We are a family that loves movies and TV shows. Each week I’ll share what we watched and what we thought about them. I hope it will give you good insight and even some ideas if you’re stuck finding something new.
1.The Haunted Mansion. We were in the mood for something Halloween, but not too scary. Eddie Murphy plays a realtor. He and his wife are called by the owner of an old mansion who asks for their assistance in selling it. They are heading out of town on a family adventure and decide to just stop by and take a look. Upon arriving, they are greeted by a rather creepy butler and a couple of house servants. A storm rolls in and they are forced to stay the night. When they meet the owner, he is unusually fascinated by the wife and their kids find out why when they snoop around and find a painting of a woman that looks just like her. It is discovered that all in the mansion are actually ghosts with a tragic past. It’s rated PG, but I think littles might be scared of some of the ghost and haunted parts (you can read the parent guide here).
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas. This has been a long time Glenn family tradition, that the night before Halloween we carve pumpkins and watch The Nightmare before Christmas while we do. I absolutely love this movie–the story, the songs–it’s just wonderful. I didn’t even pay much attention to the screen this year–I know just about every line and sing along to every song. “This is Halloween, this is Halloween……” It’s rated PG, but it has kind of creepy feel to it (it’s a Tim Burton–they all do), so I think littles might not enjoy it as much. (You can read the parent guide here).
3. Cellular. Super Rockstar and I stumbled across this gem as we saw that it was a Jason Statham movie we hadn’t seen yet. So, it’s from the early 2000’s when cell phones were just in their baby beginnings and Nokia had just come out with the technology to record videos. On your phone. As we all gasped at the wonder of it all and there were some movies that came out–that now seem quite cheesy when you consider how far technology has come. Anyway, it’s a pretty good story–Kim Basinger plays a wife who gets kidnapped and in her attempt to fix the smashed phone where they are keeping her, she manages to get a hold of a random guy on his cell phone (played by Chris Evans). He ends up helping her, chases down the bad guys, helps her escape, and saves the day–all with his handy dandy Nokia. Ah…the wonders of modern day technology. It’s rated PG-13 and it’s probably just fine for older kids (you can read the parent review guide here).
4. Dune. This is new out in theaters, but we have HBO Max and it is showing for free right now on their app. I’m not sure I ever saw the original–I had heard the pace was pretty slow moving. The movie has wonderful scenery, very cool space ships and I loved the story, but I’m sorry to say that they didn’t pick up the pacing at all. There are a ton of big name actors, but I found myself underwhelmed by it–because the story seemed to drag and I felt confused at times on what was going on. It’s rated PG-13 and I think it’s just fine for that age range, (you can read the parent guide here).
I would love to hear your opinions and any suggestions you may have of what to watch.