My boys love comic book superheroes. We watch Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and other shows featuring super-powered individuals fighting evil. With the Avengers movie in theatres, you’d think I’d be dragging them to see it. Unfortunately, the live action Avengers movie (like the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America movies before them) are a bit too much for an 8 year old and a 4 year old.
Meanwhile, B isn’t a very big superhero fan so she has no interest in seeing this movie. I had pretty much resigned myself to catching it on DVD, but then I got to thinking. I’m a man in his mid-thirties, not some teenager without a date on Saturday night. I don’t need someone with me to prove anything to anyone. Why can’t I go see the movie alone? (Of course, finding the time to get out to actually see the movie is another story.)
My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever gone to see a movie all by yourself?
P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
As someone who was bullied a lot in school, bullying is a subject very close to my heart. No child should have to go through what I went through. Sadly, many kids go through not only the level of bullying that I encountered, but much worse. I’ve heard some stories of bullying that make my own tales seem like a trip to the spa. Is it any wonder why kids crack and kill themselves or inflict harm on others? When your daily outlook for the foreseeable future is pain and torment followed by torment and pain, your sanity begins to strain. Too much and you can snap. No child (or adult) should ever have to bear this burden.
Luckily, there has been a growing anti-bullying movement recently. In fact, there’s a movie headed to theatres March 30th titled "Bully." The movie follows five families as they confront the ugly reality of bullies. The makers of this documentary were not only going to release this movie to theatres, but wanted to screen it in middle and high schools.
There’s just one problem: The MPAA gave the film an R rating. The movie was one vote away from getting a PG-13, but got the more restrictive R rating instead for language. This might make screening it to younger kids troublesome. (Of course, a movie with acceptable language but tons of violence will almost always get a PG-13.)
Now the film-makers have a Sophie’s choice. Their first option would be to mute or bleep some of the bad language. This might get them the PG-13, but at the cost of glossing over some of the ugliness of bullying (something that is important to show to people). Their second option is to petition the MPAA to change their ruling. They’ve lost their appeals so far, but a petition has been circulating which, as of this writing, has nearly 180,000 signatures. Finally, they could release it unrated, but then theater owners would treat it like an NC-17 movie and ban it entirely from their theaters.
I will definitely keep an eye on what happens. Hopefully, the MPAA will relent and give the film a PG-13 rating. Either way, B and I will go see this movie in the theater.
In other news, a few schools got together to film an anti-bullying video to post to YouTube. The video featured many students dancing to Lady Gaga’s "Born This Way." Sounds like a nice sentiment, right? Not to a parents group. They complained that the video wouldn’t reduce bullying, isn’t accepting of overweight kids/anorexic kids/kids who can’t dance, and that the music is offensive to most religions as well as to atheists.
I posted a detailed rebuttal over on Google+. In short, I respect what these kids (and teachers) have done. I think that the parents group is, at best, nit-picking. Any efforts to spread the anti-bullying message help. Kids need to be taught early on that 1) they are perfectly ok just the way they are; they don’t need to change to suit someone else’s view of "normal", 2) other people are perfectly ok the way they are and shouldn’t be expected to change to suit your view of "normal", and 3) people who are different from you should be treated with the same respect you show to people who are similar to you.
My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you plan on seeing "Bully" in the theatres?
Also, while you’re at it, please head on over and sign the petition.
P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
This time of year, Christmas just seems to take over. Christmas decorations go up in every store. Christmas music blares 24/7 from the radio stations. Television stations trot out the Christmas specials and movies.
Since we celebrate Chanukah, and not Christmas, this XMas overdrive can get tiring quickly. We tend to avoid the stores (admittedly, partly because of the crowds), turn off the radios, and change the channel from the Christmas specials. Once in awhile, we’ll find a Chanukah special, but they are few and far between.
However, in all of this Christmas hoopla, there is actually a Christmas movie that I love: The Nightmare Before Christmas. I just love the tale of Jack Skellington kidnaping Santa Claus (or “Sandy Claws” as Jack calls him) so he can make Christmas in his own image.
Recently, I introduced the boys to this movie. I was apprehensive at first, worrying that they would be scared of Halloween Town’s spooky residents. Instead, my boys were instantly hooked. Since then, we’ve all been singing “The Oogy Boogy Song” as well as the other tunes sung during the movie. I think I’m going to have to buy the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack so we can rock out to it more.
My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you have a favorite non-conventional holiday movie/special?
P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.
P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
On Saturday, we headed out to the movie theaters. Our waiting was over. It was time to play the music. It was time to light the lights. It was time to meet the Muppets on The Muppet Show… I mean, the Muppet movie.
The movie opens with a montage of scenes of Gary and Walter growing up. As Gary gets taller, Walter remains the same height year after year. Of course, Walter also looks a little bit different as he’s a bit fuzzier than a normal human. One might say even a bit felt-like. Walter’s woes over being different subside the minute he sees the Muppet Show on the television. From that moment on, he’s hooked. He’s the Muppet’s number one fan.
Fast forward to the present and Gary and his girlfriend of ten years, Mary, decide to take a 10th anniversary trip to Los Angeles, California. Gary surprises Walter by telling him that he’s coming too to see the Muppet Studios. A musical number later and they’re on their way.
Oh, yes. There are musical numbers. Characters and extras will just burst out into spontaneous song and dance numbers. My boys and I had heard much of the soundtrack earlier, so we knew what to expect once the music began. Or at least we thought we did. The music took on a whole new light once we saw it in context.
For a quick glimpse into the music of the movie, here’s a Muppets social media comments-enhanced preview:
Back to the movie, though. Gary, Mary, and Walter find Muppet Studios all but abandoned. Apparently, the Muppets went their separate ways a long time ago and people have forgotten about them. Walter stumbles across a plot to tear down the buildings and drill for oil. It’s up to Gary, Mary, and Walter to find Kermit, gather the Muppets back together for one last show to rescue the theater. Along the way, they have to decide what is really important in their lives.
My boys loved it. They were singing parts of the soundtrack for the rest of the day (and requesting that I play them the MP3s after that). I’m still laughing over cameo appearances and over jokes. It was all that a Muppet movie should be. There was fourth wall breaking (After Kermit declines to help save the studio, Mary comments “This is going to be a short movie.”), call backs to their previous movies (as they are gathering Muppets together, they drive past a used car lot out of which Sweetums runs yelling “Hey you guys! I want to come too! Not again!!!”), and new jokes.
I would definitely recommend for everyone to see this movie.
Now, I have one more thing to say about the movie, but it’s a major spoiler. It gives away the entire ending. So, if you haven’t seen the movie, stop reading here. Go on out and see the movie and then come back and read the rest. Go on. I can wait.
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Have you see the movie yet?
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You have? Ok, then.
Anyway, some people were disappointed that the Muppets didn’t win back their studio in the end. They came up way short of their goal and lost the studio to the evil Tex Richman. People said that they should have won. I’ll admit, I was looking for some sort of impossible win as well. I even thought that perhaps Statler and Waldorf would donate the money. (Anonymously, of course. They wouldn’t want the Frog and company to know that they actually enjoyed making fun of the show.)
But they didn’t. They lost. The important thing, though, is that they realized what was important to them. It wasn’t the studio, it was each other. Even without the studio, they would keep performing and stick by each other. No matter what happened, they wouldn’t break up again.
And then Gonzo accidentally bonked Tex Richman on the head just before the end credits and they got their studio back anyway. Leave it to Gonzo to employ a Dues Ex Bowling Ball.
During Thanksgiving, sometime between the end of the meal and the beginning of dessert, everyone split up to do different things. I sat down and searched for something interesting on TV. That’s when I spotted it. Ghostbusters. Sure, it was on a non-premium cable channel and, thus, censored, but still – It’s Ghostbusters!
As I settled in, NHL and JSL began to inquire to see what I was watching. At first, they were upset that I wasn’t watching one of *their* programs. How dare dad not keep the TV glued to Nick Jr even when they weren’t in the room. But then B told them of Stay Puft. After that, they kept bugging me as to when the giant marshmallow man would appear. When he finally did show, they cheered at his appearance and over his destruction and spillage on top of Walter Peck.
In short, my kids were instant Ghostbusters fans. I had a quandary, though. Dare I show the full, uncensored Ghostbusters to NHL? JSL might be too young, but NHL might love it. On the other hand, I worried. Not about the violence, but about the cursing.
NHL has heard cursing before. I’m sure he’s heard it in his school and he’s heard a word or three pop out of B’s mouth. (I’m a bit of a freak in that I never curse… Well, except for that one time I tried to get a reaction out of my friend by saying the C word which caused him to almost drive off the road. Reaction achieved!) But would NHL’s watching of movies with curses cause his language to reach for the potty? Is he, at 8, too young for movies with salty language?
My Aloha Friday question for today is: How old do you think a child should be before they watch a movie that contains cursing?
P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.
P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
