Think Like a Man51%
The Hunger Games84%
The Lucky One20%
The Five-Year Engagement63%
The Pirates! Band of Misfits86%
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel76%
Chimpanzee74%
Safe55%
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