Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups

Posted on November 19, 2012 at 1:36 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Mild peril
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to DVD:	November 18, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN:	B008C0C23I

If there’s anything cuter than the Santa Buddies, it is the sequel, the new DVD/Blu-Ray pick of the week, “Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.” The puppies stow away on Mrs. Claus’ trip to a Christmas-loving town and have a lot of fun granting wishes until something goes wrong and Christmas itself starts to disappear. Who can save the day?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB8StgkqdQY

It was a lot of fun to catch up with Kaitlyn Maher, who returns for the sequel. “Santa is at his workshop and he needs a new child ambassador and he sends Mrs. Claus to go and find one. She meets the Reynolds family. Their town used to have the best city with the most Christmas spirit but the Santa pups decided that they were going to come and they took something without asking. Somebody wished for Christmas to go away and it happened. Mrs. Claus and my character have to help save Christmas, but I’m not going to say the ending,” she told me. The puppies were “so sweet and cuddly and cute,” she said, “and even sweeter when there was a dog treat around.” She said the trainers used “lots and lots of treats” and little toys and breaks, too, “if a puppy was being finicky or something, they would always have a new dog waiting. They were very professional.” The biggest challenge was that “there was a train that would go by six times every single day. We would have to stop recording, even if it was the best take we had done. We would have to stop until the train circled around the whole track.” She loved the set for Santa’s workshop. “I asked the producer where all the toys were going to be going.” When no one had an answer, Kaitlyn said, “Can I please donate them? I’d love to pick a few charities in Vancouver.” She became charity coordinator and the toys went to four different charities. “It was a great way to get the whole cast involved in sharing the joy of Christmas.” Her favorite prop in the workshop was a big bell. She thought it was funny when the elf fell off the bell in the first movie. Kaitlyn is home schooled and “I love that my mom teaches me.” She likes the American Girl books and Nancy Drew and loves to read about ancient history. And she likes movies that have a message. “The Sound of Music” is one of her favorites and she also likes mysteries. She says the buddies movies are popular because “the movies are fun and have a good message. The writers bring that message through magical and wonderful things that you could not imagine. Everyone works together and they’re family-friendly. People really feel blessed by them.” She loves to sing and her favorite scene in the movie was when she got to sing “O Holy Night.” She especially loves to write songs and will work on a new CD next year. “I like to make songs that are inspiring and encouraging. I like to make people smile.” And she is looking forward to Christmas with her family and spreading the joy of Christmas to everyone. “I think it is very, very important that people have the love they need on Christmas.”

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2

Posted on November 15, 2012 at 6:00 pm

The “Twilight” series comes to a close with the fifth film based on the four-book supernatural love story from Stephenie Meyer. This one is for the fans, with a loving farewell that includes a romantic recap series of flashbacks and final credits bringing back all the stars of the series. It will be less satisfying for non Twi-hards, who will have a hard time ignoring the ludicrousness of the storyline.

In the last chapter, Bella (Kristen Stewart) at long last (well, not too long, she just finished high school), married her one true love, Edward (Robert Pattinson), a vampire. They had a wonderfully romantic but bed-breaking wedding night, and she got pregnant, a surprise to everyone because it was thought to be biologically impossible. The pregnancy left Bella so frail that childbirth would have killed her if Edward had not kept her alive by turning her into a vampire. “Breaking Dawn, Part 1” ended with her eyes opening, vampire-ified to electrified amber with a kind of permanent mascara. “I didn’t expect you to seem so..you,” Jacob says. “Except for the creepy eyes.”

In the past, we saw the “other” world of vampires and wolf-people like Jacob (Taylor Lautner) through Bella’s brown human eyes. Now we see everything through the hyper-charged senses of the ultimate predator. Ironically, it is only as a vampire that Bella feels most purely herself — strong, confident, capable. This is the fork in the road where the fans will stay with it but everyone else may take a detour. One reason for the sensational popularity of the books is the way they so perfectly capture a young teenager’s fantasy. That works better when the characters are themselves teenagers. Trying to project them into the adult world, even one as skewed as the vampire world, is a tougher stretch.

Bella and Edward have an idyllic existence of eternal adolescence, with a life free from work, struggle, and parents. They do not have to eat or sleep. They do not have to do anything but have wildly energetic sex and conversations about who loves who more, with banter like “We’re the same temperature now.” You may ask, “Wait, isn’t there a baby with some kind of nutty name?” Yes there is, and her name is Renesmee (after the two grandmothers, Renée and Esmé). When Jacob calls her “Nessie,” Bella gets angry because that’s the Loch Ness monster’s nickname, though it seems likely that it is just another of Jacob’s protective instincts, her birth name being something of a burden.

Bella and Edward-style parenting is not very demanding. The baby has a full-time staff of loving vampire relatives and an imprinted wolf-guy. And it turns out that vampire/human children grow in dog years. The movie, unfortunately, moves rather slowly, with a lot of time bringing in 18 new vampire characters from all over the world to help persuade the vampiric governing body, the Volturi, that they have not broken the law and produced an “immortal child” who could put the community at risk. All of this leads up to a grand battle across a snowy field, the motley crew of good guy vampires and the robed Volturi.

The endless procession of new characters gets tedious except for a Revolutionary war veteran played by Lee Pace (“Lincoln,” “Pushing Daisies”), who talks about his time with General Custer and has far more electricity on screen than the vampiress who catches his attention with her super-tasing power to jolt anyone. I also liked Rami Melek (“Night at the Museum,” “Larry Crowne”) as a vampire who can control the elements. But the sheer volume of new characters made having to remember each one’s special talent like trying to keep track of the Smurfs.

We’ve spent a lot of time with these characters and it is good to see a satisfying resolution to their story. But I couldn’t help feeling that Meyer had run out of ideas and just tossed in everything she could think of. My primary reaction at the end was relief that this was the end.

Parents should know that this movie includes vampire violence with battles that include graphic decapitations and other disturbing images, characters injured and killed, sexual references and situations with some nudity, and some language.

Family discussion: What are the biggest changes in Bella’s outlook and abilities from the first installment to the last? How much should she tell Charlie? If you could have one of the special gifts of the characters in the film, which would it be and why?

If you like this, try: the other “Twilight” movies and the books by Stephenie Meyer

Skyfall

Posted on November 8, 2012 at 8:00 am

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences throughout, some sexuality, language, and smoking
Profanity:	Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended spy-style peril and violence with many characters injured or killed and some graphic images
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters, strong women
Date Released to Theaters:	November 9, 2012
Date Released to DVD:	February 11, 2013
Amazon.com ASIN:	B007REV4YI

James Bond goes home in every sense in this ravishingly entertaining entry in the series. Five decades later, it all of a sudden feels fresh, fun, and utterly engaging. This is the best Bond in decades.We are in the middle of the action almost before the lights go down in the theater. Two quick but unmistakable notes on the soundtrack as Bond (Daniel Craig in his third outing) enters a room with dead and dying agents. He looks like a million bucks. Or, I should say, a million pounds. Sterling.

A quick communication and then a chase, and what a chase. Not since “Raiders of the Lost Ark” has a movie begun with such a knowing shot of adrenaline. It’s action as ontology recapitulating phylogeny. On one level, it’s a world-class heart-thumper, brilliantly staged and paced. But it’s also a witty meta-take on chase scenes in general and Bond in particular, with everything from an exotic open market to a shootout and a motorcycle and hopping on a train. And by that I mean hopping ON a train. And a pretty girl. With a gun. And a missing hard drive. He also stops to adjust his cuffs.

So, we’re good to go, and it just keeps getting better.

Things are not going so well back at MI-6, where M (Dame Judi Dench) is in a meeting with a rather stiff government official (Ralph Feinnes) who is displeased about the way things are going. “Are we to call this civilian oversight?” she asks with asperity. “No, we’re calling this retirement planning,” he responds. MI-6 itself is attacked and this time, as they say, it’s personal.

Bond has had a tough time of it lately. The heightened stylization of the “Austin Powers” parodies made it more difficult to take Bond’s glossiness and the over-the-top total world domination-style bad guys seriously and the grittiness of the “Bourne” movies made the sophistication and brio of the series and its lead character seem superficial. The series was in danger of becoming a parody of itself, with its over-the-top plot twists and villains. And it was choking on product placement. “Skyfall” is forthright in confronting the challenges of our time, with both spies and bureaucrats well aware that our enemies are harder to identify than they were in the Cold War era, and more damage can be done with a laptop than a bomb.

“Skyfall” kicks it old school, with more heart, meaning, and character — and a more deliciously twisted villain (Javier Bardem) than the last dozen in the series combined. This is much more than the usual girl and a gun and a villain and only seconds to save the world from various exotic locations. The locations are fabulously chosen, however, from MI-6’s transplanted underground lair to a deserted island city with a toppled Ozymandias-style statue, a motorcycle chase along Istanbul rooftops, and an estate in Scotland. And Ben Wishaw (“Cloud Atlas”) makes a lovely young Q with mad computer skillz and madder hair.

Adele provides the best Bond theme song since the 60’s, her husky voice reminiscent of the Shirley Bassey era. Director Sam Mendes is not known for action or genre but he has a great eye and he is totally up to the task here, delivering a story that gives depth to the characters and moral complexity to the storyline. Mendes deftly explores variations on the themes of compromise, consequences, context, and choice, while never letting up on the action and glamour. It wouldn’t be a Bond movie without some reason for our hero to don black tie for a visit to a swanky gambling den that happens to have a pit with Komodo dragons, any more than it would without some doomed beauty with time for one last romantic encounter. “Skyfall” has tremendous understanding and affection for the legacy of Bond, but, more important, it makes us excited about the next 50 years.

Parents should know that this film has spy-type action and peril with chases, explosions, and guns, many characters injured and killed, sexual references and situations,some strong language,drinking, and smoking.

Family discussion: Characters in this film have to make some very tough choices that risk or sacrifice the lives of their colleagues. What factors do they consider? What are the consequences? How does what we learn about Bond and M change the way you think about them? Why does MI-6 like orphans?

If you like this, try: the 23 other Bond films, especially “Goldfinger,” “You Only Live Twice,” and “Goldeneye”

Secret of the Wings

Posted on October 19, 2012 at 9:32 am

Where do fairies come from? When a baby laughs, a fairy is born. And Tinker Bell (Mae Whitman) learns in this sweet animated tale that the baby’s laugh that gave her life must have been extra merry because two fairies appeared. The Secret of the Wings is that Tink has a sister she never knew she had in a place she has never been.

Tinker Bell is a summer fairy who lives happily with her friends. But she is curious about the adjoining land of the winter fairies. Summer fairies send baskets of food across the bridge where the frost fairies live in a land covered with ice and snow. Animals can cross over, too, but fairies are forbidden from entering each other’s lands by order of Lord Milori (Timothy Dalton), who is the ruler of the winter fairies. Tinkerbell disobeys the rules and discovers a fairy named Periwinkle (Lucy Hale), who turns out to be her twin. They instantly bond and are delighted to get to know one another. “You collect lost things, too?” “I call them found things!”

But summer fairies can be injured by the cold temperatures. And when Periwinkle comes to visit Tinker Bell, even Tink’s clever contraption for keeping Peri cool is not enough to protect her from the damage caused by the warm climate.

The Disney artists have created two enchanting lands with pause-button-worthy details and swooping 3D effects. The sweet story is unfortunately marred by brief boy-girl silliness, but Tink herself is an independent, resourceful, and loyal heroine. She is respectful but willing to question authority, she is curious — I liked seeing her go to the library to do research — and she is skilled with tools and good at solving problems. The sparkly twins will delight children and the grown-up voice talent like Dalton and Angelica Houston and imaginative visuals will give parents something to enjoy as well.

Related Tags:

3D Animation Fantasy Series/Sequel

Alex Cross

Posted on October 18, 2012 at 6:00 pm

In “Alex Cross,” Tyler Perry is called upon to: show devastating grief, show incendiary fury, make threats, throw punches, and take over a part played twice on screen by Morgan Freeman. He is not up to any of those things. Perry is a powerhouse as a writer/director/impressario and I am a fan of his unique blend of high melodrama, low humor, and true-hearted faith in God and family. But here, in a prequel to the gritty detective films “Along Came a Spider” and “Kiss the Girls,” based on the best-selling thriller series by James Patterson, Tyler is not a good fit. It opens with Tyler as Cross in run-with-a-gun mode, chasing after a bad guy, and then we see him bantering with his long-time best friend and partner (Edward Burns) and with his gorgeous wife (Carmen Ejogo). There isn’t a persuasively authentic moment in any of that. Indeed, the 6’5″ Perry’s most believable performance is when his character has to reach something from a high shelf. That feels real.

Cross is supposed to be a Sherlock Holmes-style hyper-observant detective with a degree in psychology who is also a devoted family man with a cute-cranky mother (Cecily Tyson) who is also gangbusters in chasing, shooting, and beating up bad guys, not to mention some vigilante-style rough justice. He is always right. How do we know? His best friend/partner says, “Just once I would like it if you got something wrong because this is really getting annoying.”

And the bad guy here (an unrecognizably strung-out Matthew Fox) is also something of a super-villain who has mastered every kind of weapon and technology and has an evil genius command center with marked-up maps and mechanicals pinned to the wall (how retro) and a champion mixed martial arts combatant and specialist in torture and charcoal drawings, who leaves meticulously detailed clues that are only revealed by an Al Jaffee-style Mad fold-in.

The story begins with the murder of a gorgeous and very wealthy woman with a kinky side. She explains a statue of the god of war in her bedroom: “War is a passionate undertaking of strategy and skill just like sex. So it belongs beside the bed.” She is butchered and her three bodyguards are shot and burned. That leads to a botched attempt on one of her colleagues, an arrogant German guy who does something with money that is so important he has the kind of super-security they usually reserve for places where there is actual money and not just computers people use to move it around, except in movies where we have to show how smart the villain is by having him surmount all of the obstacles. And then it all gets very personal and very, very ugly. The body count rises, including a lot of collateral damage as well as some that hit close to home. The exposition-heavy dialog is clunky (“But this building is impenetrable!” someone says as the building is being penetrated). The banter is clunkier: “I’d rather take advice from a ham sandwich.” “Love you too, it goes without saying.” And yet, he says it.

I was not a fan of the last Alex Cross film, Along Came a Spider, because of its plot holes and factual clangers. (No, the Secret Service does not protect the children of Senators and the Russian President does not live in America.) Once again, the plot becomes increasingly more preposterous when super-detective figures out that super-villain is targeting someone who is about to make a presentation to the city council. Now, in that situation I might suggest moving the meeting to a different time or place, but no, these braniacs decide to send every cop in the city to the location to lock it down. For a presentation. That must be some power-point. It goes without saying that someone claims it’s the equivalent of impenetrable and it goes without saying that our Energizer bunny of a bad guy is way ahead of them. But they say it anyway.

Parents should know that this is an R-level movie. It has very intense and graphic violence for a PG-13 with torture including severed fingers as well as brutal fighting, guns, and bombs, very sad deaths of characters including a pregnant woman, explicit sexual situations for a PG-13 including bondage and partial nudity, some language, and references to drug use and drug dealing.

Family discussion: Who was right, Dr. Cross or his mother? What makes him so aware of the revealing details all around him?

If you like this, try: Morgan Freeman’s performances as Alex Cross in “Kiss the Girls” and “Along Came a Spider”