Sci-Fi
Sci-Fi movie reviews
Race to Witch Mountain Review
Jack Bruno(Dwayne Johnson) is a Las Vegas cab driver whose life changes when 2 teen aliens(siblings) enter into his cab. Though they don’t look like aliens, Jack gradually realizes that they are when he sees they have supernatural powers. The sibling’s inform Jack that their spaceship had crashed on Earth, which is buried within Witch Mountain. They must return the spaceship home to save their own planet and ours. It’s up to Jack and his “scientist” love interest to help the teens retrieve their spaceship.
Rating: Four out of five buckets
Release Date: August 4, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 8+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
Talking Points:
Funny, a lot of one-liners.
Great actors, the girl was in “Bridge to Tarabithia,” and “Because of Winn Dixie.”
I read that “this remake was written with Dwayne Johnson in mind, to turn “The Rock” into a more family friendly commodity.”
Jack is very loyal to the teens, initially he wants to walk away, but his conscience won’t let him.
Two actors from the original movie have cameos in this movie.
Sexual Content: Mild
- Women wear tight fitting outfits.
Violent Content: Moderate
- There is a lot of action and violence. Men with black SUV’s, black overcoats, and black sunglasses are after Jack and the kids throughout the movie. May scare younger kids.
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
- Characters say, “up the yin-yang,” and “nutjob.”
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
- Two characters are given a drug through a breathing tube.
Overall, this film is a fun, action packed movie for the whole family.
Paul Review
Paul is a comedy sci-fi movie about two geeky guys, Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) from England, on a road trip to Area 51. Who do they meet on the way? Paul (voice of Seth Rogan), an alien who has just broken out of a top-secret military base where he had been living for the last 60 years. So now the three of them, and a few others they meet along the way, frantically travel to get Paul to his mother ship before the FBI captures him first.
Rating: One out of five buckets
Release Date: March 18, 2011
MPAA Rating: R
Best Age Group: Adults
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Excessive
See a clip of my review here!
Talking Points
This movie has some appealing and interesting characters. Of course, there’s the two nerdy guys, who are funny in their own geeky sort of way. There’s Paul, the alien, who somewhat reminded me of ET, and then there’s Ruth, the women they accidentally kidnapped, who at times, was funny and entertaining.
When I went to this movie I thought I was seeing a sci-fi comedy, which it was; though I was very surprised and disappointed by the religious viewpoint the movie portrayed. Some examples:
• The movie portrays believers in God very poorly. It’s unfair and cheap. Paul believes in evolution and does not believe in God, which he makes perfectly clear throughout the movie. They accidentally kidnap Ruth, a very conservative Christian women and Paul decides to change her beliefs, which he does. When she claims that she is free from her religious bondage; she’s excited about swearing, smoking pot, and making crude sexual references.
• Ruth’s father, a faithful bible-toting man, is portrayed as a crazed, weak-minded, bad guy.
Sexual Content: Mild
There aren’t any sexual scenes, though just a little kissing, however there are many sexual references and crude comments.
• Ruth says that she wants to do a lot of kissing and fornicating.
Violent Content: Mild
• Paul swallows a living bird.
• Characters get in an intense brawl with hitting, punching and biting each other.
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
• Profane language is used throughout the movie. I didn’t count, however “f%&*” was probably said over 50 times, along with every other swear word.
If it weren’t for the profanity and the cheap shots toward God in this movie, I might have enjoyed it more. Besides the fact the movie is rated R, I will not let my kids see this movie, and I will not recommend this film to anyone.
Monsters vs. Aliens Review
Susan, a cute California girl,(voice of Reese Witherspoon), is hit by a meteorite on her wedding day, and grows to 49 feet, 11 inches tall. Then, the military takes her away to their secret compound as a government test subject, and that’s where she meets a group of monsters. Rather than destroying each other, Susan and the monsters become great friends, as they’re trapped together. They are finally released when an alien robot lands on Earth, and the President of the U.S. enlists the monsters to attack the Alien Robot, and save the world.
Rating: Three out of five buckets.
Release Date: September 29, 2009
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: 5+
Sexual Content: Mild
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
Talking Points:
Initially the monsters seem scary and threatening to Susan, but as they become friends, the monsters transform into harmless, fun creatures. They love Susan, and will do anything for her, and Susan feels the same way about them.
The movie suggests lessons of friendship and self-sacrifice(it doesn’t matter what you look like). Susan’s parents are even supportive of her monster friends.
It’s a colorful animated action movie, with enjoyable characters and light humor.
The 3D affects were well-done.
Sexual Content: Mild
- When Susan starts to grow very tall, her wedding gown tears, though the dress stays on her, it looks like a revealing mini dress.
- Teenagers go parking at night, the girl wants to smooch a little, but they don’t, because a spaceship lands near them.
Violent Content: Mild
- Slight violence, especially when the alien robot destroy The Golden Gate Bridge, with cars and pedestrians on it.
- When the meteorite lands, it momentary crushes Susan.
Crude of Profane Language: Mild
- Exclamations are used, such as; “what the flagnod?” and “holy Cheez-Its!”
- OMG is used several times.
Drugs and Alcohol Content: Mild
- One character mixes several bottles of alcohol, and makes a cocktail.
Adults may get bored, my friend saw it, and fell asleep. I also got a little bored so did my 11 and 12 year olds.
Megamind Review
This is the story about Megamind (Will Ferrell), a brilliant but unsuccessful supervillain. Megamind wanted nothing more than to conquer Metor City, but failed at every attempt, because of his arch nemesis and superhero Metro Man (Brad Pitt). During one of Megaminds evil attempts to conquer the city, he actually kills Metro Man. Megamind’s dream has finally come true, but he realizes that not having a superhero to fight makes his life pointless and boring. So he decides to create a new opponent and hero. The only problem is that this new hero would rather be a villain than a good guy. So now Megamind has to decide how to handle his new creation.
Rating: Four out of five buckets
Release Date: February 25, 2011
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: Any age
Sexual Content: None
Violent Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: None
Drugs and Alcohol Content: None
Talking Points:
This is a fun entertaining movie with a lot of good messages. Megamind had a rough childhood, he was very unattractive, not popular, and he was always picked last in school sports. As an adult he started to think that the only thing he’d be good at would to become an evil villain, and conquer the world. He eventually realizes that none of that matters, and that, “You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.”
Another message that Roxanne (Tina Fay), the cute TV reporter says, “As long as there is evil, good will stand up to it.” She also said, “The bad guy never gets the girl.”
Megamind said, “We never know how good we have it, until it’s gone.”
Violent Content:
There are a lot of action scenes with many fights, and explosions. Megamind shrinks people to small cubes with a freeze-drying ray gun. He has some other scary looking weapons. This may frighten some kids.
Profanity:
No profanity, not even potty humor that are typically in animated films.
I didn’t like Brad Pitt in an animated movie, he’s better on the screen. However, Will Ferrell and Tina Fay were great.
I interviewed kids ages 3 to 5 after the movie. Some comments were; “It was awesome, I loved it, It was so funny.” A mom told me that she loved the messages in the movie.
To sum things up, parents laughed, kids were quiet, and Brad Pitt didn’t get the girl…..this was a good movie!
Mars Needs Moms Review
“My mom washes my clothes, my mom vacuums, my mom tucks me in.” That’s what nine year-old Milo (voice of Seth Green) said when he discovered that his mom was captured by Martians.It all started one night when Milo and his mom (voice of Joan Cusack) had an argument, (Milo didn’t eat his broccoli), and Milo said, “My life would be better if I didn’t have a mom at all.” Milo soon came to realize that he really did need his mom, however the Martians thought they needed her more, so they grabbed her, and off to Mars they went. Now it’s up to Milo to rescue his mom from Mars, and let her know how much she’s loved and needed in their home….something all mom’s want love to hear.
Rating: Five out of five buckets
Release Date: August 9, 2011
MPAA Rating: PG
Best Age Group: Any age
Sexual Content: None
Violent Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
Drugs and Alcohol Content: None
See a clip of my review here!
Talking Points
This movie is absolutely adorable. It’s a heartwarming movie, one for the whole family, with a blatant message about the importance of love, and that, “Moms are great and family is essential.”
After Milo told his mom, that his life would be better if he didn’t have her; he felt awful and immediately wanted to apologize, though it was too late. This could spark a good parent/child discussion. It was cute to see how determined he was to try to save his mom.
This film was very fun, with likable characters: Gribble (voice of Dan Fogler), another human stranded on Mars, was funny, and had a lot of good one-liners. He was Milo’s “best bud,” and very tech-savvy, which helped Milo later in the movie.
Sexual Content: None
Violent Content: Mild
• Some Martians shoot lasers at Milo and his friends.
Crude or Profane Language: Mild
• Words like “dummy” and “jerk” were used.
I laughed and I cried in this wonderful animated movie. Parents will love the messages about love and family, and kids will love the characters and storyline. Mars needs his moms, but don’t we all! Good for all ages!