Family Home Theater

Grade: B
Entire family: Yes, though some boys might resist
2014, 91 min., Color
20^th Century Fox
Rated PG for mild thematic elements and brief language
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 widescreen
Featured audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features: D
Trailer

Competition TV series are popular now, but they’re mostly dance-, song-, or pageant-related. I can’t think of a single series or film that uses the rodeo as a backdrop for light family drama, and there is something mesmerizing about watching horses move—especially the mini-horses that appear in this sequel, ones that scamper rather than gallop, and that are not much taller than an adult’s waist. They’re just so darned CUTE.

Cowgirls ‘n Angels 2: Dakota’s Summer is a Dove-approved sequel that features an all-new cast and is aimed mostly at girls ages six through 16. But the acting is solid, the trick riding captivating, and the situation interesting enough to where it might appeal to the whole family.

Dakota’s Summer stars Haley Ramm (X-Men: The Last Stand) as a teen who’s teamed with her more talented sister in a trick-riding duo for Sweethearts of the Rodeo. Early in the film she wonders aloud why the granddaughter of a famed rodeo trick rider would have such a hard time with it, compared to her sister. It’s like we’re totally different, she says. “You don’t know the half of it,” her sister remarks, and that leads to Dakota’s discovery that she is really adopted.

Now, everywhere across America there are adopted children who wonder who their birth parents are, and it’s never as easy as leaving your family to go to stay with Rodeo Grandpa, who was behind the adoption, and finding the names of the parents in a clearly marked file in his desk drawer. And finding birth parents is never as easy as just going to the address on the form, and there they are.

When Rodeo Grandpa (Keith Carradine) uses his mini-horse ranch for a program to benefit troubled children in foster care, not one of those children appears genuinely troubled. No one tests the boundaries of authority or pushes to see whether an adult will reject him/her again, and when one of them leaves with a mini-horse and buggy and Dakota arrives on the scene where there are flashing lights and an ambulance, the cart is trashed but neither the runaway girl (Jade Pettyjohn, American Girl: McKenna Shoots for the Stars) nor the little horse are in any way harmed. The whole foster care/adoption cycle is also less than realistic.

But realism isn’t the goal here. Dakota’s Summer is a feel-good family film that doesn’t pretend to be anything more—and it’s tough to walk away with a good feeling when the same old garbage that happens in real life happens as well in the movies. My daughter likes happy films, and she liked this one. I did too, and so did my wife.  But I am perplexed as to why this earned a PG rating. It’s as wholesome as can be. More

Grade:  C+
Entire family:  Yes (but it’s slow)
2013, 93 min., Color
Rated PG for thematic elements including bullying and for brief smoking and language
Arc Entertainment
Aspect ratio:  16×9
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  D
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Vudu digital copy
Trailer

Standing Up is D.J. Caruso’s film adaptation of The Goats, a popular juvenile novel by Brock Cole that’s been among the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books, according to the American Library Association. I can see why.

Standing Up tells the story of a cruel tradition at a summer camp that has boys luring the weakest among them to an island, then stripping him naked and leaving him there for a while. The girls at camp do the same thing to one of their own—or rather, the one who fits in the least. Marooned most often are the geeks, the nerds, the misfits, the kids who would be made fun, bullied, or shunned during the school year by a different group of insensitive “cool” kids. Camp counselors look the other way so this “tradition” can continue, but this year’s “goats” feel so humiliated and hurt by their experience that they go on the run instead of waiting to be picked up again and taken back to camp.

“Standing up” implies standing up to bullies, which is a brave but not always healthy thing to do. Running is more practical, but not terribly empowering. Also, there’s a single incident when the pre-teen boy comes to the rescue of his companion, yet that involves a blindsided leg sweep like the bad guys did to The Karate Kid. It’s not terribly noble, and in fact strikes me as something a bully might do.

The two kids become to an extent, outlaws on the run, and they model behavior that isn’t exactly what you’d want your kids to do:  they lie, they steal, they scam their way into a motel, and they tell other kids they meet along the way that their names are Bonnie and Clyde—so their lawlessness didn’t escape the author. Yet, curiously, Standing Up proudly bears the Dove Family Seal of Approval. Maybe that’s because of a tone that more closely resembles an indie film than a crime drama, and because Grace (Annalise Basso) and Howie (Chandler Canterbury) are more desperate than they are desperadoes.  More

Grade:  B
Entire family:  Yes (and no)
1963, 251 min., Color
Unrated (would be PG for some violence and sensuality)
Aspect ratio:  2.20:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  A-
Trailer

Until 1993, Cleopatra was the most expensive film Hollywood produced, and it’s also the last of the BIG Hollywood spectacles—which makes it a film every movie-lover ought to see at least once.

Cleopatra would probably merit a PG stamp because of some violence and sensuality—though it all seems tame by today’s standards. There’s more drama than action, with the most violence occurring when Julius Caesar is stabbed on the Ides of March. Other killings are offstage, and while there’s talk of a rival general’s head, only the top is shown pulled from a jar, not the features. As for sensuality, star Elizabeth Taylor is shown in a bath and it’s clear she’s nude, though you can’t see anything. She also appears in several scenes nude but artfully covered with drapery. The most revealing shot shows the full-length contour of her body from the side, with her buttocks covered. African dancers later wear what could be called oversized “pasties,” but many families will find nothing here to prevent younger family members from watching. It’s all pretty tastefully handled.

Of more concern for family movie night is the film’s length—more than four hours—and the talky nature of many scenes. Though Cleopatra is an epic, the emphasis is the politics and relationships among three historical figures: Cleopatra, Caesar (Rex Harrison), and Marc Antony (Richard Burton). Children under 13 may need an explanation of what’s going on, as director and co-writer Joseph Mankiewicz stayed pretty close to Plutarch’s published account of Julius Caesar’s life. Most of what you see really happened, but Caesar’s interests in Egypt and senatorial politics in Rome can seem confusing.

In the first half (there’s an intermission) Caesar is charmed by Cleopatra, and their relationship runs parallel to each of their political ambitions. The second half of the film picks up after Caesar’s death, with Cleopatra leaving Rome for Egypt again. She’s pursued romantically by Caesar’s trusted lieutenant, Marc Antony, who wants to build a political base for himself and his army in Egypt, because of the threat to his own dreams of empire posed by Caesar’s nephew, Octavian (Roddy McDowall).

If the action is dwarfed by politics, the plot seems secondary to the spectacle itself. Cleopatra earned nine Oscar nominations and also won for cinematography, costume design, and special effects. Our teenage son, who enjoyed the film despite its length and overlong scenes, said he’d give it three-and-a-half stars, while our ‘tween daughter appreciated the glam but found it too slow-going.  More