#WWMD - Watching With My Daughter

Watching With My Daughter - reviews (hopefully) tempered by the fact that I'm watching the movie with my girl...

#140RVW: Cars (2006)

Liked it better the 1st time when it was called “Doc Hollywood”. Design goofy, voice actors iffy. Still not half bad, though, cause Pixar…

Poster:

Trailer:

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

Unfairly lives in the shadow of Nightmare Before Xmas, which is impossible act to follow. Really great, but the music is simply not as good.

Spoiler-free Movie Review of Corpse Bride:

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Fail

The Representation Test Score: ( pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

[schema type=”movie” name=”Corpse Bride” description=”When a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her.” director=”Mike Johnson” producer=”Tim Burton” actor_1=”Johnny Depp” ]

Main Cast	Johnny Depp Victor Van Dort (voice) Helena Bonham Carter Corpse Bride (voice) Emily Watson Victoria Everglot (voice) Tracey Ullman Nell Van Dort/Hildegarde (voice)
Rating	TV-PG
Release Date	Fri 23 Sep 2005 UTC
Director	Tim Burton, Mike Johnson
Genres	Animation, Fantasy, Musical, Romance
Plot	When a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her.
Poster
Runtime	77
Tagline	Loving You Is Like Loving The Dead
Writers	Tim Burton (characters) and, Carlos Grangel (characters) …
Year	2005

#140RVW: Everyone’s Hero (2006)

Yes, the ball talks, so does the bat. Just go with it. It’s a very fun tale for kids. Christopher Reeve’s last project full of his spirit.

Poster:

Trailer:

The Sandlot (1993)

#140RVW

Best kids baseball movie ever. As enjoyable as they come. After 20 years: “They say the Jet’s lost a step or two”, but don’t believe it…

What’s more:

This isn’t just my favorite kids baseball movie ever, its my favorite baseball movie ever. And that’s saying an awful lot, because there are so many great films about the game.

But like so many baseball movies, this really isn’t about baseball. It’s a coming of age story, the spiritual descendant of Stand By Me and very nearly as good. It’s far more obvious, straightforward family-fare that lacks Stand’s edge, but it equals that films connection to its setting and depiction of Americana. A Christmas Story‘s Gene Shepherd wouldn’t have sounded out of place narrating this film.

Directed by first-timer David M. Evans who also narrates the story he wrote, it is a great throwback picture, with an idealized, Rockwellian past captured forever. Not a thing wrong with that, particularly for a baseball picture.

Scott Smalls is the new kid in town, unsure of himself and awkwardly settling in with having a new stepfather. He finds fun and himself by joining the local ballplayers at the neighborhood sandlot. Boom. That’s the story. Everything after that is just for color. There’s the usual coming of age stuff:

Girls

Identity

Embarrassment

Fear of being eaten by a monster hound…wait, that one’s new…

The whole supernatural turn to the story as they need to recover the MacGuffin (a baseball signed by Babe Ruth) is just all good comedy stuff, and really works well. It’s the part of the movie that works best the first time you see it – the madcap adventures usually do – but it’s still funny stuff 21 years later.

The young actors are a blast, and none of them are annoyingly precocious, which is practically unique. These are sort of like the rough around the edges kids that you grew up with. Sort of – not quite realistic enough.

The Sandlot would be worth a watch if the only good scene was the Fourth of July “Night Game”, but it is a highly enjoyable movie throughout.