Princess Protection Program

Some little girls don't care what they wear, some little girls are little princesses from day one.  Pink!  Poofy dresses!  Tiaras!  Fairy Wings!  All at once!  Kid 2 is the little princess in our family.  She loves pretty things and all things sweet and magical, with a bit of Pokemon thrown in for good measure.  One always needs a trusty Pokemon sidekick on one's adventures.  But I digress, back to princess business; and the protection of them.

It was a cold night and I wanted nothing more than to cuddle up in bed with kid 2 and indulge in a chick flick on the laptop.  Kid 2 was all in so we found Princess Protection Program on Netflix and gave it a shot.

Selena Gomez is just a regular small town teenager with small town problems until her secret agent father brings home an unexpected housemate.  The housemate turns out to be the crown princess of an obscure South American? (think Cuba) island and Selena's father has been charged with protecting her.  Selena is roped into training the princess (Ariana Grande) in the ways of the American teenager.  Things are rocky at first but the girls come to learn from each other and grow together. 

Rating: PPP is not a great movie; the plot and characters are very cookie cutter, but it's good enough watch once with your little princess.  You can admire pretty things together and get all girl powered up.  The one plot twist is that Selena and Ariana resist the urge to break into song mid-movie!

Naughty bits: Some of the relationship/crushing moments are more suitable for teen/tween viewers; only because a younger viewer will not understand what they are talking about, and will therefore be bored.  The rest is as clean as Selena Gomez's pearly whites.

Snacks: Cereal - that you make yourself

Family In-quotes: "I will turn the other cheek, because that is what princesses do"

Related Goodies:
A fairly similar but much better Princess movie: The Princess Diaries

Men in Black

In the late 90's Will Smith was the king of cinema and Men in Black is one of his best remembered blockbusters from this time period.  We remembered it being pretty fun so we dragged kid 1 down memory lane with us.

Smith plays an earnest cop who goes beyond the call of duty to get his guy but this time he gets more than he bargains for when his guy is not a guy, but an alien!  Shortly after this he is drafted into a super secret government agency whose job is to police the universe and all alien life; he becomes a Man in Black...  and part of this call of duty is to save the world, blah, blah blah... and save it he does!  With the help of his mentor Tommy Lee Jones, some fun alien tech and badass sunglasses.


What surprised us about Men in Black was that the special effects and humour held up pretty well.  Yeah the plot was paint-by-numbers but it was a pretty fun movie and we wished that more light hearted action movies like MIB and other 90's blockbusters were around today.



Rating: Like I said, we had a fun time!  And a fun enough time that we will probably watch MIB again in a few years time (with kid 2). 

Naughty bits: MIB is a more mature kids movie.  I would recommend your kid is in double digits before showing them. The language is a bit coarse, there is heaps of human vs. alien violence and the monster at the end is pretty gross and a bit scary.  Entomophobics beware; the bugs are plentiful and creepy crawly.

Snacks: Popcorn!  with green jelly

Family In-quotes: "Put up your arms and all your flippers!"

Related Goodies:
Men in Black spin off TV Series