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CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (DVD)

January 12, 2014

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated, Thriller Leave a comment

CaptainPhillipscoverGrade:  A-
Entire family:  No
2013, 134 min., Color
Rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and substance abuse
Columbia/Sony
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features: C+
Trailer

Family Home Theater has the tagline “stuff your kids can see,” and to that end I review films that are rated PG-13 or under. Not all PG-13 films are candidates for family viewing, and Captain Phillips is borderline. I’d say that children have to be at LEAST 13 to watch this taut thriller about a small band of Somali pirates who, in 2009, became the first to hijack a U.S. ship in 200 years. The nature of the film will make it more appealing to teenage boys than to teenage girls.

For all but 10 minutes, Captain Phillips plays like a thriller in the tradition of such siege pictures as Air Force One and Panic Room. For all but 10 minutes, menace, not violence, creates a tension that holds you in its grip until the final outcome. But there are, in fact, a few brief bloody moments, and the fact that the film is based on a true story makes those moments seem more intense. So does an ending that changes the whole feel of the film and appears largely designed to give Tom Hanks an Oscar moment by pushing his emotional range.

After a slow and contrived opening sequence that shows Phillips with his wife before she drops him off at the airport, where he’ll fly to Oman to take command of the container freighter Maersk Alabama and guide it through pirate waters off the Somali coast, the narrative almost shapes itself once Phillips gets onboard. You may have heard that crew members objected to the film because, in their words, Phillips “wasn’t that brave,” but this is Hollywood and one expects a degree of exaggeration in order to craft a more effective and powerful film.   More

THE LONE RANGER (Blu-ray combo)

December 12, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated, Western Leave a comment

LoneRangercoverGrade:  B-
Entire family:  No
2013, 149 min., Color
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence and some suggestive material
Disney
Aspect ratio:  2.40:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Bonus features:  C-
Trailer

Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski conspired to reinvent the pirate movie, so why would it surprise anyone that they’d give a complete makeover to the legend of The Lone Ranger?

According to the legend that radio series and ‘50s TV show were based on, the Lone Ranger was John Reid, who rode into a box canyon with his brother and other Texas Rangers in pursuit of the Butch Cavendish gang—who lay in wait and ambushed them, killing everyone and leaving Reid for dead. Enter Tonto, who helps him recover, and soon the masked man dedicated to avenging those Rangers by fighting for truth, justice, and the American way is riding across the West with his faithful Indian companion, rounding up bad guys in every episode.

When Verbinski and a trio of screenwriters (including Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) begin with the premise that John Reid is a lawyer and anti-gun crusader and brother Dan (James Badge Dale) is a man’s man kind of Ranger, it serves as the set-up to a punch line. Tonto later finds the dead Rangers, John included, and puts them in open graves, after which a white spirit horse thought to be able to bring someone back from the dead focuses on John, despite Tonto’s efforts to flag him over to brother Dan instead.  After John is fully recovered and their reluctant partnership begins, Tonto keeps calling him Ke-mo-sah-be until John finally asks what it means. “Wrong brother,” Depp-as-Tonto deadpans.

That pretty much sets the tone and narrative approach for this big-screen reboot. As in Pirates, there are supernatural elements, super-sinister villains, eyebrow-raising stunts, and two heroes that, together, do what Depp did as Capt. Jack Sparrow—calmly blundering through the mayhem and coming out at the end of each scrape or skirmish with a kind of befuddled confidence. So parents, if you’re fine with your children watching Pirates of the Caribbean, this film has more of the same. But the violence is every bit PG-13, and that’s the audience. Is it any worse than the Pirates films? Not really. It has the same blend of action, stylized violence, and humor.  More

TURBO (Blu-ray combo)

November 16, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Animation, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

TurbocoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes
2013, 96 min., Color
Rated PG for some mild and thematic elements
DreamWorks Animation
Aspect ratio:  2.35:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, UV Digital HD copy
Bonus features:  C
Trailer

In a familiar premise, Turbo (Ryan Reynolds) wants more out of life than what his biological limitations or station in life will allow. His is the same spirit that made man want to fly—only this fellow would probably settle for a good crisp walking pace.

Turbo is a snail that happens to be a huge racing fan, especially of the Indy 500 and perennial winner Guy Gagné (Bill Hader). The arrogant Gagné mugs for cameras and says all the right things to stay in the spotlight, including the kind of inspirational dream-big quotes that fill Turbo’s head with fantastic ideas that he can somehow become faster than he is.

That kind of thinking can you killed, and it takes his brother (Paul Giamatti) to save him from the blades of a lawn mower when a test “sprint” puts him in danger.

So how do you have a story about a snail who dreams of speed turn into something other than a downer? Of course you have a Spider-Man type of transformation, where nitrous oxide (yep, laughing gas) somehow boosts Turbo’s power the way, in liquid form, it sometimes increases the power of racing engines.

What an increase! Turbo now can move at such a pace that all you see is a blue streak. But what a far-fetched journey he takes to realize his dream! Of course this snail will be discovered at a snail race run by a half-partner in a taco business, and sure he’ll somehow communicate to this guy that he wants to race in the Indy 500, so why wouldn’t this kindly Mexican try to officially enter him in the race? And why wouldn’t the world watch this freakish phenomenon with grand interest?  More

MAN OF STEEL (Blu-ray combo)

November 12, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Leave a comment

ManofSteelcoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes, if . . .
2013, 143 min., Color
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, and some language
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio:  2.40:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 7.1
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, UV Digital HD copy
Bonus features:  B
Trailer

Man of Steel is the kind of sci-fi action film you’d expect if you thought for a moment about the fact that Superman comes from another planet. Played by Henry Cavill, he seems much more alien and more psychologically tormented than any Superman we’ve seen on the big or small screens thus far. Instead of x-ray vision he has eyes that glow red and can sear things. And instead of feeling the warm fuzzy bond with his parents that we’ve seen in previous incarnations, he’s the adopted child who, though he loves the man (Kevin Costner) and woman (Diane Lane) who raised him, still seeks his real parents.

Flying, stopping bullets, or lifting vehicles used to be all in a day’s work for Superman, but this outing—a revisionist reboot from director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen)—the action is ramped up in 21st-century fashion. Adding to the mayhem is a fractured narrative that jumps around in time. It’s all very figure me out, with a pace and style that’s geared toward younger viewers who grew up with blockbuster special effects and seem to crave, always, more. Which is to say, how you respond to Man of Steel may well depend upon your age.

In our little Family Home Theater the parents seemed to prefer the chronological narrative and more romanticized story with Christopher Reeve in the tights and cape, while our 15-year-old son gave this one high marks and our daughter—no fan of superhero films—gutted it out. She’s one who covers her eyes when things get too violent, and there was really just one spot where she had to do that:  when Superman’s (aka Kal-El’s) real father Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and adoptive father meet their fates.  More

ARROW: SEASON 1 (Blu-ray combo)

September 26, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

Arrow1coverGrade:  B
Entire family:  No
2012, 972 min. (23 episodes), Color
Unrated (would be PG-13 for violence)
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio:  1.78:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  C+
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, UV Copy
Trailer

If your family consists of parents and a teenage boy and you’re looking to bond, Arrow can be a good alternative to video games. The series appeals to boys, especially, because it’s based on the DC Comics vigilante Green Arrow, who fights crime in his city but isn’t appreciated by police or the media because of his methods. He doesn’t work within the system. He works from a list of people his father gave him—rich people who have built their fortunes by abusing and taking advantage of others, making the city worse for their wear.

The action is top-notch, the acting is solid, and the characters are interesting. There’s graphic violence of the PG-13 sort, but there are also twists.   More

IRON MAN 3 (Blu-ray combo)

September 19, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG-13 rated Leave a comment

IronMan3coverGrade:  A-
Entire family:  Yes . . . and no
2013, 130 min., Color
Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief suggestive content
Paramount/Disney
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 7.1
Bonus features:  C
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Trailer

Robert Downey, Jr. makes Iron Man one of the most entertaining superheroes in the Marvel movie universe. He “gets” his character—a mega-rich wunderkind named Tony Stark who is just as quick to dip into an arsenal of deadpan, sarcastic “Who cares?” cuts and comebacks as he is the toolbox that keeps his Iron Man suit on the cutting edge of technology . . . and blockbuster movie action.

Taking his cue from director Shane Black, who penned the screenplays for all four Lethal Weapon films, Downey seems to ramp up the Larry David-like self-absorption and lack of warmth for comic effect in Iron Man 3, which seems to have a more comedy and more action than the previous two films. Depending on how you feel about sci-fi violence, children ages 10 and up might be able to watch it comfortably.

Iron Man 3 soars above first sequel and might even rival the 2008 debut for overall entertainment value. You laugh, you sit on the edge of your seat, and you marvel (yes, Marvel) at some of the visual effects—especially the destruction of Stark’s cliffside mansion, an airplane disaster rescue, and scenes involving explosive, firelit, lava-fleshed creatures called “Extremis.”  More

HIS MAJESTY O’KEEFE (DVD)

September 5, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

HisMajestyO'KeefecoverGrade:  C+
Entire family:  Yes, but . . .
1954, 90 min., Color
Not rated (would be PG for some violence)
Warner Bros. Archive Collection
Aspect ratio:  1.37:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital Mono
Bonus features: D
Trailer

South Seas. Romance. Those words are almost synonymous, and in His Majesty O’Keefe, a 1954 semi-swashbuckler starring the acrobatic Burt Lancaster, all the color of the islands bursts onto the screen.

Narrated in voiceover by the main character, a 19th-century Yankee sea captain who is determined to get his share of the lucrative copra (dried coconut) market, His Majesty O’Keefe will remind literature students a little bit of Conrad’s Lord Jim or Melville’s heroes from Typee or Omoo. It’s the story of an adventurer’s exploits in an exotic land where beautiful native girls are as plentiful as the islands’ other resources, and dangers lurk not with the elements, but with potentially hostile indigenous people. In the ‘50s, or even a generation ago, that would have been enough to hold the interest of most families. After all, here was a chance to see Fiji (it was filmed mostly on the island of Vitu Levu), and producer Harold Hecht and director Byron Haskin featured real islanders in the film.

But today’s families can just go to Google Earth if they want to see Fiji, and they’re so used to seeing violence and dazzling special effects in action movies that the clashes in this film will seem not-so-adventurous—especially the one-on-one fights where punches that look like glancing blows send a man toppling in a series of backward somersaults. His Majesty O’Keefe has an old-fashioned movie vibe, and the “native” dress and dances suggest more than a touch of Hollywood. So how your family will respond to this depends on how they respond to old-time Hollywood films.   More

GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (Blu-ray)

July 24, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG rated Leave a comment

GreystokecoverGrade:  B-
Entire family:  No
1984, 137 min., Color
Rated PG (but should be PG-13)
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  C

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan was made in 1984 but feels older than that, partly because Warner Bros. didn’t go out on a limb to clean it up—there’s considerable grain—and partly because of the costuming and the way it was shot. Now it’s being made available through the Archive Collection on Blu-ray, but families beware. This PG movie from the ‘80s is most definitely a PG-13 movie now.

If you have children who would be traumatized by Old Yeller, then they probably wouldn’t want to watch a baby gorilla die, or any number of other gorillas, or people, for that matter. With Greystoke, director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) stays closer to the original Edgar Rice Burroughs story than anyone else in Hollywood, opting for a naturalistic treatment of a boy being raised by apes. That means we see a very little boy interacting with some pretty mean apes and being as nude as he was when an ape graphically kills the lad’s surviving parent to give his grieving mate a baby to replace her own.

It also means that the boy’s full nudity continues through his early teen years—though the director is careful to shoot mostly from the rear so that only a hint of anything dangling is shown. Still, the violence, nudity and naturalistic treatment will be enough to rule it out as a viable family movie unless the children are in their mid-teens.   More

HOW THE WEST WAS WON: SEASON 1 (DVD)

July 9, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, PG rated Leave a comment

HowtheWestwasWoncoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  No
1976-77, 398 min. (counting pilot), Color
Would be PG for some violence
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio:  1.33:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital Mono
Bonus features:  Pilot movie

Westward expansion and the American pioneer experience have always been romanticized, and with good reason. Even more than the American Revolution, it’s our national founder’s myth, with pioneers embodying the kind of traits and characteristics that our country values—things like stoicism, toughness, risk-taking, candor, and a can-do attitude.

All of that is present and accounted for in How the West Was Won, a 1977 TV Western that gave James Arness a chance to immortalize another Western character after his Marshal Dillon and Gunsmoke ended their 20-year run.

How the West Was Won didn’t last nearly as long, but it’s not for lack of quality. Arness is both believable and likable as a grizzled old mountain man who comes to visit his brother’s family at the beginning of the Civil War and ends up guiding them westward through Indian country to the Pacific Northwest.  More

THE DRAGON PEARL (DVD)

June 21, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Action-Adventure, Children's, PG rated Leave a comment

DragonPearlcoverGrade:  B-
Entire family:  Yes, and no
2011, 95 min., Color
Rated PG for adventure action and peril
Ketchup Entertainment
Aspect ratio:  1.78:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features:  None
Included: DVD, Vudu Digital Copy
Trailer

The difference between a movie everyone in the family can watch and a “family movie” is that the latter deliberately tries to steer clear of anything offensive or problematic for small children. Often, that results in a film that young children can enjoy with parents, but older children will find too facile or boring. The whole family could watch this, but not all would want to.

The Dragon Pearl is the perfect adventure for families with children who are too young to experience the intensity of dragons and such in Eragon or the Harry Potter films. There are plenty of thrills and mild peril here, but no growth-stunting scares. Shot entirely in China, The Dragon Pearl is a treaty (bound by international law) co-production between producers from China and Australia, with the visual effects handled by two Australian-based companies.

Yes, we’ve seen a “chosen one” plot before, and the idea of a dragon that’s missing the pearl that serves as its power source is similar to so many mythic talisman stories that it’s about as original as two kids meeting on summer vacation and finding adventure together. But The Dragon Pearl has solid enough execution to make it enjoyable anyway.  More

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