January 15th, 2012 by Barbara Doduk

One of the great things about having a 2 year old is watching kids movies. Even over and over and over times a hundred times.

Yes, my darling daughter is 2. I can not believe how fast time has gone by. She enjoyed 3 days of birthday celebrations. Tuesday/Wednesday she slept overnight with her daddy, and he gave her all his birthday gifts on Wednesday, and when she came home that night, I have balloons and presents all set up for her. Then Thursday for her actual birthday I took her to the Aquarium and her daddy even met us there. She ran around and played, and then when we got home that night she opened more presents. My step-dad had a cancer treatment on her birthday, so we got all the grandparents together on Friday afternoon and her daddy came too, and we blew out the birthday candle. And she got more presents from her Nana and my step-dad. Can you say spoiled? I enjoyed it. I had booked the days off work, to extend my winter holidays. It was great. I feel blessed.

We did watch a few movies… I have always loved kids movies, but now there is even more a reason to watch them. These are a few of the movies we’ve watched lately – that I actually had not seen before.

Pooh’s Heffalump Movie (2005) is Winnie The Pooh, and normally I am anti-Pooh but it is a cute tale more focused on Mr. Roo meeting Lumpy, a young Heffalump. It’s a movie about growing up, and staying young and friends – and about the misconceptions we have about strangers. Lydia loves it, and so do I. The soundtrack is sung by Carly Simon too. An 8/10 from me. Lydia loves it so much she will get the DVD case, take out the DVD and open the player and put it in and wait for it to play.

Tigger’s Line: “Now Roo, you just can’t argue with a word like fraught.”

Chicken Little (2005) is a cute remake of the chicken who thought the sky was falling. Very interesting moral about listening to your children here. I love the space aliens and the characters – it is very entertaining. I give it a solid 6 out of 10, because it has its worth but certainly not a classic.

The Meerkats (2008) – is a documentary which features footage of the life cycle of some baby meerkats in the African desert. It is spliced together to make a ‘story’ which is narrated by the late Paul Newman. They follow one baby meerkat and give him a name, and tell the ‘story’ of his growing up. It is pretty sappy and silly in that regard. I like my wild life documentaries to be real, if you turned off the soundtrack and narration it would be neat to watch, but even then the edited footage to fit the ‘story’ might get hard to watch. I gave it a 5 out of 10, merely for the footage of these adorable wild creatures, the rest is a 2.

Mars Needs Moms (2011) wasn’t very good. Maybe I need to attempt to watch it again? But given the other reviews on IBMD and it’s rating… probably not. [4/10]

Horton Hears A Who! (2008) – is priceless. Dr. Seuss is a classic, and the voices of Jim Carrey and Seth Rogen and Steve Carell are perfect in this silly fun movie. Watch it and have a laugh. [7/10]

Open Season 3 (2010) – was a crap movie and I only give it a 4/10 – specially compared to the first 2 movies. Open Season (2006) – which I gave a 7/10 - was a great introduction to the characters and told a good story about a captive bear Boog going back to the wild. Open Season 2 (2008) was just a little less amusing, but focused more on the story of the dog Mr. Weenie – at least it had a funny story and the dog park part is pretty amusing. Number 3 was about Boog going off to join the bear circus and find a mate, and the story was sooo lacking and rushed. A waste of time really.

I am sure there is endless more kids movies in my future… but that’s all for today.

December 31st, 2011 by Barbara Doduk

Wow what happened to December? What a busy month and it blew by. Happy New Year people in web land. I know personally that 2012 will be an amazing year for me. More on that in the future. In the meantime, somehow I did manage to watch a few movies over this month. Mainly when I was unable to sleep and exhausted after all the shopping, wrapping, putting up and taking down Christmas decorations, hosting a birthday party, attending a Christmas party, hosting Christmas dinner and getting ready for my daughter’s 2nd birthday next week…

My mom gave me a DVD of Crazy, Stupid, Love for Christmas. Holly will love it, simply because the hot Ryan Gosling is super sexy and topless. [LOL] Really it is actually a cute flick with great acting by the likes of Steve Carell, Julianne Moore and the adorable Emma Stone. It is a painfully honest depiction of three couples at various stages, in each of their relationships, but done well enough to make everyone- even though they are human and flawed – likeable. [8/10]

Unknown is a good who-done-it misery action film. But only just good. The lead actor, Liam Neeson is the only good thing, until late in the film Frank Langella shows up briefly. A man awakes up from a car accident with limited memories, and his wife is married to another man, using his name… it is very Bourne Identity that way (did I just give away the plot?) and he is determined to recall who he is. [5/10]

Crazy on the Outside stars a very likeable cast, with Tim Allen as an ex-con getting out of jail, and the ever funny Sigourney Weaver as his ‘crazy’ sister determined to keep him out. Jeanne Tripplehorn plays the parole officer and love interest. Add in a bunch of extras, like the other ex-cons that work at the pirate burger joint and Ray Liotta as Allen’s old criminal boss and it is a fun movie to watch. Not the greatest story but entertaining. [6/10]

Beastly is a teen flick, the 21 year old pin up boy named Alex Pettyfer (he was in that movie I reviewed recently called I Am Number Four) and the plot is pretty lame. Bad boy gets cursed and transformed into and ugly guy (looks more like a tattooed freak than anything) and has to make someone love him for what is inside… terrible movie, terrible acting. The only saving bit, is Neil Patrick Harris as his blind tutor. [3/10]

The King’s Speech is a 9/10. Brilliant historic film, about King George VI of Britain (Colin Firth), his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it. Amazing actors fill up the screen in this award winning movie, with Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth, and Guy Pearce as King Edward VIII. Watch it.

The Adjustment Bureau stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt as his love interest. The bureau are sorta like angels, changing and guiding us to our ‘destiny’ and Damon’s character accidentally discovers they are keeping him from meeting his love interest because it is in his best interest in their ‘plan’. The movie could have used a lot more scenes and info, and probably would have worked better if the two love interests had been together longer than a kiss… but still an interesting movie with some good actors. Worth a watch. I gave it a 6/10.

Jane Eyre the retelling of a classic. I admit I used to own all of these types of books and read them many times, when it was cool to own actual paper books. Mia Wasikowska does a great job of the dreary Jane Eyre character. A must watch for those who like these types of stories. [7/10]

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012. No the world will not end. The 3rd phase of my life will begin, and everything is coming up roses in this Spring.