Movie Review: Escape to Witch Mountain

Movie Title: Escape to Witch Mountain. Disney Film. Rated G. As a child this movie was a favorite of a friend of mine. She saw it over and over and over. Two orphan siblings have special powers. (They can move objects, ESP…) The little girl knows a man will get hurt if he gets in a car. The man believes her. His car is hit. The man tells his rich employer, Mr. Bolt, about the psychic little girl. Mr. Bolt invites the brother and sister to live with him. He wants to harness their powers for his own gain. The kids run away. They hitch a ride with a cranky old man. They get him to take them to where they think they came from. It ends up the kids are from another planet. And that's why they have special powers. This is a cute film. Kids will like the sibling's special powers. My favorite part: When Mr. Bolt's helicopter flies upside down.

Movie Review: Lady and the Tramp

Movie Title: Lady and the Tramp. Disney movie. Animation. Rated G. I've seen this movie at least five times. It's a cute film so I don't mind watching it with kids. It's a classic dogs are good, cats are a pain movie. Lady is a pampered pooch. Until her mistress has a baby that is. A family member with two cats comes to help out and treats Lady like a dog. Her two sly cats make things difficult for Lady. Lady meets a free spirited mutt, Tramp. Together they have adventures and fun. They fall in love. A timeless scene is when the two dogs share a plate of spaghetti. In the end Lady ends up a pampered pooch again. And Tramp comes to live with her humans. Little kids should like this movie. It's got dogs and more dogs.

Movie Review: The Incredible Mr. Limpet

Movie Title: The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Comedy with some animation. Some singing as well. Not rated, but I would give it a G rating myself. I was worried this film might be boring, but I was wrong. It was an amusing, silly film. It's good old fashion fun for the whole family. Don Knotts stars as Henry Limpet a bookkeeper who can't get into the navy due to poor eyesight. Henry, who loves fish, wishes he was a fish. Looking into the sea at Coney Island he falls or jumps in. He can't swim. His navy friend, George, jumps into the water to save him. But he can't find Henry. Unbeknownst to George, Henry has turned into a fish with glasses. George and Henry's wife think he's dead. Henry meets a couple of fish friends while swimming in the sea. Since Henry can't join the navy as a man he decides to help the navy as a fish. With the help of his friend George, Henry helps out his country.

Movie Review: The Lion King

Movie Title: The Lion King. Animation film with music. Rated G. A classic film. Terrific music. Two paws up. This is a film adults will like as much as kids. Little boys will especially like this film. A lion cub, Simba, is next in line to become king. But his uncle, Scar, wants to rule. Scar gets some hyenas to join him in his plan to get rid of his brother, the king. Scar takes Simba to a place where a stampede will soon happen. Simba's father comes to save him. He succeeds but he dies himself. Scar helped cause his death, but mean Scar lets Simba take the blame. The cub runs away in shame. He meets two friends, Timon and Pumbaa who take care of him. (These are two of my favorite characters.) They provide comical relief in the story. Meanwhile Scar rules in his brother's stead, until Simba comes home to claim his throne.

Movie Review: Back to the Future 3

Movie Title: Back to the Future 3. Rated PG. Engaging movie. Marty goes to back in time to the Old West. He gets on the bad side of a bad tempered ruffian. The ruffian challenges Marty to a duel. Marty agrees and makes the duel time right after breakfast. He thinks this will give Doc enough time to get the Dolorin (car) fixed so they can be out of there before the dual can happen. Meanwhile Doc falls in love. But can love last when you are born in different centuries? I thought this movie was better than part II.

Movie Review: Back to the Future II

Movie Title: Back to the Future II. Rated PG. Adventure-Comedy. Not as good as the first film, but watchable. Marty needs to go to the future, 2015, to stop his son from being bullied into committing a crime. While in the future Marty gets an idea. He takes a sports almanac to take back to the past to be able to bet on races that have won. Doc tells him he shouldn't do it. Meanwhile Marty's father's old nemesis gets the same idea as Marty. He steals the Delorean and takes the sports almanac to his young self back in the 1950's. This alters all their futures. Marty and Doc must go back to the 1950's to retrieve the almanac to redo the future. Interesting plot, but Marty's son is annoying as a wimp. What I did like was the flying skateboards. Marty has a really cool scene riding it though town to escape the boys bullying his son. It's interesting that someone thought we might have flying cars by 2015. I serious doubt this will happen. But it was fun to watch.

Movie Title: Dolphin Tale

Movie Title: Dolphin Tale. Rated PG. Excellent family movie. I highly recommend it. Movie based on a true story. A lonely boy riding his bike to summer school sees a beached dolphin tangled in ropes with its tail caught in a fishing cage. He cuts the ropes off its tail to free it. A marine rescue team is called. They take the dolphin to their facility. The boy sneaks into the facility to see the dolphin and bonds with it. The manager’s daughter, Hazel (cute, bubbly little girl), befriends the boy. She names the dolphin, Winter. Because Winter’s tail is infected it has to be taken off. A doctor at a VA facility, where the boy’s cousin is recouping from a war injury, makes Winter a prosthetic tail. Kids without an arm, or leg, learn about this special dolphin and want to visit her. Unfortunately, the facility is in jeopardy of closing due to lack of funding. It’s up to the kids to make sure this doesn’t happen. The ending has real film footage of Winter as a young dolphin. Lovely story. Very uplifting.

Movie Review: Living it Up

Movie Title: Living it Up. Comedy. Family film. Kids might get bored when Dean Martin sings, but it's worth watching the film to see Jerry Lewis in action. He's a true comic. Besides, you can always fast forward past the singing.
Story line: A sweet young man named Homer (Jerry Lewis) thinks he's dying of radiation poisoning. A newspaper journalist gets wind of this. Thinking this would be a good tear jerker for her newspaper she persuades Homer to come to New York City, all expenses paid, for a final farewell to the world and a big send off. The problem is Homer really isn't going to meet the angels just yet. But when his physician (Dean Martin) learns of this grand trip to NYC he talks Homer into going, with him along of course. Dean and Jerry have to keep up the pretense that Jerry is indeed dying and fool some doctors. For kids ten and older. Younger kids might get bored.

Movie Review: Rudolph’s Shiny New Year

Movie title: Rudolph’s Shiny New Year. Animation with Music. It’s only six more days until New Year’s and Happy, the New Year baby, has run away. Happy ran away because the other kids were making fun of his big ears. Rudolph the reindeer can relate because he was made fun of his red nose when he was little. Rudolph goes to find Happy before a vulture kidnaps him. The vulture wants to stop time so he won’t turn to ice. If there isn’t a New Year then time will be stopped. The baby goes to a fairy time land, where he stays with the three bears. The little bear and baby become friends, until the bears laugh at his ears. This upsets Happy and he runs away. Rudolph finds Happy and saves the New Year. He tells Happy his big ears might make people laugh, but this makes them happy, which is a good thing. Show watchable for adults because it’s a short film.

Movie title: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and...

Movie title: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys. Animation with Music. A dentist elf needs to fix the King of the Misfit Toy’s tooth. Rudolph the Reindeer goes with him. On the way back they get shipwrecked. They end up at an island run by a hippo, Queen Camilla. She fixes old and broken toys. But she has no-one to give these toys to. Rudolph suggests the toys can go to Santa. As a reward for this Camilla says she will grant the elf and reindeer a wish each. Rudolph wants a normal nose and the elf wants a date with the tooth fairy. Back at the North Pole, Santa’s toy warehouse has been robbed. Camilla’s toys are taken too. A toy taker in a blimp has stolen them. Rudolph, his girlfriend, the elf with Abominable Snowman and gold miner in tow pretend they are toys so the toy taker will take them. Once in the blimp they go after the toy taker. He escapes, but later is captured. This is where the big surprise comes in, just who is the toy taker? Nice ending. As an adult I actually enjoyed this show. It’s nice that in the end Rudolph doesn’t want a normal nose. He’s okay with being different. The highlight of the movie for me was when the hippo sings her song. It’s catchy and cute.

Movie Review: Ice Age

Movie Title: Ice Age. Animation. Rated PG. PG rating was probably given due to the fighting and slapstick scenes. I saw this movie with a nine-year-old boy. He thought it was funny. As grown up, I thought it was middle of the road. The movie takes place during the Ice Age when woolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers and Neanderthals roamed the earth. It has a simple plot: A sloth, mammoth, saber-tooth tiger, and saber-tooth squirrel join forces to return a pee-wee Neanderthal to his people.

Movie Review: Madagascar

Movie Title: Madagascar. Animation film. Rated PG. It's an okay film. Not great, not bad. It has its moments. I expected Madagascar to be better from its trailers.
Story line: A zebra at New York's Central Park zoo makes a break for it. His three friends, a hippo, giraffe, and lion, go after him. The animals are all caught and returned to the zoo. An animal rights group, thinking the animals escaped because they don't like being in captivity, get the animals sent back to their homeland via boat. On route home an accident occurs and the crates carrying the four friends falls in the ocean. The animals end up in Madagascar. There they have to learn to get along to survive. The lion (voice of Ben Stiller) and the zebra (voice of Chris Rock) are the best characters in the movie.

Movie Review: Aladdin

Movie Title: Aladdin. Disney animation film. Musical. Robin Williams does an amazing job as the voice of the genie. In fact, his funny antics steal the show. Aladdin's worth renting just because of him. Plot: It's time for Arabian Princess, Jasmine, to marry. However, she has to marry a royal. Along comes a peasant who wants to marry her. Lucky for him he comes across a magic lamp. The Genie in the lamp turns this commoner into a prince. But before Aladdin can marry his princess he must thwart the plan of an evil sorcerer. The movie is appealing to both boys and girls. Side note: A couple of moms have told me they don’t like the mid-drift top Jasmine wears in the movie.

Movie Review: Chitty, Chitty Bang-Bang

Movie Title: Chitty, Chitty Bang-Bang. Kid movie with music. Rated G. Though the Child Catcher may be scary for young kids! I know it was for me when I was little.

Eccentric inventor and widowed father Mr. Potts creates some pretty nifty stuff. But nothing as cool as his flying and floating car. Potts, at the wheel of his flying car, travels to Vulgaria with his children and girlfriend, Truly Scrumptious. Ms. Scrumptious is the daughter of a candy magnate. Once in Vulgaria they think it's strange there are no children around. A horrible man, the Child Catcher, catches children and puts them in his jail like vehicle. Scene not to be missed: Potts (the talented song and dance man Dick Van Dyke) and Scrumptious do a dance routine dressed up as puppets. The Potts children are saved in the end, but for some little kids the Child Catcher is so creepy it could give them nightmares. By age ten or eleven, kids shouldn't be so disturbed by this.

Movie Review: Tooth Fairy

Movie Title: Tooth Fairy. Comedy. Rated PG. I sat through this movie but I wouldn't want to sit through it again. That said my fellow movie viewers, two kids under the age of eleven, liked it. Kids are easier to please I figure. I did like the performance from Julie Andrews though.
Plot: When a hockey player squashes a child's hopes he is sentenced to be a tooth fairy for a week. He has to wear the outfit and all. The movie has its funny moments, but it's a predictable movie overall.

Movie Review: The Swan Princess

Movie Title: The Swan Princess. Animation film. Rated G. This is movie for little girls. It's got the beautiful princess. An evil sorcerer. A curse the princess must overcome. And a handsome prince. Despite all this it's watchable for adults. Of course I wouldn't rent it for myself, but if a little girl asked if I'd watch it with her I wouldn't cringe. Trust me with some kid movies I actually do this. I'm not keen on predictable boring movies. Plus, I'm past the Saturday morning cartoon stage in my life. The movie is based on a children's fairy tale of the same name. In this version a princess is turned into a swan by a sorcerer. Only true love can set her free. Everything in-between is just to get to the happy ending.

Movie Review: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle

Movie Title: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Rated PG. I was reluctant to watch this movie because I heard it wasn't very good. And true to what I heard it wasn't very good. It wasn't even okay. It was boring. I cringed while watching it. I'd rather clean the cupboards than have to watch this movie again. To be honest I never liked the cartoon Rocky and Bullwinkle. But still this movie was absolutely mind-numbingly dull. It was totally unexciting. I don’t recommend renting it.
Fearless Leader and two of his Russian cohorts, Boris and Natasha, turn from cartoon characters to actual people. They try to kill cartoon characters Rocky and Bullwinkle, a squirrel and a moose. Fearless leader wants to take over the government and he wants the American people to vote for him as their leader. With the help of a female FBI agent, Rocky and Bullwinkle make a pitch to the American people to vote for who they want.

Movie Review; The Last Unicorn

Movie Title: The Last Unicorn. Animation film. Rated G. This is a film for kids who like unicorns. My niece when she was little really liked this movie. It's not a funny film, but as an adult it's watchable if you have to watch it with a child. The cute unicorn might have something to do with it. But it's not the best animation.
Plot: A unicorn searches for her siblings. A wizard turns her into a maiden. As fantasy life would have it a prince meets her and falls madly in love with her. But she's a unicorn. Not the best animation.

Movie Review: Road to Utopia

Movie Title: Road to Utopia. One of the Hope and Crosby Road Trip movies. Comedy. Family movie.
My nephew and I loved this movie! I've seen Road to Utopia over and over and I'm never bored. Vaudeville isn't working out for Chester (Bob Hope) and Duke (Bing Crosby). They head for colder pastures in Alaska. On the way there they get mixed up with two ruffians, Sperry and McGurk. The pair have on them a stolen gold mine map. To dodge authorities, Hope and Crosby pose as Sperry and McGurk. They soon learn there's more to these bad men than they thought. The town is scared stiff of them. They have the worst reputations around. This movie is Hope and Crosby at their best. And finally Hope gets Lamour in the end. However, Crosby still bests him in the very end. I highly recommend this movie for families with kids age ten and older.

Movie Review: Sister Act

Movie Title: Sister Act. Comedy. Rated PG. For older children and teens. This movie is worth renting. If it's not on your movie list, put it there. The plot is great. And it's extremely funny in places. The movie starts out with lounge singer Delores (Whoopie Goldberg) witnessing her mobster boyfriend telling his thug to shoot a man. (It sounds bad, but there is no blood and a silencer is used so it's not loud). Delores goes to the Feds who hide her out in a nunnery until they can bring her boyfriend to trial. Delores, who's as close to nun as a Frankfurter, has to learn to fit in at the convent. She even has to disguise herself and wear a habit. With her background as a singer, Mother Superior gives Delores the job of instructing the choir how to sing. The sisters learn to sing some mighty upbeat choir tunes with some words changed from oldie songs.