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

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

Incredibles 2

Some have argued that the golden age of Pixar is over and judging by their latest sequels (bar Toy Story 3) you would be inclined to agree.  So it was with a little trepidation that we took the morning off these school holidays to see Incredibles 2.  Would it disappoint like the Cars series?  Or would it pleasantly surprise us like Toy Story 3?

 Well... it lived up to it's name baby!  Incredibles 2 is pretty incredible.  A good story, great characters and plenty of action make for a great follow up to one of our favourite family movies.  Incredibles 2 picks up where part 1 left off and follows the family as they navigate politics, math and Jack Jack's new powers (OK spoiler alert but it's in the trailers!).

As we walked into the cinema there were multiple warnings that the film contains flashing sequences which could trigger epilepsy or sensory conditions and they are to be taken seriously!  This film is pretty full on and if the flashing sequences don't trigger your kid then the non-stop action may do.  However we loved the world of the Incredibles and the production design of part 2 is so cool.  I also want to live in a futuristic 1960's with today's modern technology!

Rating: We really enjoyed Incredibles 2 and will definitely watch it again when it hits digital release.  The chemistry between the family members is so spot on and makes you want to be one of Bob and Helen's kids just to be a part of it.

Naughty bits: See trigger warning above plus there is HEAPS of fighting in this movie.  More than the previous one!  Also a couple of sequences of sinister looking characters so I don't think Incredibles 2 is suitable for very young or sensitive children.  My youngest at 5years loved it but she is not sensitive at all LOL

Snacks: Chocolate chip cookies

Family In-quotes: "Num num, cookie!"

Related Goodies:
The Incredibles original movie.  ESSENTIAL viewing!

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

Prince of Persia

I'm no gamer but I married into a family of gamers so we were keen to see Prince of Persia when it came out.  As a side-liner of gaming culture I was familiar with Persia and it's beloved Prince but not enough to know the story-line of the game etc.  All that to say that whilst reviewers have criticized the movie for not being remotely close to the game except in name and hairstyle I came at it from a more ignorant perspective and this possibly increased my enjoyment of it.

The movie begins with the betrayal of Persia's youngest prince, Dastan, an adopted child of the king.  He spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out who betrayed him, and why, with the reluctant help of a neighbouring kingdom's lovely princess.

Ben Kingsley as the dastardly uncle and Alfred Molina as the ostrich racer steal the show with their campy performances and Jerry Bruckheimer pulls out all the stops to create some exciting action sequences and over the top sets.

Rating: Sometimes I think movie reviewers expect too much from a movie.  PoP is not a complicated movie; the plot is paint by numbers and the characters are fairly cookie cutter but this is to be expected from this sort of popcorn blockbuster.  If you don't sweat the details too much and settle in for a rollicking good time then you will have one.  We will watch it again in a few years.

Naughty bits: As to be expected with a movie based on a computer game there is a lot of fighting and plenty of people die but in a bloodless, goreless fashion so it's not suitable for younger kids.  Also if you hate snakes then you shouldn't watch this movie, there are quite a few creepy snake shots.  There is little sexual behaviour between the characters but the two headliners are often sensuously dressed so if you have teens who you won't want looking at Jake Gyllenhaal's muscles or Gemma Arteton's curves for most of the movie then you have been warned.  

Snacks: A platter of crackers, hummus, dips and olives

Family In-quotes: "Your whole plan is suicide!"

Related Goodies:
 The Game which inspired the movie

Shaun the Sheep

There is something magical about clay-mation and the best studio in the world is UK based Aardman Animation.  They started producing the Shaun the Sheep TV series in 2007 and by 2015 it was popular enough that they made a movie.



Shaun the sheep is the clever leader of a rag-tag flock of sheep on a farm in the rolling countryside of rural England.  Through a series of mishaps the sheep cause their farmer to end up in the big city with amnesia and they take it upon themselves to rescue him. 

Like all Aardman productions the animation is incredible and the gadgets are outrageous.  The plot is pretty simple but it moves at a good pace and there are moments of humour throughout to keep things fun.


Rating: Although we enjoyed Shaun the Sheep we probably won't watch the movie again.  But it did wet our appetite for the TV series and other Aardman movies (The Curse of the Were-Rabbit). 

Naughty bits: Shaun the Sheep was as clean as the farmers house BEFORE the pigs got in and suitable for even younger viewers.  The animal catcher is a bit scary but only if you are a pre-schooler.

Snacks: Candy Floss

Family In-quotes: Ummm there is no dialog in this movie!!!!!

Related Goodies:
Wallace and Gromit