DVD Reviews
Daddy’s Home 2-Kids’ Movie Review
The holidays are a wonderful time of year though the family dynamics can get complicated at times. Brad Whitaker (Will Ferrell) is happily married and he has two stepchildren. He loves his wife’s kids and wants to be the best father to them. He’s even made an effort to get along with Dusty Mayron (Mark Wahlberg), their biological father. In fact, things are so good between the two dads they decide to have their families spend Christmas together. Now things get interesting and the family dynamics gets even more complex. Daddy’s Home 2 is the sequel to the 2015 comedy Daddy’s Home.
Rating: 3 and 1/2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: February 20, 2018
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 13+
Sexual Content: Moderate
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
Sexual Content: Moderate
- One of the Grandpa’s is a womanizer. He has sexual encounters with several different women that he picks up at bars and restaurants, though we don’t see anything. References are made that he took home two women for sex at the same time.
- A young boy is teased about his crush on a girl. Later he’s shown briefly kissing several different girls.
- A dad gives a boy a sex talk saying “boys have a dingle, girls have a hoo-hoo.”
- The two Grandpa’s advice a young boy on how to approach a girl he likes. One of the grandpa’s has a nice approach telling him to become friends first. The other grandpa says “smack her behind.”
- Kids joke about French kissing.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Mild
- There’s a lot of silly slapstick violence. Character’s fall, a chainsaw flies through the air, an elderly man is lost and is found laying face down in the snow.
- One of the grandpa’s is hit in the face with a tetherball at school, then kicked in the face by a child on a swing, knocking him down.
- A young girl shoots a turkey with a rifle and accidentally shoots her grandpa.
Crude or Profane Language: Moderate
- We hear “b–ch,” “s–t,” “d—,” “a–.”
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
- Two young girls sneak rum-spiked eggnog. They get drunk and one falls off a roof. It appears that there are no consequences for their drinking.
- Adult characters are shown drinking alcoholic beverages.
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Overall this is a fun and entertaining film. Having said that parents need to be aware of the sexual references made throughout the film.
Boo 2: A Madea Halloween-Kids’ Movie Review
Madea (Tyler Perry) and her crazy relatives are back, and so is the annual Halloween fraternity party. Tiffany (Diamond White), Madea’s grandniece, has just turned 18. She’s beautiful, independent and thrilled to be going to the local college frat party. This year the party is set to take place at an eerie campground where teens had allegedly been killed. When Madea discovers that Tiffany is going to the party, she drags her elderly gang along to spy and protect her lovely grandniece. Things don’t go as planned and mayhem ensues!!! Boo 2! A Madea Halloween is a sequel to 2016’s Boo! A Madea Halloween, and is set one year later.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: January 30, 2018
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 13+
Sexual Content: Moderate
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
Sexual Content: Moderate
- Suggestive comments are made throughout the film.
- Frat guys flirt with girls. Couples touch while dancing and it’s implied that they plan to hook up.
- Women are shown in skimpy Halloween costumes.
- Tiffany’s goal is to get together with a frat boy at the party.
- The grandpa flirts with his granddaughter’s friend until she tells him she’s 17.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
- There are scary men with chainsaws and creepy girls who stalk the lake site.
- We hear screams and it’s presumed that people are being hurt or even killed.
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
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We hear the f-word, “sh-t,” “a–,” “d—,” “h—,” “b–ch, “p-ss”, “h—” and the n-word.
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
- We see teens drinking with college students.
- A characters smokes a joint.
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Parents may not like the film but kids will find it entertaining and funny.
Happy Death Day- Kids’ Movie Review
Teresa “Tree” Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) is a college student who enjoys her lifestyle as a cute sorority girl. However, Tree’s life dramatically changes on her birthday. She wakes up hungover and in the bed of a student named Carter, whom she had just met the night before. When Tree leaves Carter’s dorm she gets a creepy feeling as she’s walking through campus towards the Kappa House. It ends up that Tree is stuck in a time loop where she suffers a violent death over and over again. Frightened and scared, Tree realizes she must relive the day over again until she discovers who murdered her.
Rating: 2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: January 16, 2018
MPAA Rating: PG13
Best Age Group: 13+
Sexual Content: Moderate
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
Sexual Content: Moderate
- It’s mentioned that a college student is having an affair with a married teacher.
- We see couples kissing.
- Sex between college students is discussed, but nothing is shown.
- A character prepares to masturbate to porn. We briefly see two men kissing passionately on computer screen.
- A character walks naked through campus, we see her bare back.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
- We see stabbing with knives and broken bottles.
- We see Tree brutally killed multiple times.
- Characters are hit with baseball bats, a crowbar, and a pipe.
- There’s punching and hitting.
- A character falls through a window from a high building. We see the blood spattered on the ground.
- A car drives over someone, we see the dead body.
- A police car blows up with someone in the back seat.
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
- We hear the f-word once. We also hear “sh-t,” “b–ch,” “a–,” “a–hole,” “d–n,” “b–ch,” and “h–l” throughout the film.
Drug and Alcohol Content: Moderate
- A main character wakes up hungover and discusses her drunken antics from the previous night.
- We see college students drinking at a party.
- A college guy has a bong.
Will Teens Like It? Yes
- I interviewed 4 pre-teen girls who thought the film was funny, scary and entertaining.
Overall this is an entertaining horror film with comedic overtones. Parents need to be aware of the violence, language and sexual contents.
Stronger-Kids’ Movie Review
Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his ex girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany) run into each other at a local bar weeks before the Boston Marathon. Erin is raising money for a charity for the marathon while Jeff is having a good time with his friends at the bar. Jeff wasn’t the most dependable boyfriend. He was immature, and didn’t always show up for Erin when she needed him. However, when Jeff does show up with a homemade sign cheering on his ex as she’s running in the Boston Marathon, his life dramatically changes. Stronger is a true story based on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. It highlights the story of Jeff Bauman, a guy who loses his legs when he finally shows up for his true love.
Rating: 2 out of 5 popcorn buckets
Release Date: December 19, 2017
MPAA Rating: R
Best Age Group: 15+
Sexual Content: Moderate
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drug and Alcohol Content: Excessive
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
Sexual Content: Moderate
- During a sexual encounter we see a woman’s bare back.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Moderate
- We see the bloody aftermath of the Boston Marathon, showing victims with gory wounds on the street and in the hospital.
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
- We hear the f-word frequently throughout the film. We also hear “h–l,” “sh-t,” “a–,” “b–ch,” and “d–n.”
Drug and Alcohol Content: Excessive
- Characters are shown drinking beer, wine and hard liquor at bars and social events.
- One character is shown drunk on numerous occasions. We see her passed out a few times from too much drinking.
- Character’s are shown smoking.
Will Kids Like It? Yes
- I interviewed some teenage girls who really liked the film but thought it was disturbing.
Overall this is a sad but interesting drama. Parents need to be aware of the disturbing scenes and excessive profane language.
It- Teen Movie Review
It’s summer and the young teens are supposed to play outside with their friends and have fun! That’s the initial plan for a group of middle school outcasts from the town of Derry, Maine. Set in 1988, the young teens start their summer by running away from the cruel and evil bullies in their small town. That’s not their only problem. Things get creepy as kids start disappearing. Luckily, their new friend, Ben, discovers that strange things seem to happen in cycles of 27 years which leads them to a well in the basement of a creepy old house. Bill, a boy in the group whose brother disappeared, is determined to stop whatever killed his brother and has the help of his group of misfit friends. It is based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel.
Rating: 2.5 buckets out of 5
Release Date: January 9, 2018
MPAA Rating: R
Best Age Group: 15+
Sexual Content: Moderate
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
Will Kids Like It? Yes
Talking Points:
Sexual Content: Moderate
- There are rumors that a teenage girl slept with many guys.
- There are sexual jokes by 13-year-olds. They mention; “periods,” “vagina,” “birth control pills,” etc.
- Teens go swimming in their underwear and the boys admire the teenage girl with them. She’s shown in her bra and panties.
- An abusive father acts in a creepy and sexual way toward his teenage daughter.
Violent/Disturbing Content: Excessive
- The clown is very scary and will terrify kids. He’s shown periodically throughout the film.
- Lots of bullying. A bully carves up a kid’s stomach with a knife and stabs a man with the same knife.
- Bullies shoot guns, kick, punch and beat up their peers.
- There are scenes showing a lot of blood. In one scene a bathroom is covered in blood and the kids clean it up.
- We see kids beating the clown with sharp objects.
- We see the clown bite a child’s arm off.
- A clown is stabbed through the face.
- A sheep is killed with a bolt gun by one of the bullies.
Crude or Profane Language: Excessive
- We hear the f-word numerous times, also “sh-t,” “a–,” and “d–n. It’s typically young teens using the harsh language.
Drug and Alcohol Content: Mild
- We see an abusive father drinking beer.
- Character’s are shown smoking cigarettes.
Will Teen Like It? Yes
- The story involves a group of middle school aged kids which will appeal to kids. I interviewed some teenage boys who enjoyed it. They were scared, but thought some parts were funny.
Overall this is an entertaining horror film, one that teens will be eager to see. Parents need to be aware of the excessive and disturbing violence, also the excessive language.