The Rocketeer

Long before La La Land was lauded for bringing back classic Hollywood glamour a little known film called The Rocketeer had already done a bang up job thank you very much.  A mere 5 years since her awkward teenager Labyrinth persona Jennifer Connelly surprises us all as a drop dead gorgeous 1930's Hollywood bombshell (I adore her dress in the club scene) and Timothy Dalton plays a perfect Clark Gable-esque figure (with a twist - no spoilers!!).

Who is The Rocketeer?  This masked man of mystery?  The movie reveals that he is in fact Cliff, a young, impetuous pilot who discovers a jet-pack and after debuting it at an airshow finds himself in way over his head with all the bad guys hot on his tail.  They steal his girl and he has to do everything he can to get her back with the aid of his trusty mechanic sidekick/mentor.

Rating: We really enjoyed The Rocketeer and will watch it again sometime.  It is a good old fashioned action/adventure movie with some decent plot twists.  Cliff will get a bit annoying but he's really just a nice boy who is out of his depth so we'll give him a pass.

Naughty bits: This movie is suitable for kids double digits and older as the themes are more mature (war, kidnapping, gangsters, a couple of dead bodies) and there is quite a bit of gun violence (no blood).  I'm making it sound worse than it is maybe? so check the IMDB parental guidance page to see if your kids are up to it.  No sexy bits unless you count a couple of kisses and Jennifer's club dress!  And it does give an opportunity to talk about WW2 which is a good history lesson to pass onto your kids.

Snacks: Tomato Soup

Family In-quotes: "I do my own stunts!"

Related Goodies:
Real Life Jetpack
and there is a reboot in the works *groan*

The Flintstones

Who here in internet land has fond memories of the TV show The Flintsones?  Yabadabadoo!  All of us, that's who!  The classic 1960's series was re-run well into our childhoods so why not watch the live action movie and introduce the fun to our kids?  Well, the idea was a good one...

Lets start with the casting: John Goodman as Fred and Rick Moranis (see our previous post) as Barney.  Great.  The set: A whole town set built to look prehistoric with "mod-cons" and dinosaur puppets.  Excellent stuff.  The costumes:  Authentic to the TV show and outrageous.  Good, good.  The plot:  Here's where things go horribly wrong.  The writers turn what was a fun, happy go lucky cartoon into a serious story about a corporate takeover and the ramifications.  They even split apart the Fred and Barney bromance!  But worst of all, it was B.O.R.I.N.G.  So boring in fact that the kid fell asleep and we fast forwarded through much of the last third.

Rating: Needless to say we did not enjoy The Flintstones and will be happy for it to be lost to history.  This was so sad because visually there was so much we liked about it but ultimately it was not worth our time.


Naughty bits: The Flintstones is as clean as Wilma's lil' white dress.

Snacks: Bronto Burgers

Family In-quotes: "Yabadabado!"

Related Goodies:

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

My husband and I hadn't thought about Rick Moranis in years until we started listening to the Pop Rewind Podcast.  One of the hosts, Linz, has a soft spot for the bespectacled 80's actor and it got us thinking about his filmography.  Of course, Honey I Shrunk the Kids came up and we had to show it to our kid.
  
Honey I Shrunk the Kids tells the story of an aspiring inventor who is working on a shrink ray.  Things are not going well until an accident gets his invention working.  Unbeknownst to him the machine shrinks his kids down to the size of ants and they get lost in the back garden where they spend most of the movie trying to get home again.

Rating: Honey I Shrunk the Kids is heartwarming and funny and features an amazing animatronic ant.  I especially liked the cranky neighbour who is sooo like Jim Carrey (but isn't him).  We will watch this again sometime.

Naughty bits: Honey I Shrunk the Kids is as clean as the kitchen after the house cleaning montage (love those montages).  However I don't recommend for very young viewers as the insect scenes are pretty intense for little kids and might make them [more] scared of bugs and creepy crawlies.

Snacks: Cereal

Family In-quotes: "I'm not panicking. [shouts] Who's panicked? Nobody's panicked!"

Related Goodies:
Rick Moranis also starred in Ghostbusters (not for kids)
Make your own Shrink Ray
Where is Rick now?

George of the Jungle

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and we were all lolling about the house.  A good time for a movie so we cracked out the late 90's comedy George of the Jungle, based on the late '60's TV series.




George of the Jungle tells the story of George, a Tarzan type character who was raised by apes in the jungle, and his inevitable discovery by a sweet young lady Ursula.  She persuades George to come with her back to civilization but George realizes the jungle is his home and returns.  When he arrives home he discovers that Ursula's dastardly fiance is trying to kidnap his friends! and George has do everything he can to rescue them.

Rating: We enjoyed George of the Jungle.  Sure it's super cheesy and over the top but that's its charm (and it's a kids movie people).  If you enjoy silly fun you will enjoy George of the Jungle.  We will watch this again in a little while.

Naughty bits: Not too much for the kids to worry about; some mild cartoon violence, a few kisses and some mild language but it's the mums you have to worry about in this film.  Brendan Fraser is looking mighty fine in this film and you see most of his hot bod for most of the movie.  You have been warned husbands...

Snacks: Bananas or other jungley food

Family In-quotes: "Watch out for that tree!"

Related Goodies:
The Original Series
Another great movie from the glory days of Brendan Fraser - The Mummy (not suitable for kids; too scary)
Tarzan - the animated Disney film