Posted on July 1, 2016 at 3:57 pm
Happy July! And welcome to the height of the summer movie season. Today, we kick off the 4th of July weekend with two big movies, Steven Spielberg’s “The BFG,” based on the book by Roald Dahl and starring Oscar-winner Mark Rylance. And a new version of the classic story with “The Legend of Tarzan,” starring …
Posted on July 1, 2016 at 10:04 am
Happy 100th birthday to one of the greatest and most versatile stars of the golden age of Hollywood, Olivia de Havilland! She and her fellow-Oscar-winning sister, Joan Fontaine, were born in Tokyo, the daughters of British parents, a professor and an actress. The girls and their mother later moved to California, where she appeared in …
Continue reading “Happy 100th Birthday Olivia de Havilland!”
Posted on June 30, 2016 at 5:50 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Kindergarten - 3rd Grade |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG for action/peril, some scary moments and brief rude humor |
| Profanity: | None |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Some potty humor |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Brief scene with drunken characters |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extended fantasy-style violence, reference to off-screen violence, including death of children, but no characters injured |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Date Released to Theaters: | July 1, 2016 |
| Date Released to DVD: | November 28, 2016 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B01G4N5Q0A |
Steven Spielberg. the director who, with his partners, named their movie studio Dreamworks, understands that movies are like a guided dream. Roald Dahl’s story is about a Big Friendly Giant who collects, selects, edits, and delivers dreams to make people happy and conveys messages that are beyond the capacity of verbal human interaction. Clearly, this …
Posted on June 30, 2016 at 4:15 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, some sensuality and brief rude dialogue |
| Profanity: | Some racist epithets and mild language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Non-explicit sexual situation, implied nudity |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Some social drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extended peril and violence, characters injured and killed, some disturbing and graphic images and scary animals |
| Diversity Issues: | Historical abuse and enslavement |
| Date Released to Theaters: | July 1, 2016 |
“The Legend of Tarzan” gets some things right. The swinging through the trees is exhilarating. Alexander Skarsgård (Tarzan/John) and Margot Robbie (Jane) are beautiful to look at, as is the African scenery. The CGI animals are pretty good. Thankfully, other than a few flashbacks, it avoids dwelling on the over-familiar origin story. And it is …
Posted on June 30, 2016 at 3:57 pm
This week’s new “Tarzan” movie should inspire families to check out the many, many earlier versions of this classic story. In 2012, Neely Tucker of The Washington Post wrote a wonderful tribute to Tarzan in honor of the 100th anniversary of the first Tarzan story by Edgar Rice Burroughs, with a fascinating gallery of portrayals …
