Posted on October 17, 2014 at 8:00 am
Get ready for Halloween with Scholastic’s “Day of the Dead” DVD, featuring four spooky (but not too scary) tales. In the title story, by Bob Barner and narrated by Rita Moreno, two children celebrate their ancestors on this Latin American holiday. A kitten has a wild adventure in “Kitten’s First Moon,” by Kevin Henkes. “Fletcher …
Posted on October 16, 2014 at 5:58 pm
History, Winston Churchill reminds us, is written by the victors. But sometimes those victors have some second thoughts, more complex thoughts, about the nature of heroism, patriotism, and the spoils (in both senses) of war. And sometimes people want to comment on contemporary conflicts but find that it is more compelling in an historical framework. …
Posted on October 16, 2014 at 5:56 pm
A-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Kindergarten - 3rd Grade |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG for mild action, rude humor, some thematic elements and brief scary images |
| Profanity: | Some mild language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Brief crude humor |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | None |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Themes of death and afterlife with some scary images of skeletons and desolation, peril including bull fights and snake bite, violence including sword fights and outlaws |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | October 17, 2014 |
| Date Released to DVD: | January 26, 2015 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B00Q599952 |
Jorge Gutierrez (Nickelodeon’s “El Tigre”) is co-writer and director of a dazzling new animated film that all but explodes off the screen in a kaleidoscope of color and energy and a love of life and storytelling and colorful characters and fantastic adventures. It is filled with the richness of love and passion and life and …
Posted on October 16, 2014 at 5:29 pm
B| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 For mature thematic material including sexual content, alcohol and tobacco use, and for language |
| Profanity: | Very strong and crude language |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Explicit sexual references and situations, stripper, prostitute, inappropriate sexual content in front of a child |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, smoking, alcohol abuse |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Car accident, stroke, sad death, bullies, fighting |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | October 17, 2014 |
A crude, inconsiderate, bitter slacker — Bill Murray could play that in his sleep. And it would be pretty good. But he doesn’t. Bill Murray gives a beautiful, wise, complex performance as Vincent, an angry old man who drinks too much, smokes too much, gambles too much, pays a pregnant stripper for sex, and seems …
Posted on October 16, 2014 at 5:25 pm
B+| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for language, sexual content and drug use |
| Profanity: | Very strong language including racist terms |
| Nudity/ Sex: | Sexual references and situations |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, drug use |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Tense confrontations |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | October 17, 2014 |
| Date Released to DVD: | February 2, 2015 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B00OMCCJIS |
Before I turn to whitesplaining this film, I will begin by suggesting that you read what Aisha Harris at Slate and what my friends and fellow critics Travis Hopson and Stephen Boone have to say first. If I did not have enough humility before seeing the film about my ability to provide some insight into …
