Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle offers a classic reboot for the video game generation

Movie Title:  Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

Grade:  B+

Rating:  PG-13, 112 minutes

In a Nutshell:   This fun franchise is still alive and entertaining audiences!  Start with a cast of fresh faces and add in a hefty serving of Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson, with a half pint of Kevin Hart and a good dose of Jack Black and you get an entertaining third movie.

It pays respectful tribute to the popular first Jumanji movie, which I loved, and offers a video game twist with a soulful lesson for the young video game generation.  Dwayne Johnson explained that it’s not really a reboot, but a sequel to the original movie and a tribute to the wonderful Robin Williams.  There is a scene where the characters get to Seaplane McDonough’s camp with Robin Williams’ character’s name on it: Alan Parrish.  Sweet.  I sure miss Robin Williams and love that they tried to honor him with this movie.

Tips for parents: 

• Young children won’t understand a lot of the subtle references to other movies, but they’ll still really enjoy this one.
• The bad news is that some of the teens drink alcohol, but the good news is that most of them don’t like it!  Ha ha
• Two of the boys cheat and then lie about it.
• Some profanity.
• A LOT of discussion about male body parts.

 

Uplifting theme: 

• “We only have one life.  Which guy are you going to decide to be?” – Fridge/Kevin Hart
• Sacrifice for others, friendship, loyalty
• Confidence, self-esteem
• “You can’t waste lives.  Each one matters.  Like it or not, we have to do this together.” – Spencer/Dwayne Johnson    (TRUE!)

                             

Things I liked:

• Lots of humor.  The running joke is that these great comedic actors play against type.  Surprisingly, it doesn’t get old and makes for a fun ride.

• Dwayne, the Rock, Johnson.  I love him in everything he does.  Lots of smolder jokes.  I love that he can laugh at himself.
• I always get a kick out of movie references inside movies.  In this film, you’ll hear and see clever nods to classic kid movies like The Breakfast Club, Freaky Friday, and The Goonies   
• While Nick Jonas isn’t a great actor, he was just nominated for a Golden Globe for his song Home in the movie Ferdinand.  Good for him!  His character in Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle was going to be played by Tom Holland, but he was already busy filming Spider-Man: Homecoming .
• I LOVE LOVE LOVE Guardians of the Galaxy (Theatrical), but it was nice to see Karen Gillan’s real face instead of her completely covered in make-up as Nebula.  Her skimpy outfit was actually inspired by Lara Croft’s outfit from the original Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition - Xbox One video games.  She makes a joke about how ridiculous it was to wear such an outfit in the jungle.  Ha ha  Some people have been critical of her sexist outfit, yet it’s pretty true to how women are dressed in video games.  By the way, a remake of the Tomb Raider movie hits theaters in 2018!  
• The movie was filmed in beautiful Hawaii.

Things I didn’t like:

• You can’t always understand what Kevin Hart says.  Actually, he rarely “says” anything…he yells everything.  Hart is the personification of caffeine.  Sometimes it’s just too much.
• Funny gross kiss.  Bleh.
• Creepy, crawly bugs go in and out of Van Pelt’s ears and mouth.  Ick.  Van Pelt is the name of the villain in the first movie too, where he is an animal hunter.  In this one, the villain (Bobby Cannavale) has control over animals and insects in the jungle.
• Although necessary to bridge the gap between the last two movies and this one, there is a long expository scene to help you understand what is happening.
• It always bugs me a little bit when the lines in trailers are actually different from what plays in the movie.  Speaking of the trailer, the Guns N Roses song Welcome To The Junglenbsp;plays in it, which is one of the reasons why the film’s subtitle is Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle.
• The original Jumanji is much better and cleaner.

Funny lines:

• “The fact that I’m not Instagramming this right now is insane.” – Bethany/Jack Black
• “You don’t get in water with a backpack.  Everybody knows that!” – Fridge/Kevin Hart
• “That was so intense.  I like can’t even with this place!” – Bethany/Jack Black
• “Now sparkle like an anime character!” – Bethany/Jack Black
• “A nibble goes a long way, girlfriend.” – Bethany/Jack Black
• “There are so many diseases out here.” – Spencer/Dwayne Johnson
• “You’re aware there are other people in the world, right?” – Teacher (Maribeth Monroe)
• “Are you going to help or are you two pretty?” – Young Martha (Morgan Turner)

“I’m too pretty.” – Young Bethany (Madison Iseman)

                                         

Interesting lines:

• “I’m so focused on myself I don’t see what others are dealing with.” – Bethany/Jack Black
• “Board game? Who plays board games?” – Teenager (Mason Guccione)

                                             @trinaboice 

Night at the Museum nods a fond farewell to fans, Robin Williams, and Mickey Rooney

Movie:  Night at the Museum 3

PG, 1 hour 30 minutes

Grade: B

In a Nutshell:  If you’re a fan of this edutainment franchise, you’ll enjoy seeing some of your favorite characters again, as well as meeting a few new ones, including a Neanderthal that looks like Larry Daley (Ben Stiller)  and Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey Season 1-3 ).  We get to visit the famous British Museum while slapsticking our way through calculated goofy moments and funny lines.

The door is always open for another sequel, but it also feels like the dust may settle on this one as an appropriate and fond farewell.  There are a few touching moments and enough humorous ones to keep the entire family entertained.

Uplifting Theme:

·         Be careful or the magic might die.  (Is that a lesson that the new writers learned while writing this?)

   *  Family is who you surround yourself with.

   *  Enjoy every moment of life.

·          

Things I liked:

·         It was wonderful seeing Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt again.  We miss you.  Before the credits rolled at the end, the screen displayed the words “In loving memory of Mickey Rooney and Robin Williams.  Magic never dies.”  Sweet.

·         I also loved seeing Dick Van Dyke.  He’s still got moves!

·         Hugh Jackman makes a cameo performance, playing himself.  Ben Stiller's character runs past him and says “I just want to say, you’re the whole package.”

·         The star constellation performance was super cool.   "Of course they're special effects!  How could they not be special effects?"   (Dr. McPhee)

·         Capuchin on silks.  Ha ha

·         I thought the research librarian was hilarious.   “Oo la la.”

·         Great aerial views of London.  I’m going there next June with the fam!

·         Ricky Gervais does a great job playing the quirky Dr. McPhee.  The comedic timing during his awkward moments scene with Larry was fantastic.

·         Nick Daley is almost all grown up now. Skyler Gisondo has natural talent.  You might have seen him in The Amazing Spider-Man ; The Amazing Spider-Man 2 , as well asHalloween .  I'd like to see more of him.

  .    Rebel Wilson as Tilly the British Museum security guard was hilarious and should have been used more.

·          

Things I didn’t like:

·         Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and Octavius (Steve Coogan) don’t have the same magical spark they did in the first installment of this trilogy, but they were still cute.

      I would have liked to see more exhibits and characters in the British museum come to life.  There were so many more ways the movie could have poked fun at our beloved Britts.

·          

Funny lines:

·         “Who would have ever thought…I’m wax and she’s polyurethane, but it works.” – Teddy Roosevelt

·         “Summon the apparatus!” – Octavius

·         “I don’t know what’s come over me, but I like it.” – Jedediah

·         “You’ll rue the day you mocked us with your hypnotic blue eyes.” – Octavius

·         “Keep the scrunchies.”  - Tilly

·         “You can’t catch light.  It’s as evasive as human happiness.”  - Jedediah as he watches YouTube videos of kittens chase a flashlight.

·         “My boyfriend says he doesn’t like the way I do my hair.  He says it looks like a golden poo.” – Tilly

·         “With their size, they’ll bake like tiny, little scarabs in the Egyptian desert.  Too dark?” –  Rami Malek

Interesting things:

·         The investor guy with glasses in the beginning of the movie looked like the bad guy in Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Ark. He says “I can’t help but feeling we’re making a terrible mistake.”   The Indiana Jones character in this movie then says “We’re not making a mistake; we’re making history.”

·         You don’t need to stay until the end of the credits.  There are a few clips of the crew dancing, but nothing else shows once the credits begin rolling.

·          

Tips for Parents:

·         Octavius makes several odd homosexual innuendos about Sir Lancelot.

In case you missed the first 2 installments, check them out here for cheap!

Martin Luther King would have loved the movie "The Butler"

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wanted to share a review of Lee Daniels' The Butler , released just last week on DVD.   I simply don’t understand how a mediocre movie like “American Hustle” can get nominated for Golden Globe and Academy awards when powerful movies like Lee Daniels' The Butler are completely overlooked.

Movie Title:  Lee Daniels' The Butler

PG-13, 2 hours 12 minutes

Grade: A

In a Nutshell:  Packed full of awesome star power, Lee Daniels' The Butler is a sobering look at U.S. history and the evolution of black Civil Rights. The film begins with the quote “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”   “Light” has long been a symbol representing knowledge, truth, and understanding.

Lee Daniels’ gripping movie begins in 1926 Macon, Georgia where slavery was outlawed, yet still practiced culturally in the south.  “The only thing I ever knew was cotton” are the first words you hear from Cecil Gaines, a black man whose family worked on a plantation and destroyed by the bigoted, evil property owner.  Cecil’s journey takes him to the White House to serve as a butler and experience first-hand the political changes that affected a family and a nation.

For those unfamiliar with black history in this country, this “crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice” is shown in a Forest Gump-like overview through significant milestones in Civil Rights, such as: the Executive Order in Little Rock, 1960’s Fisk University, Freedom Writers [Blu-ray] , 1965 Malcolm X speaking tour, Bloody Sunday, Vietnam, The Black Panther movement in the 1960’s, and on up through President Obama. You hear the “N” word used a lot, a word defined in the film as a “white man’s word filled with hate.”

Uplifting theme:  There are many uplifting themes throughout the movie that should spark interesting conversations about equal rights at your dinner table.  It was fascinating to watch father and son approach their desire for equality and respect in different ways: one with dignity and patience, the other with reckless passion.  The screen shows the words “This film is dedicated to the men and women who fought for freedom in the Civil Rights movement.”  Thankfully, the movie points out that the group includes both white and black patriots.  It’s hard to believe that only a few decades ago, black Americans were not allowed to drink out of the same drinking fountain as Caucasians.  While our society still has a long way to go in regards to racism, we have come far.

Things I liked:

• I thought the White House dinner scene was extremely powerful, combining it with scenes from the famous Woolworth restaurant scene.  Many of the film’s montages were very well done.
• I love Robin Williams in everything.  He plays President Eisenhower in this movie.  Cecil serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler.
• I love Alan Rickman in anything.  He was a delightful Reagan.
• I also adore James Marsden and thought he was perfect as John F. Kennedy.  I appreciate it when actors actually try to use the correct accent when playing the role of a real person in history.
• I loved seeing real TV clips from history as the movie progressed through significant times in our country’s history.
• The beginning and end of the movie both show an old man sitting in a chair in the White House.  I love it when movies take you in full circle.

Things I didn’t like:

• Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey and many of the film’s actors did an excellent job, yet were left out of Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.
• I thought it was actually offensive to see Jane Fonda playing Nancy Reagan.  Casting her in any political role is sure to spark controversy.
• Mariah Carey wasn’t entirely believable as a wife of a black man, although she plays one in real life.   Oh, snap!
• Because there was so much history to cover in a short amount of time (although the movie is 2 hours 12 minutes long), some scenes seemed a bit rushed and superficial.

Funny lines:

• “We have no tolerance for politics here at the White House.”  - Maynard at the job interview.  The audience I sat in howled with laughter.
• John F. Kennedy says “I’ll be looking forward to working with you the next four years.”  Jacqueline Kennedy quickly corrects “Eight years.”

Inspiring lines:

• Referring to the White House, Gloria Gaines says “I don’t care what goes on in that house.  I care what goes on in this house.”
• “A hero is one who fights to save the soul of our country.”  - Louis
• “Americans always turn a blind eye to our won.  We look out to the world and judge.  We hear about the concentration camps, but these camps went on for 200 years in America.”  - Cecil Gaines

Tips for parents:  I thought it was interesting that the only F-bomb in the movie was spoken by the white Vice President of the United States.  There is some profanity, infidelity, lots of racism, and violence.  Not a movie for young children, but older teens may be introduced to some history that they never learned about in school.