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Posted on February 7, 2019 at 5:04 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Kindergarten - 3rd Grade |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated PG for mild action and rude humor |
| Profanity: |
None |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Some potty humor |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
None |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Fantasy/cartoon-style peril and violence |
| Diversity Issues: |
None |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
February 8, 2019 |
| Date Released to DVD: |
May 7, 2019 |
“The LEGO Movie 2: The Second One” is a great big box of happiness in part because of its non-stop cheeky humor but also in part because it deals subtly but frankly with three of the most annoyingly painful and near-universal human experiences: fighting with siblings, adolescent moodiness, and stepping on LEGOs in bare feet. …
Continue reading “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second One”
Posted on February 4, 2019 at 8:00 am
It wasn’t that long ago that Native American characters in film were played by actors of other races, including Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Quinn, Burt Reynolds, Johnny Depp, and Elvis Presley. Depictions are often wildly inaccurate, from the most basic details of dress, ceremony, culture, and history. It was just four years ago that …
Continue reading “Native Americans on Film”
Posted on February 3, 2019 at 4:33 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated R for disturbing violent images, language throughout, and brief sexuality/nudity |
| Profanity: |
Very strong and crude language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Sexual references and situations, some explicit |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Drinking and smoking, drugs |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Brutal wartime violence, characters injured and killed |
| Diversity Issues: |
A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
November 16, 2018 |
| Date Released to DVD: |
February 4, 2019 |
I reviewed A Private War for rogerebert.com. An excerpt: The dramatic, personal story of Colvin herself is absorbingly told here, largely because of Pike’s dynamic performance, showing us a woman who was courageous enough to risk her life for a story on a daily basis but remained vulnerable enough to make the stories viscerally compelling. …
Continue reading “A Private War”
Posted on February 3, 2019 at 4:18 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Kindergarten - 3rd Grade |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated PG for brief rude humor |
| Profanity: |
Some schoolyard language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Brief potty humor |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
None |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Mild peril |
| Diversity Issues: |
None |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
November 9, 2018 |
| Date Released to DVD: |
February 4, 2019 |
My DVD pick of the week is “The Grinch,” which I reviewed for rogerebert.com. An excerpt: The visuals are delightfully Seussian, all curves and slants. I loved the mitten-shaped windows on one of the houses and the way that Whoville’s Christmas decorations make it look like a captivatingly intricate gingerbread village. In contrast, the Grinch’s …
Continue reading “The Grinch”
Posted on January 31, 2019 at 5:33 pm
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| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: |
Rated PG-13 for sequences of gun violence, sexual and drug content, thematic material, and language |
| Profanity: |
Some strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Rape (off-camera), sex trafficking, prostitution, sexual references |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Drugs and drug dealing, alcohol |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Extended crime and law enforcement-related peril and violence, guns and shoot-outs, knives, bombs, rape, characters injured and killed |
| Diversity Issues: |
None |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
January 31, 2019 |
| Date Released to DVD: |
April 29, 2019 |
“Miss Bala” is a serviceable action thriller but very much the Hollywood version. In real life, a beauty queen named Laura Zúñiga (her title was “Our Sinaloa Beauty”) was arrested with seven members of a Mexican drug and weapons crime operation. Her story became a Mexican film, also called Miss Bala, which portrayed her as …
Continue reading “Miss Bala”
