Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

This retelling of the classic children's picture book of the same name starts off pretty "paint by numbers irritating kid's movie" but give it a chance because as the family's bad day escalates so do the laughs.  By the end things are pretty surreal but hilarious and we were glad we persevered through the beginning.  And I really, really want a copy of Dick Van Dyke's book!  Nope, I'm not giving away the spoiler to that hint, you will have to find that comedy gold yourself.

Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner convincingly play 40 something parents struggling to balance mid life crisis', work and a bunch of school age kids and the kid actors are great too but Alexander's lisp is somewhat distracting (sorry kid!) rather than endearing.


Rating: We've never read the picture book so we enjoyed the movie for what it was.  We'll watch it again sometime in the future but likely to YouTube our favourite scenes more often.

Naughty bits: Alexander and the ... is suitable for above 5yrs or so.  There are lots of slapstick moments where characters appear to be injured (and would definitely be in real life) but no one is hurt so it's OK!  A little mild potty humour here and there spice things up a bit but overall a pretty clean family movie.  However nothing remains literally clean in this universe for long...

Snacks: Go out for Japanese BBQ together then come home and watch the movie.

Family In-quotes: "This day is so cursed"

Related Goodies:
The Book which inspired the movie

Peter Rabbit

aka General Hux's worst holiday ever.

The books are classics, the characters are beloved, what could go wrong?  Hmmm, where do I start...  To be fair kid 2 loved this movie.  But kid 2 is five and Peter Rabbit has cute animals, plenty of visual gags and bright colours so if you want your five year old to be entertained alone for an hour or so then Peter Rabbit is great!

But is Peter Rabbit good for the whole family?  Not so much.  We [parents and kid 1] were irritated by the random pop numbers which peppered the soundtrack, we were confused and bored by the abundance of obvious "comedians riffing with each other" scenes and the characters were SO contrived!  I would much rather watched a few episodes of The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends (link below) instead.
 
Rating: We will not watch this again and we are all secretly relieved that the youngest member is happy watching the Peter Rabbit TV series on Netflix and has not requested a re-view of the movie.

Naughty bits: There is much cartoon violence against CGI animals which very young viewers may find disturbing.  School age and above should have no worries unless especially sensitive to animals and threats made toward them.

Snacks: Carrot sticks and dip

Family In-quotes: "I've chilled out, man. I'm cool now"

Related Goodies:
The Peter Rabbit TV Series
Miss Potter movie
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends TV Series

Harry Potter: All the movies!

The children in our big kid's class at school have been discovering the magical world of Harry Potter this year and talking about it plenty.  Our kid is not the world's keenest reader so we decided to do things the fast way and get to know the world through film.  Over the Christmas holidays we had plenty of late nights available so we sat down every night for a week and watched the entire series together.


In case you have been held hostage by an obscure tribe for the past 20!! years and are unfamiliar with the Harry Potter saga, it tells the story of a young man who discovers he is a wizard and is whisked away from his ordinary life to a magical world where he attends wizard school, makes great friends and discovers an evil wizard that he must confront and defeat.  The world depends on it!


Rating:  We really enjoyed immersing ourselves in the Harry Potter universe; it truly is a magical place and we will definitely watch them again in a year or two.  There are wonderful themes of good vs. evil and friendship and love conquering all, even the glaring plot holes.  However the last book being split over two movies was a bit unnecessary and we did get a little bored in the second to last movie.

Naughty bits: There is some magical violence (killing/knocking out with spells) and a few kisses/teen romance but this is the tame stuff.  Harry Potter has some really creepy special effects and themes starting in the first film and things get darker and darker as the series goes on.  For this reason I would strongly recommend reading the parental advisory notes on IMDB and making sure your child is mature enough to handle them or you will be up for a few nights with crying and nightmares!!  For this reason we waited until our kid was at least double digits before even suggesting it and we described some of the creepy stuff to her to make sure she was OK.  She was; whew!

Snacks: Chocolate frogs (Freddo!)

Family In-quotes: "You're a wizard Harry"

Related Goodies:
J K Rowling Website
Warner Bros studio Tour (where it was filmed!)
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook

Paddington

 @Peter Peterson - your request has been heard and actioned!  We sat down this Friday to watch Paddington; this time as a whole family.  Number 2 kid (nearly 4) is much younger than number 1 so she doesn't usually join us for movie night.  This time we made an exception because we'd heard there was nothing in Paddington to worry about and plenty of visual gags to keep her attention.  It turned out to be a good decision because she watched it several times in the days after that night and loved it every time.

Rating: Paddington works on a few levels.  Plenty of visual gags and crazy situations for the younger ones, some suspense for the older ones and some wise cracking dialogue for the adults.  I loved the banter between the husband and wife.

Naughty bits:  Paddington is as clean as Millicent's lab coat and suitable for all ages.  I'm gonna give the one incidence of drunkedness a pass.

Snacks:  Marmalade on toast

Family In-quotes: "Hello.  Is it me you're looking for?"

Related Goodies:
The books which inspired the movie 
Recipe for Marmalade

Matilda

This 90's adaption of the classic Roald Dahl novel is soooo much fun.  It stars an adorable Mara Wilson with hilarious performances by Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman and Pam Ferris as Mrs Trunchbull is amazing!  She totally steals the show.

I think this movie really captured the over the top craziness of Roald Dahl's stories.  A younger child may be a little frightened by Mrs Trunchbull and her outrageous punishments (and her creepy house) but older kids (ours included) will just find it funny.

Rating: If you are a fan of Roald Dahl you will enjoy this adaptation.  Repeated viewings may be too much for an adult but the kids will probably want to see it again and again.

Naughty bits:  There are some mature themes (murder and adoption) and some cartoon violence but it's mostly as tame as Miss Honey.

Snacks:  Chocolate cake

Family In-quotes: "Chew your food; you're an animal!"

Related Goodies:
The new BFG movie has been announced but the old one is still pretty cool
Roald Dahl

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

 After listening to the audiobooks (and starting to read the books) of the Narnia series we reckoned our kid would be ready to watch the movie.  I think director Adam Adamson captured the magical atmosphere of my imagination's Narnia although the movie moved along a little slowly.

Our kid felt like the movie depiction of Narnia lived up to her imagination too and she enjoyed it but she really didn't like the scene where Aslan is killed by the White Witch (plot spoiler) and she couldn't watch it. 

Rating: Worth seeing the movie if you are fan of the books but I think we will leave it for a good few years before we watch it again.  Too slow for repeat viewings.

Naughty bits:  There are some mature themes (war/oppression), violence and scary animal moments but no sexy-time concerns.

Snacks:  Turkish Delight

Family In-quotes: "Come on, humans. While we're still young!"

Related Goodies:
Narnia wiki
BBC Narnia mini series