Jackie
Miracles from Heaven-Kids’ Movie Review
As parents when our children are sick we want to comfort them and quickly nurse them back to health. This is a story about Anna Beam (Kylie Rogers), a young girl who is sick and doesn’t recovery quickly. Anna has a rare and incurable life-threatening disorder where she’s unable to digest food. Her mother, Christy (Jennifer Garner), desperately searches for a way to save her daughter. However, everything changes when Anna falls 30 feet, headfirst, from a tree. Anna not only survives the fall, she miraculously recovers from her illness, recounts her visit to heaven and her conversation with God. Miracles From Heaven is an amazing true story about faith, family and love.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: July 12, 2016
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 10+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: None
Drug and Alcohol Content:Mild
Will Kids/Teens Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
- This film will spark some great parent/child conversations. As Anna continually struggles from her illness we see her mother, Christy, struggle in her faith. Christy is upset with God and the church. {Spoil Alert} However, at the end of the film Christy addresses her church Parish as she gives an amazing speech saying, “Miracles are God’s way of letting us know He’s here.”
- After Anna falls from the tree she describes her visit with God in heaven.
- Anna meets a terminally ill child in the hospital. She gives the girl a cross telling her that Jesus will be with her and she’ll be at peace. Later the girl’s father states that his dying daughter was peaceful and content before her last days.
Sexual Content: Mild
- We see a married couple kiss.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
- Anna suffers as she’s in a great deal of pain with her illness. She wants to die and go to heaven where there is no pain.
- There are hospital scenes where we see invasive medical procedures and tube feedings.
- Anna falls thirty feet, head first, down a hollowed out tree. This is an intense scene as we see the rescuers trying to save her while Anna’s family and friends are praying, saying the Lord’s Prayer near the tree.
Crude or Profane Language: None
Drug and Alcohol Content:Mild
- The list of Anna’s medications are mentioned.
Will kids/teens like it? Yes
Overall Miracles From Heaven is an inspirational and heartfelt drama, one for the whole family.
Eddie the Eagle-Kids’ Movie Review
Michael “Eddie” Edwards (Taron Egerton) was a nerdy and awkward British boy. He was not an athlete, something his father repeatedly told him, but he had a life long dream of being an Olympian. After trying several sports throughout his life he finally decides in his early twenty’s that skiing is his sport. However, when he gets cut from the Olympic ski team, he eventually realizes that ski jumping is the only sport category he has chance in. So Eddie travels to Germany where he meets Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), a former ski jumper. Now Eddie has four years to train until the 1988 Olympics, and Bronson has agreed to coach him. All odds are against him as most ski jumpers start training at age 6. Though nothing stops Eddie, he is determined to be in the 1988 Winter Olympics! Based on a true story, Eddie the Eagle is a wonderful and inspirational sports drama, one for the whole family.
Rating: 4 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: June 14, 2016
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 10+
Sexual Content: Moderate
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
Will Kids/Teens Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
- The founder of the Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, once said, “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” This quote is shown during the credits of the film, and this is something Eddie lived by. Eddie’s whole life people told him that he would never fulfill his dream of being in the Olympics. He was not a natural born athlete, though he was determined to do something that no one thought he could do. This will spark some great parent/child conversations.
Sexual Content: Moderate
- A woman flirts with Eddie, making him a sexual proposition. Though Eddie is not interested.
- Bronson, Eddie’s coach, compares a ski jump to having sex with Bo Derek (Eddie’s favorite actress). Bronson makes sexual noises with moans and groans to make his point.
- We see a group of nude men in a steam room. However, their private parts are covered with towels or other objects.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
- Eddie and other skiers crash during their jumps. We see Eddie’s bumps, bruises and open cuts on his face.
- A character punches Bronson in the face, which knocks him out.
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
- We hear “h—,” and “a–.”
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
- Bronson drinks alcohol from his flask throughout the film…morning, noon and night.
- Bronson frequently smokes cigarettes.
- An Olympic team member tricks Eddie into drinking alcohol the night before a jump. Eddie never drinks alcoholic beverages, he loves milk. Needless to say, the next day Eddie wasn’t feeling the best.
Will Kids/Teens Like It? Yes
Overall Eddie the Eagle is a wonderful inspirational sports drama. Depending on the child this is appropriate for kids ages 10 and up.
Race-Kids’ Movie Review
“Out there, there ain’t no black and white,” Owens says. “There’s only fast and slow.” Set in the 1930’s in a time of segregation we see the amazing story of a true American athlete…Jesse Owens (Stephan James). Jesse attends Ohio State University where he enrolls to run track, however he is treated as a second class citizen except on the track. With the guidance of his OSU coach, Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis), Jesse sets three world records and tying another in less than an hour at the 1935 Big Ten Track meet. Then he proceeds to win four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Overcoming racism at home and in Nazi Germany, Owens shows the world that he is truly the worlds fastest human!
Rating: 4 and 1/2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: May 31, 2016
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 11+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Teens Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
- Not only is this an exciting sports drama there is an educational element as well. In a time of segregation and the Hitler regime we also get a little history lesson which could spark some great parent/child conversations.
- Jesse and his girlfriend Ruth have a child out of wedlock, they eventually get married.
Sexual Content: Mild
- Jesse has a girlfriend, with whom he has a daughter. However, when Jesse meets a woman at a jazz club, she flirts with him and they end up dancing and kissing. It’s implied that they had a sexual encounter, though we don’t see anything.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
- There are racially motivated threats of violence towards Jesse.
- When Jesse is upset with his coach he forcefully pushes him as they argue about whether Jesse should go to Germany.
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
- We hear “sh-t,” “a–,” “h—,” and “d–n.”
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
- Throughout the film we see Jesse and other athletes drinking beer while they’re training.
- Jesse’s coach, Snyder, frequently drinks alcohol from a flask. We see him drinking whiskey in his office as he argues with Jesse.
Will Kid/Teens Like It? Yes
- I interviewed three high school track runners who loved the film. A teen boy said, “Now I’m really motivated for track season.”
Overall Race is a wonderful inspirational story. Parents need to be aware of the moderate profane language.
Deadpool-Teen Movie Review
Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynold) is a former Special Forces operative. He has an average life living day to day making ends meet.Then he meets Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), the love of his life. Finally he has something to live for! Unfortunately his life drastically changes soon after meeting Vanessa.Wade receives the awful news that he’s been diagnosed with cancer. After much thought, he disappears and signs up to do an experiment with a shady organization that will make him a new man… cancer-free. He goes through this horrendous procedure where an evil man named Ajax (Ed Skrein) tortures and transforms him. Wade Wilson becomes Deadpool, a disfigured man with superpowers. So now Wade and other mutant allies are on a mission to find the man who almost destroyed their lives.
Rating: 2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: May 10, 2016
MPAA Rating: R
Best Age Group: 17+
Sexual Content: Excessive
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Teens Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
This is a film about the super-hero Deadpool, one that will most likely appeal to kids. However, this is an R rated and very inappropriate film. Deadpool is distributed by 20th Century Fox, not Disney’s Marvel. See full details below.
Sexual Content: Excessive
- There are several sexual references regarding masturbation, oral sex and male/female body parts.
- We see Wade and Vanessa in a sexual encounter.
- Vanessa is an exotic dancer and prostitute. We see women at a strip club dancing. One of the girls is shown fully naked, we see her front side.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
- Since Wade is a special-ops guy he has killed a lot of people. We see several graphic and bloody scenes throughout the film. Characters are shot and stabbed to death.
- In the clinic, we see Ajax torturing Wade; beating him while strapped to a gurney, submerging him in goo, floating in ice, and waterboarding him. He was also locked in a tank for a weekend, where he had a difficult time breathing.
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
- Profane language was used throughout the film. The f-word, “sh-t,” “h–,” and “b–ch.”
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
- We see characters drinking alcohol and a bar and smoking a cigarette.
- There are references to cocaine.
Will Teens Like It? Yes
- I interviewed two eighteen year old boys who thought the film was hilarious. One guy said that he wants to see it again.
Overall Deadpool is an entertaining comedy though very inappropriate for kids.
Zoolander 2-Kids’ Movie Review
Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) may not be the young hot models they once were, however they have been invited back to the fashion world to walk the runway in Rome. Though it’s not as glamorous as they hoped. The goofy male models eventually realize that there’s a conspiracy to kill the world’s most beautiful people, and it’s up to them to stop it!
Rating: 3 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: May 24, 2016
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 16+
Sexual Content: Excessive
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drug and Alcohol Content: None
Will kids/ Teens Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
- There are no lessons or inspirational moments, it’s just a silly comedy.
- There’s an all-star cast, to name a few: Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Penelope Cruz, Will Ferrell, and Kristen Wiig.
Sexual Content: Excessive
- There’s a lot of sexual references regarding prostitutes, masturbation a threesome and orgys.
- We see a commercial where someone is milking a cow…which is portrayed as very sexual.
- There is a character named All, an androgynous model. He/she marries himself/herself in Rome, where he/she claims it’s legal.
- We see models wearing low-cut outfits.
- Derek and Hansel have erections, though covered, after seeing a woman’s cleavage.
- There is a disgusting kissing scene showing a lot of tongue.
- We see Hansel involved in an orgy with some odd characters including a goat and female wrestler. We see them in an orgy…shoulders up with suggestive movements.
- A character says that, “Meaningless sex always makes me feel better about myself.”
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
- A character is shot stabbed in the cheek.
- We see a terrible car accident, though no one is injured.
- We hear the f-word once. We also hear “sh-t,” “h–l,” “b–ch,” “a–,” and “d–n.”
Will kids/ Teens Like It? Yes
- Teens will most likely be entertained by the goofy humor, especially if they liked Zoolander.
Overall this is a silly film. Parents need to be aware of the excessive sexual content and profane language.