Trailer: Demetri Martin and Kevin Kline in “Dean”
Posted on February 17, 2017 at 3:57 pm
Demetri Martin plays an illustrator mourning the loss of his mother and unhappy that his father (Kevin Kline) is planning to sell the family home.
Contest: Win The Queen of Katwe
Posted on February 17, 2017 at 9:15 am
You can win a DVD/Blu-Ray of one of the best family movies of 2016, “The Queen of Katwe,” based on the true story of a girl from the poorest part of Uganda who became an international chess champion. It stars Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo.
Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Queen in the subject line and tell me your favorite board game. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only) I’ll pick a winner at random on February 25, 2017. Good luck!
Screen Rant on Stunts That Defy Physics and Logic
Posted on February 17, 2017 at 8:00 am
Screen Rant has a great piece busting the myths underlying some movie stunts. Pro tip: don’t try these at home. And don’t spin a six-shooter.
A Cure for Wellness
Posted on February 16, 2017 at 5:54 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Preschool |
| MPAA Rating: | Rate R for disturbing violent content and images, sexual content including an assault, graphic nudity, and language |
| Profanity: | Very strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Alcohol |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Intense, graphic, and extensive peril and violence with many disturbing and graphic images, sexual assault, torture |
There’s jump out at you scary. And there’s something’s coming at me scary. And then there’s the slow, inexorable dread that builds inside you, and that is what director/co-writer Gore Verbinski is going for with “A Cure for Wellness.”
The unsettling through-the-looking-glass idea starts with the title itself. Isn’t wellness what a cure is supposed to achieve? Would a cure for wellness mean making a healthy person sick? Uh…yes. Prepare to feel your stomach drop like a bowling ball.
The best part of the movie is in exploring the world Verbinski creates, with production designer Eve Stewart, a health sanitarium where time seems to have stopped a century ago. A brief opening section establishes that it takes place now. An ambitious Wall Street trader named Lockhart (fast-rising star Dane DeHaan) has done something improper, and the bosses at his firm tell him that if he does not want to go to jail he has to retrieve Mr. Pembroke, the firm’s CEO, from a remote sanitarium so he can sign off on a big deal. Lockhart, confident of his ability to get deals done, and determined to stay out of trouble, takes the long, long drive up to the top of a mountain, to a facility somewhere between the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining,” the tuberculosis sanitorium in The Magic Mountain, and the Grand Budapest Hotel.
He briskly asks to see Pembroke and is informed that visiting hours are over. He does not pay enough attention to notice that things seem a bit…off. And when he is offered a glass of water, he does not hesitate to drink it. This, needless to say, is a mistake. He thinks he can leave and come back to see Pembroke later. This, also needless to say, is also a mistake.
Lockhart tries to find out what is going on. One might say that this is a mistake, too.
He starts to leave, but the car hits a deer and he wakes up in a hospital bed, his leg in a cast. Everyone is pleasant and rather vague, both staff and guests. But everything gets creepier and creepier, and it’s all atmosphere anyway. Don’t try to think about the story too much because it does not make a ton of sense and basically boils down to: creepy scene here, creepy scene there, REALLY creepy scene downstairs, excruciatingly creepy scene in the dentist’s chair, a not very surprising reveal.
Parents should know that this is a horror movie with extremely graphic and disturbing material and with many grisly and upsetting images including dead bodies, snakes, torture, sexual references and situations, nudity, sexual assault, incest, and very strong language.
Family discussion: What does Lockhart’s name tell us about the character? What does Hannah learn from him?
If you like this, try; “The Shining” and “Suspira”
Fist Fight
Posted on February 16, 2017 at 5:40 pm
C| Lowest Recommended Age: | Preschool |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for language throughout, sexual content/nudity and drug material |
| Profanity: | Extremely strong and crude language used by adults, teens, and a child |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drugs and drug dealing by teenager |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extended comic peril and violence |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | February 17, 2017 |
Maybe it’s just here in Washington D.C., but when I saw “Fist Fight,” the biggest laugh from the audience was seeing the name of the executive producer, Steve Mnuchin, who had just been sworn in as the Trump administration’s Secretary of the Treasury. The timing of the movie, with its comic portrayal of an underfunded and wildly dysfunctional public school is uneasily, if inadvertently resonant with the times.
But mostly it is just not very funny. Five writers, including “New Girl” actor Max Greenfield, and a roster of more than a dozen producers, including the two stars, Ice Cube and Charlie Day, could not come up with anything more original than anatomical graffiti, a teacher who takes drugs and want to have sex with students, and a child performing a song with f- and b-words in her school talent show.
The producer/stars play Ron Strickland and Andy Campbell, teachers in a chaotic high school that is even more chaotic than usual because it is the last day before summer vacation. The senior pranks include obscene graffiti in the classroom and on the field, a drugged-up stolen race horse in the halls, the principal’s car covered with paint and left in the school foyer, and (I admit it, this was surreal and funny) a mariachi band trailing the principal for the day.
The students are openly contemptuous of the teachers. So is the administration, which is insisting on re-interviewing each of them to decide whether they will be kept on in their jobs. And poor Campbell, who just want to get along with everyone and impart to his students some of his love for words, has a wife who is about to go into a labor and a daughter who is appearing in the school talent show that afternoon. For some reason, he is performing with her, though she wants to make some last minute changes to the song. Do you think maybe the one she is springing on him has some bad language in it? Yes! Is that something that is inherently hilarious? Not in my opinion.
So, this is about two things: First is Campbell’s constant frustration at trying to do the right thing and the emasculating humiliation heaped on him by everyone when his nice-guy efforts are met with universal contempt. Second is the concept that nice-guy efforts should be met with universal contempt because what matters is the willingness and ability to beat someone up. Even the 911 operator (Kym Whitley) can only laugh when he calls for help.
The movie is filled with funny people. Unfortunately, it is bereft of funny ideas.
Parents should know that this film includes very strong language used by adults, teenagers and a child, drug humor and drug dealing by a teenager, jokes about a sexual predator, graphic sexual graffiti/humor, outrageous pranks, comic violence and peril.
Family discussion: Are Strickland and Campbell good teachers? What do they like about teaching?
If you like this, try: “Three O’Clock High” and “Ride Along”