Saturday, April 26, 2008

New Additions to Favorite Movies

We have "family night" every Friday night and we usually watch a movie that everyone is interested in seeing. For awhile we were really having trouble finding some good ones, but the last two we watched have been absolutely wonderful!!

I have to preface my reviews with a disclaimer. We occassionally (and very selectively) watch movies with "magic" in them. If you do not watch those kinds of movies, these movies might not be for you...especially the first. Also, neither of these movies is a Christian film, although neither of them is anti-Christian either. One last thing. There is a little bit of bad language in the second movie. (mostly of the very English kind, like bloody this, or bloody that) I don't remember any in the first movie though.

Okay....drumroll please.....the newest additions to our favorite movies are:

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium



This movie was simply magical, if you don't mind my saying so. Michael and I loved this movie as much, if not more than, the kids. The funny thing is, I really don't like Dustin Hoffman very much, but I loved him in this movie. He was great! And the rest of the cast was wonderful as well. I fell in love with all the characters (including the shop, which is quite a character itself) and I was just enchanted with the movie. I have heard people say this movie is sad, and it does deal with death. However, I don't think that death is the main theme by any means. In fact, I think this movie is much more about how you live and believing in yourself (and others). There is one mention of heaven and a response that brings up other religions' ideas about afterlife. My kids were not shocked by it, though, they just said "yeah right, we don't believe in that stuff." The movie was fantastic and I already can't wait to watch it again. It is the kind of movie where I know I will catch more and more every time I watch it.

I will warn you...for some reason this movie seems to bring out a big response in everyone. They either love it or hate it. I have hardly read any reviews that are middle of the road. Try it at your own risk. ;-) And then let me know what you think...


And....for our second addition to our favorite movies.....are you ready???


The Waterhorse



We saw this one last night/this morning and it is fabulous! This one I did find to be a little sad, but not enough to keep me from enjoying the movie completely. (The sadness was actually afterwards) I have always had a wee bit of interest (say that with a Scottish accent for full effect) in the Loch Ness Monster and this movie explains the myth. The story is very imaginative and yet also includes WWII in it enough that I could almost call this a "school movie!" Okay, that might be stretching it a little... Anyway, this movie has mention of magic in the myths, but no actual magic is seen to happen (that is, if you don't count the wonderful special effects). It might be considered slightly scary for the younger crowd, but all of mine watched it without problem. (And Emily doesn't usually like scary stuff) I loved the multiple story lines and even dreamt of the movie last night. I adored the sea creature: Crusoe, and wish I had some animal right now that I could name Crusoe in memory of him/her. He/She was AWESOME! (you will know what I mean by that after you watch)

So...those are the two newest movies to add to our favorites list. We are going to see National Treasure II as soon as it comes out on video, too, and are hoping that will be one to add to our list as well. We are really looking forward to it! Have any of you seen it? What did you think?

2 comments:

A&EMom said...

We saw The Waterhorse last night too! My 4 yr old was a teeny bit tense toward the end, but decided Crusoe saved the people and all was right with the world again. I was afraid the dog part was going to be horrible, but apparently E felt the mutt got his just desserts!

The Zandi Zoo said...

Cool. I was wondering about both of those movies. I always love when you review movies and books. So helpful. :-)

Ian saw National Treasure II when it was in the theatre. He enjoyed it.