Month: August 2016

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Do you believe in magic? Aly Michalka does…or at least her character does. Aly plays, Allyson, a smart girl who hopes to win a spot as a kid TV show producer by finding the best teen magician in the country. The first half of the movie was fun as it was doing pretty well to be mysterious. Then the ending happened. When Aly’s character overheard the bad guy’s villainous plan, we learned what he was really up to, but she kept saying how she needed to finish solving the puzzle. She only knew he was going to hurt her magician friend, Danny, who actually has real magical powers. Um, what puzzle piece is missing? we heard why he is doing it. He wants Danny’s powers. So for the last 20 minutes, we have to watch the main characters try to solve what we already know. So at that point, it started feeling long and boring. Another plus for this one, you do get to hear Aly and AJ sing “Do you believe in Magic”.

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The “Mary Poppins kids” (yes they are actually billed as The Mary Poppins kids) star in this movie about kids who, with their grandfather, discover gnomes in the California redwood forest. The family must help the gnomes find more of their kind so that the young gnome can get a mate. Of course, that is the only thing that gives the grandfather gnome a reason to live. It’s really quite an interesting story, but also pretty weird and kinda boring. After it ends, you just are left thinking, “well ok”. Especially since you just watched a scene with female gnomes playing the “whoever can hold onto him for 7 seconds gets to marry him” game. Yes, you read that right.

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A boy runs away, joins the circus and becomes best friends with Mr. Stubbs the chimp. While we were into the story of what was going to happen to Toby, sometimes it felt like you have been watching for a while without anything really happening. The big question of the movie is “Will Toby stay in the circus or go home?”. And it was never answered. Throughout the movie, the subject is brought up of him returning to his aunt and uncle that miss and need him back at the farm. But at the end, his aunt and uncle show up, watch him perform and then it ends. So does he go back to the farm? Stay in the circus? Do they stay at the circus with him? We don’t even know. Also, how did they find out he was in the circus in order to write to him? He just ran away. Did he leave them a note and tell them? And why are they okay with just writing to him for so long and not actually going to get him? The chimp is cute, though. And the puppies, and the elephants, and the horses.

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Cruella de Vil is super scary in the first one, but in this movie she isn’t scary at all.  I get that she has lost everything since the events in the first movie, but she just fizzles out as the villainess. Which is a big bummer. She is one of the greats. It was painful to see her so nonthreatening, even though they were trying to make her threatening. Perhaps it was the fact that she needed some cliche artist to help her. She needs puppy fur for art? Just make her try again for the fur coat. Don’t try and make it different just to make it different. It doesn’t work. As far as the dogs, it makes sense that Patch and the other puppies have English accents, but since they didn’t have accents in the first movie, it was kinda weird. Also, perhaps the puppies should have a buddy system so no more of them get left behind…or forgotten, as Lilo and Stitch would say. Get on that Pongo.

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I never watched the TV show that this movie was from, and after seeing the movie, I am ok with that fact. Jett Jackson is an teenage actor who stars in a television show. After work caused him to miss his prom, he’s contemplating giving that up to live a more normal life and not miss out. A power surge causes Jett Jackson to be sucked into a world where his TV show is real and his character gets pulled into our world. Make sense? The concept of the movie was interesting but it seemed to focus more on how the character is doing as Jett Jackson in the real world rather than how Jett is doing as his character in the TV world. We care more about the real Jett Jackson and how his experience is going to affect his decision about his career. We couldn’t help but wonder why Jett’s grandma is so accepting of the fact that he is a fake Jett? She just tells him, you are not Jett, but I still love you. What is that about?

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If you are looking for a review of how this remake compares to the original, then you are going to have to keep on looking. This remake is so different than the 1977 classic. While they are some similarities, like there is a boy and his dragon as well as a lady and her father, the storyline is completely it’s own and we liked it. Once I told my brain to stop trying to make this movie fit into the original, I was able to enjoy it and see it stand on it’s own feet (or fly with it’s own wings?). Elliot was so well designed. He looked like a real dragon while still looking kid friendly and sweet, which is exactly how he should look. It definitely is a drama, though, and does it’s best to hit you in the feels and make you cry. If you are prone to crying, you may want to bring tissues.

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This one was worse the the third even though it was set in Hawaii. It had nothing to do with a “parent trap” other than it is the same characters from the third movie. Again, it mostly is about teen girl drama with some real estate issues on the side. Another movie made, just for the sake of making it. Overall, it was pretty boring, but we still love Hayley Mills.

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Hayley Mills reprises her famous roles as twins Susan and Sharon for this made for TV movie. In the Parent Trap II, Sharon’s daughter and friend set their parents up. In this movie, it’s Susan’s turn. Susan apparently is the one divorced now and meets a guy whose triplet girls want to stop their dad from marrying another woman. So of coarse the only option is to “trap” him with Susan instead.  Our question is, why? Why was this movie made? The actual “parent trap” trick is only about 10 minutes of the movie. The majority of the movie is about these teenage girls and teenage girl lives. It seems that Hayley Mills, which is the reason we would want to watch the movie, is more of a side note. And will those twins ever stay happily married or are they just going to continue to get divorced and then set up? So while we aren”t fans of this movie, we are a fans of Saved By the Bell. If you are too, you’ll recognize the actress who plays Tori. She is actually a triplet. See if you can pick which one she is.

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Chicken Little is a movie that when we start watching it, we wonder why we don’t watch it more often. Then we get the the ending and remember why. The first half of the movie is great. It’s funny, clever and fun meeting the characters and the world they live in. We like the idea that the sky is “actually falling” but (SPOILER ALERT) once the aliens come, it just loses the charm that was created. Suddenly it’s this weird action chaotic mess. While the ending isn’t our favorite, it doesn’t completely ruin the movie. We still recommend it, especially so you can see Fish Out of Water.

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