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AGENT CODY BANKS (Blu-ray)

May 26, 2016

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

AgentCodyBankscoverGrade: B+
Entire family: No, but darned close
2003, 102 min., Color
Olive Films
Rated PG for action violence, mild language, and some sexual content
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: B-
Trailer
Amazon link

If you’re expecting Agent Cody Banks to be a cheap knock-off of Spy Kids ratcheted up a notch for the hormone-heavy teen set, director Harald Zwart’s first action outing may surprise you. Banks, Cody Banks, has the gadgets, the girls, the villains, the chases, the pyrotechnics, and the outstanding special effects to keep pace with middle-of-the-pack Bond flicks. Except that the sexual innuendos are tame by comparison, and the only consummation is a good-bye kiss at the end. It is, after all, rated PG, though there are more than a few scenes of peril and one graphic body-eating scene reminiscent of the face-melting in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Besides action there’s plenty of humor in this film (a driver’s ed scene is classic), and the premise itself is fun. Parents who think their darlings are off at summer camp have no idea that a group of them are really being trained as junior secret agents. When a scientist (Martin Donovan) develops “nanobots,” microscopic robots that can be programmed to eat pretty much anything, the evil organization ERIS, led by the swaggeringly sinister Brinkman (Ian McShane), cons and bullies Dr. Connors into working for them. To find out what’s going on and to thwart them, the CIA assigns its first teen agent to get close to the scientist’s daughter, Natalie (Hilary Duff).

AgentCodyBanksscreenFans of the old TV series Malcolm in the Middle may be surprised at how natural TV star Frankie Muniz seems as a junior agent with one main problem: he doesn’t know how to talk to girls. As a teen Everyguy and reticent, almost painfully shy hero ala Timothy Dalton’s James Bond, he’s absolutely believable. But it was inspired casting to give The Mummy a part as Brinkman’s scarred and shaven henchman. As Molay, Arnold Vosloo is as memorably menacing as Jaws, Odd Job, or the best of the Bond villains. And Angie Harmon, the adult “handler”/partner who dresses retro in skin-tight clothes and acts unabashedly Emma Peel-like, has surprisingly good chemistry with Muniz. When the doctor disappears, then his daughter, it’s up to those unlikely partners to save them . . . and, of course, the world.

Zwart really manages to tap into the heart of teenage angst with Agent Cody Banks. Aside from the awkwardness around girls, there’s the importance of driving, encounters with bullies, chore-avoidance, the teasing siblings and friends, overly protective parents, and an ensemble of extras that makes us believe that world. Layer a spy plot on top of that, and you’ve got an entertaining blend of teen life and spy life, much more believable than the hard-to-fathom TV world of Scarecrow and Mrs. King, where a housewife was the agent and her kids the clueless ones. In Agent Cody Banks, the action never sags, and maybe that’s because Zwart was influenced by so many good films.

Astute viewers will spot homages to Dr. Strangelove, Austin Powers, Our Man Flint, Die Hard, Back to the Future, Spy Kids, and, of course, a number of the Bond films. It’s a good film for families who think their kids aren’t quite ready for Bond—even the tamer Sean Connery and Roger Moore films.

Language: Pretty mild, actually, with around a dozen lesser obscenities mouthed, often muted
Sex: An adult woman pulls the towel off a boy in a locker room, and the same woman covers herself when Cody tries on his X-ray glasses and stares at her chest
Violence: A man is eaten inside out by nanobots, a young boy is imperiled inside a runaway car, and there’s typical action violence (martial arts, fighting, explosions)
Adult situations: No smoking or drinking, which makes this ride Bond with training wheels
Takeaway: The Bond films never feel dated, and neither does Agent Cody Banks. It still plays well, and for that credit the special effects that compare favorably to today’s films and the fact that high school never seems to change.

CAROL + 2: THE ORIGINAL QUEENS OF COMEDY (DVD)

May 21, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, G rated, Musical, PG rated, TV Comedy Leave a comment

Carolplus2coverGrade: B+
Entire family: Yes (Once Upon a Mattress)
1963-1972, 277 min., Color and black-and-white
Time Life/StarVista Entertainment
Not rated (Once would be G, the others PG)
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Bonus features: n/a
Amazon link

The Carol Burnett Show aired from 1967-78, making it one of the last yet longest running of the old vaudeville-inspired variety shows that combined song and dance with sketch comedy. Burnett broke into TV as a regular on The Garry Moore Show and in 1966 was given her own TV special. The network wanted her to ask Lucille Ball to guest star, as well as the Tony Award-winning Zero Mostel, who was currently appearing on Broadway as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Both said yes, and the result is Carol + 2, a one-hour special that all but set the format for The Carol Burnett Show to follow.

Carol + 2 is a part of television history, and for general fans it will be the gem on this DVD, which (sorry, Mr. Mostel) is being marketed as Carol + 2: The Original Queens of Comedy. But it’s not the big draw for families with children. The reason to buy this DVD, if you have children, is the colorful TV movie version of the beloved Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, “The Princess and the Pea,” starring Burnett as the princess.

Burnett got her big break in 1959 as a 26 year old when she was cast by the legendary George Abbott to star in the off-Broadway production of a new show based on that fairy tale, and Once Upon a Mattress quickly moved on Broadway for a total run of 244 performances. Burnett earned a Tony nomination for her role as Princess Winifred the Woebegone, and as a TV personality she would star in three special televised productions of Once Upon a Mattress: in 1966, 1972, and 2005, the latter in which she would play the queen rather than the unconventional princess. The version on this DVD is the 1972 special, which is indeed special because Jack Gilford and Jane White reprise their original off-Broadway roles as King Sextimus and Queen Aggravain.

Carolplus2screen1Once Upon a Mattress is aimed at families, which is made clear from the beginning as Burnett reads and shares an abbreviated picture-book version of the fairy tale, after which we’re told we’re about to see the “adult version” of what really happened. Don’t be alarmed. Even your four year old can watch and enjoy this production, which sports outrageous and colorful costumes and lines that are delivered slowly enough that the smallest children won’t need much in the way of narrative summary. Once Upon a Mattress is an engaging 90-minute romp that showcases Burnett’s talents as a physical comedienne and also features verbal comedy, singing, and dancing.

The plot is simple, yet, like so many fairy tales, timeless. Queen Aggravain is so domineering that her husband, the king, has been rendered unable to speak. Communicating only in pantomime, he’s like the fifth Marx Brother. Their son, Prince Dauntless (Ken Berry), is also dominated by the queen, yet this mama’s boy, despite being in his mid-thirties, yearns to marry. Trouble is, he can only marry a true princess, and Mama devises a different test each time so devious that none of the princesses who visit the castle are ever able to pass. When a rain-drenched Princess Winifred (who prefers to be called “Fred”) turns up on the doorstep, the vetting process begins anew. Children will especially get a kick out of a “dance off” in which Fred instantly masters the silliest local folk dance and outlasts everyone else in the kingdom. The Queen tells the princess that she needs to get her sleep because the big test will be tomorrow, when in fact the test is whether she can detect a tiny pea placed underneath a stack of 20 mattresses. The “adult version” is that this happily-ever-after tale didn’t come about because Fred was indeed able to detect that pea. She had a little help. Bernadette Peters stars as Lady Larkin, while Carol Burnett Show regular Lyle Waggoner appears as Sir Studley, and Wally Cox (who gave voice to the TV cartoon Underdog) narrates as The Jester. Look closely and you’ll even see a cameo by Kermit the Frog. All in all, it’s a highly entertaining 90-minute TV musical special.

Carolplus2screen2Carol + 2 is geared more for adults than families, and while it’s great to see two of television’s First Ladies perform together and Zero Mostel is as wild-eyed and manic as ever, the sketches and performances are a mixed bag. The funniest might be the opening sketch featuring Burnett and Mostel as a married couple grown spiteful of each other who find out briefly that a mistake means they’re not married after all . . . and that changes the way they see each other. Close behind is “Goodbye Baby,” in which Ball plays an older sister who drops in for a visit on her way to her annual vacation. Burnett is the younger sister with a baby buggy in the park who insists that her sister not leave until she hears the little guy say “Goodbye.” Of course, as with all sketch comedy, things escalate, and while the ending might be a little far-fetched it’s the progression that’s fun to watch. Some of the other sketches are less successful, but Ball and Burnett sing a spirited song about “Chutzpah” as Hollywood charwomen, and this one-hour color special gives contemporary audiences a chance to see three legendary talents at work.

Thrown in as a bonus feature is the very first black-and-white Charwoman sketch that Burnett performed as part of her first special, An Evening with Carol Burnett. It was a character that, animated, would become part of her long-running TV show’s title credits. This 1963 sketch is more of a historical artifact than a family entertainment, though Burnett’s introduction to it, as with her introductions to the two TV specials included on this DVD, is nice to have.

RICH KIDS (1979) (Blu-ray)

May 15, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater Drama, PG rated Leave a comment

RichKidscoverGrade: C+/B-
Entire family: No
1979, 97 min., Color
Olive Films
Rated PG for mild language and sexual situations
Aspect ratio:  1.85:1
Featured audio:  DTS 2.0
Bonus features: n/a
Clip
Amazon link

Though it’s decades old, Rich Kids ought to be the kind of film that would interest families with adolescent children. It stars two engaging young actors (Trini Alvarado, Jeremy Levy) who play upper-crust offspring of Upper West Side parents who are either divorced or in the process of divorcing. It’s a kids’ point-of-view film with very few scenes that don’t feature the young characters. And the focus—an opposite gender friendship that leads to some innocent experimentation—would seem to be timeless.

Unfortunately, the pacing of ‘70s films is a liability for many of today’s young viewers, who will also find this character-driven coming-of-age drama relatively plotless compared to today’s movies. Your not-so-rich kids might reach for their cell phones or hand-held gaming systems to “multitask” during this one.

RichKidsscreen1That’s too bad, because the acting is superb, and older viewers will delight in seeing a very young-looking 34-year-old John Lithgow as the father of 12-year-old Franny, who knows her father sneaks home at 5 a.m. every day to hide that he spends the night elsewhere. Precocious and left on her own a lot, Franny has somehow picked up a copy of The Joy of Sex, which she studies and keeps hidden behind her childhood books. Her mother (Kathryn Walker) has her own preoccupations, and because that includes another man we suspect that Franny’s racy reading isn’t just the result of sexual curiosity, but perhaps self-guided “homework” to try to understand what’s happening to her parents and their family unit.

At school Franny has bonded with Jamie, whose parents are already divorced and caught up in their new lives, leaving him on the periphery or bouncing back and forth between houses. The plot is simple, though it stretches the limits of belief. Franny wants to have a sleepover with Jamie and asks her workaholic mother when she’s half asleep. Later, when Mom learns that Jamie is a boy, she and her husband still allow her daughter to go to Jamie’s house because “she said it was okay.” Meanwhile, Jamie’s dad leaves the kids alone in his bachelor pad while he goes off in his sports car with his latest conquest, despite assuring Franny’s parents that the kids would be supervised. That’s the plot in a nutshell, and the illogical and irresponsible parental behavior that puts the two rich kids in a position to experiment may bother older viewers as much as the plotless narrative might turn off the kids. Still, the performances are worth watching, and if young viewers are warned in advance that Rich Kids is a slower-moving character-driven film they might be able to enjoy them and the read-between-the-lines nuances of the film.

Language: Some mild swearwords
Sex: Two children in a bubble bath, perhaps innocent, perhaps not; two children in pajamas play wrestling with each other and sexual tension
Violence: None
Adult situations: None, apart from talk of affairs and that bachelor pad
Takeaway: Wes Anderson did a better job of exploring similar territory in Moonrise Kingdom (2012), a PG-13 rated adventure-comedy-drama.

ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP (DVD)

March 23, 2016

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

RoadChipcoverGrade: C+/B-
Entire family: Yes
2015, 92 min., Color
20th Century Fox
Rated PG for some mild rude humor and language
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features: C-
Includes: DVD, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

If you’re thinking of picking up Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, you probably already know what’s in store: a cutesy, formulaic blend of live-action and CGI animation that showcases the antics of squeaky-voiced Alvin, Theodore, and Simon.

So it makes no sense to review this film against classic road movies like National Lampoon’s Vacation, Thelma & Louise, and Little Miss Sunshine. It’s not in that league, nor does it try to be. It only tries to appeal to the same audience that was entertained by the original 2007 film about struggling songwriter David Seville (Jason Lee) and the singing chipmunks that brought him fame. And I will say this: The Road Chip strikes me as the best of the sequels thus far.

The opening high-energy production number mostly gives animators a chance to show what they can have these furry 3D animated guys do with a bunch of dancers and partiers, but once the main plot is established—David has met someone he plans to marry, and she has a teenage son they met earlier, someone who bullies them—the could-be stepbrothers hop in a car together to try to sabotage the proposal. Why? Because the Chipmunks think that Dave will drop them like three fuzzy hot potatoes after he’s married, or worse, that they’ll be sentenced to a lifetime with a new stepbrother who torments them.

RoadChipscreenThe minute they get inside that car together, you know the road trip will bring them together, and that eventually their dad and mom (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) will take another step on the road to their own happily ever after. It’s in the stars (or script). And in the Chipmunk movies there’s another formula: a single determined antagonist—like David Cross, in the first film—that pursues the Chipmunks. In The Road Chip it’s Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep) who has the honor of taking pratfalls for the cause. Hale plays an Air Marshal who goes full-bore Capt. Ahab in his pursuit, to sometimes genuinely comic effect. Meanwhile, as Alvin (voiced by Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler), and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) try to work together with their new nemesis and potential stepbrother Miles (Josh Green), viewers from blended families or children of single parents fearing change can find some hope for their own futures.

In The Road Trip the Chipettes (voiced by Christina Applegate, Kaley Cuoco, and Anna Faris) appear as more successful performers than their male counterparts, but they’re really just window dressing. It’s all about potential stepbrothers this outing, and the mishaps that threaten to keep them from completing their mission.

The integration of animated characters into live action films has really come a long way since Pete’s Dragon, and The Road Trip is fun to watch just because of all the detail. For such an eye-feast, Blu-ray is the best. But make no mistake: the filmmakers are not pitching this at entire families, though it’s certainly suitable for all to watch. It’s aimed mostly at smaller children, who will give it two thumbs up. Older family members will say that in fairness it’s more like a C+ or B-, depending on your mood. And they’ll probably be more entertained than they’re willing to admit.

THE VIKINGS (Blu-ray)

March 2, 2016

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

TheVikingscoverGrade: B
Entire family: No
1958, 116 min., Color
Kino Lorber
Unrated (would be PG)
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Featured audio: DTS HDMA 5.1
Bonus features: C+
Amazon link
Trailer

Two years after Charlton Heston parted the Red Sea as Moses, Ernest Borgnine (TV’s McHale’s Navy) and Kirk Douglas (Michael’s dad, call him Spartacus) starred as Norse raiders in a memorable adventure-drama about 9th-century Viking chieftain Ragnar’s raids on England. History Channel’s 2013 series Vikings covered similar ground in a far grittier production, but for 1958 The Vikings was pretty darned edgy, and it still incorporates scenes that will cause young people today to pronounce it “sick,” if they’re anything like my teenage son.

Things stand out: like a scene in which Vikings rowing into their home fjord play a game in which the warriors step from oar to oar and try not to fall into the water; or when a Viking is captured and brought to England, where he jumps voluntarily into a pit of wolves, sword in hand, to face his end; or when an attack on an English castle shows Vikings throwing axes at the raised drawbridge door, one after the other, and then one of them runs to use those axes as steps to get to the top and lower the door for everyone to enter; or when a Viking wife accused of adultery is put in stocks and her braids are nailed to the wood, so that when her husband throws axes at her if he cuts her braids she was faithful, and if he misses . . . uh, probably not.

As for the action, there’s no CGI slow-mo or quick editing cuts to suggest chaos. It’s all right there in front of you, the shields clashing in what seems like as much pushing and shoving as actual blades and axes swinging. But it feels realistic, as do the ships, the buildings, and smaller details, enhanced by the decision to film on location at a real Norwegian fjord, as well as at castles and exteriors in Bavaria, France, and Croatia. In Technicolor, and now on glistening Blu-ray, the production has a rich look to it—a gleaming historical adventure that, typical of 1950’s Hollywood sword-and-sandals movies, is slightly romanticized.

TheVikingsscreen1In this version of history, Ragnar (Borgnine) and his son Einar (Douglas) have been raiding the coasts of England, and on his most recent raid Ragnar kills the king of that particular realm and it is implied that he rapes the queen. To save her son (and we’ve seen this device from Hollywood before), the baby is sent away wearing a pendant made from a broken piece of the sword of the new King Aella (smarmily and simperingly played by Frank Thring, who would go on to play Pontius Pilate in Ben-Hur). Twenty years later the son, Eric (Tony Curtis), turns up as a slave in the Viking settlement and clashes with Einar, his real half-brother, in several key scenes. But their animosity is truly brought to a head when an English traitor who has been providing information to the Vikings (James Donald) suggests they kidnap Aella’s bethroved, the Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh). Both men fall for her and fight over her, with one main swordfight on the narrow heights of a castle as convincing, still, as anything you’ll see in Hollywood. Curtis and Douglas made enough of an impression together that they were paired again two years later in the more famous epic Spartacus.

Although the homecoming scenes are shot in such a way as to make you smile and one glaring violation of the 180-degree rule does the same when a Viking shoots an arrow toward the castle and we see a medium shot of an Englishman getting shot through the throat from the opposite side, The Vikings still plays well and ought to be appreciated by families who enjoy historical adventures and epics. I’d say that this one is for families with children 10 and older. Unrated, it’s mostly PG, but, like any historical film from this period, be warned that it’s not a beacon of feminism.

If you’re upgrading from DVD, the same featurette with director Richard Fleischer is included here.

Language: n/a
Sex: An implied rape, though the camera fades to black after the woman screams when he first grabs her by the shoulders, and plenty of kissing from Viking women who serve the men
Violence: Most of the deaths are offscreen or understated by today’s standards, but there are some slashes and hacks to the body and that arrow through the neck
Adult situations: Lots of beer-drinking and drunkenness
Takeaway: Memorable scenes and attention to detail will make a movie work even 50+ years later

THE GOOD DINOSAUR (Blu-ray combo)

February 26, 2016

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

GoodDinosaurcoverGrade: B-
Entire family: Yes
2015, 94 min., Color
Disney-Pixar
Rated PG for peril, action, and thematic elements
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Featured audio: DTS-HDMA 7.1
Bonus features: B+
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Amazon link
Trailer

The Good Dinosaur is a good movie, but a weird one. How weird, you wonder?

Picture a dinosaur version of a western involving cattlemen and sodbusters, with vegetarian apatosauruses as the farmers, carnivore T-rexes wrangling prehistoric longhorns, and pterosaurs the rustlers.

Picture a dinosaur version of Jack London’s Call of the Wild, flipped upside-down so that the dog who eventually answers to the “call of the wild” is a prehistoric human that hasn’t learned to walk upright yet and acts a bit like Donnie from The Wild Thornberrys, while his “master” is an apatosaurus.

GoodDinosaurscreen2Picture a dinosaur version of The Lion King, with young apatosaurus Arlo getting a life lesson in one scene that shows him and his father looking skyward, while later we watch as the father pushes the son to safety when a calamity sweeps through the valley and (not really a spoiler if you’ve seen The Lion King) kills the father, who comes back in a vision when his young son needs him most.

Picture realistic backgrounds with an animated green dinosaur that will have you flashbacking to Pete’s Dragon.

And picture a dinosaur version of “ohana,” the lesson we learned about family from Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, with more pathos, overall, than humor.

The Good Dinosaur is still entertaining, but it’s less than what you’d expect from Pixar and more than a little weird. Just as unusual for a Disney-Pixar film, especially one that was in production for six years, is that there are so many déja vu moments. Pixar built a name for themselves by coming up with completely unique stories, so this more standard and familiar entry is a bit of a surprise. But families with young children especially won’t care.

Using photorealistic scenery and cartoonish characters, Disney-Pixar offers a story with themes about making a mark in the world, living up to parental expectations, and dealing with stronger, more accomplished siblings—all of which ought to resonate with young viewers. Child/teen actors Jack McGraw and Raymond Ochoa give voice to Arlo, the runt of a litter who has a hard time keeping up with his rambunctious brother (Ryan Teeple/Marcus Scribner) and sister (Maleah Padilla).

GoodDinosaurscreen3Poppa (Jeffrey Wright) and Momma (Frances McDormand) put their marks on the side of a stone silo they built to hold winter corn, and soon so do Buck and Libby. Only poor runty Arlo isn’t able to accomplish a task in order to make his mark. Encouraged by his father, he takes on the challenge of catching and killing the “varmint” that keeps stealing and eating their corn. Of course he can’t do it, because he’s the “good dinosaur”—a kind of prehistoric version of the old children’s book hero Ferdinand the Bull, who wanted to smell flowers rather than fight in the bullring. When Arlo is separated from his family and runs into that “varmint,” whom he names Spot (voiced by Jack Bright), an unlikely friendship develops that will also, of course, enable Arlo to finally prove himself while facing all sorts of dangers.

More strange than it is totally original, The Good Dinosaur is the kind of movie that will really appeal to children. Parents? Not nearly as much—though it’s easy to get lost in the film’s captivating art decoration, set design, and animation, all of which look terrific in Blu-ray.

Language: n/a
Sex: n/a
Violence: A head is ripped off a large bug, there’s a traumatic Lion-King style death, and the main character is in near-constant peril.
Adult situations: Like the intoxication scene in Dumbo the main character and his friend eat some bad fruit and hallucinate.
Takeaway: We’re so used to everything to come out of Pixar Studios being so extraordinary that when a good story instead of a great one comes along it’s a shock to the system, and maybe that’s unfair.

THE WONDER YEARS: SEASON 4 (DVD)

February 14, 2016

James Plath, Family Home Theater PG rated, TV Comedy, TV Drama Leave a comment

WonderYears4coverGrade: A
Entire family: No. Age 10 and older.
1988-89, 520 min., Color
Time Life/StarVista Entertainment
Not rated (would be PG because of mild language, content)
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 2.0
Bonus features: B-
Amazon link

As I wrote in my review of the complete series, this coming-of-age TV comedy-drama gets it right. Lots of things can shape a person, and just as WWII defined a generation, so did the ‘60s—which historians date from John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination to Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 resignation. The Wonder Years managed to capture the perfect storm of events that were always in a family’s consciousness—even as the father tried to put food on the table, siblings fought and sought to find their place in the world, and the mother tried to hold them all together. And Season 4 is the absolute best of the six seasons.

Like Leave It to Beaver, the series’ episodes were seen from the point of view of an adolescent, and you knew you were in for an interesting ride when this 1987 series shunned a laugh track and introduced the kind of voiceover narrator that we got in A Christmas Story—an adult version of the main character. And you knew that the series would meet the ‘60s head-on when the pilot called for the girl-next-door’s older brother to be killed in Vietnam, and for our hero to comfort her in a scene that would culminate in a first kiss for each of them—both as characters, and as actors.

WonderYears4screenFred Savage was perfectly cast as Kevin, who at 13 became the youngest actor ever nominated for a Primetime Outstanding Lead Actor for a Comedy Series Emmy. His doe eyes reflected innocence, while his impish smile was a sign that he could say or do something impulsive or mischievous at any moment. The girl next door, Winnie Cooper, was also well cast with Danica McKellar perfect as someone who would be both a best friend and love interest over the course of the show’s six seasons. And for comic relief and guy-to-guy matters there was bespectacled Paul (Josh Saviano), a brainy pal who was also Kevin’s best friend. The tone was wink-wink as this group navigated the halls of junior high, then high school and all of the problems that seem so major to this age group: crushes, dates, tormentors, cliques, and run-ins with teachers and coaches.

On the home front, older brother Wayne (Jason Hervey) was obviously fond of his brother but lived to torment him, while much older sister Karen (Olivia d’Abo) was so caught up in the ‘60s that she was a flower child from the very first episode. The parents were extremely well cast, with Dan Lauria returning from work each day grumpy and feeling chewed up and spat out, and Alley Mills deferring to him while also trying to act as mediator when he got on the kids.

Then there’s the music. I don’t know how they got the permissions, but Season 4 includes songs by Joan Baez, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Nat King Cole, Judy Collins, Lee Dorsey, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, The Monkees, Randy Newman, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Sam & Dave, Bob Seger, Edwin Star, The Ventures, The Who, and Hank Wilson.

Season 4 has the highest number of fan-rated classic episodes. This season the family goes to Jack’s company picnic—no one more reluctantly than Kevin, who’s afraid of seeing a girl who used to have a crush on him. This season his first girlfriend Winnie moves and changes schools, then finds a new boyfriend and breaks up with Kevin. No matter, because Kevin has also found someone else and is juggling two relationships. Never a show to shy away from reality, The Wonder Years: Season 4 also features an episode in which Kevin and his friends try to crash a 10th-grade girls pajama party thinking beer will be their magic pass. This season Kevin runs for student council against his nemesis, Becky Slater, and also discovers his coach moonlighting as a mall Santa. Kevin and Wayne argue over who’s going to take over Karen’s room when she goes off to college, Kevin and his father have another disastrous time of it when they go off to buy a suit for Kevin, and the up-and-down Winnie and Kevin saga culminates in an “I love you” moment and sets up the group’s graduation from junior high.

Though The Wonder Years may shock young girls who probably don’t want to believe that this is the way young boys think about girls, it remains one of TV’s most honest family coming-of-age comedies. And Season 4 catches the show at its apex. All 23 episodes are included on four single-sided DVDs and housed in a standard-size keep case with plastic “pages” holding the discs.

Language: Lots of junior-high insults (butthead, scrote, dork) and hells and damns
Sex: Lots of kissing; masturbation is referenced, as are nudie magazines and talk of orgies
Adult situations: There’s both smoking and drinking in the series, and some pretty intense family fights
Takeaway: When a show is this honest, it’s no wonder that it still informs and entertains, as it gets to the heart of male adolescence, families, and interpersonal relationships

KUNG FU PANDA 2: ULTIMATE EDITION OF AWESOMENESS (DVD)

February 6, 2016

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

KungFuPanda2coverGrade: B+
Entire family: Yes
2011, 91 min., Color
Rated PG for sequences of martial arts action and mild violence
DreamWorks/Twentieth Century Fox
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features: B (same extra disc as on original rerelease)
Includes: DVD, Bonus Disc, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

Thoughts I had about Kung Fu Panda 2 as I watched it for the first time:

Hey, this sequel is as good as the original.
Sequels—especially animated action movies—often suffer from brain drain. Once the origin story has been told, what’s left for the characters to do? More action? Usually, and often at the expense of character development. But that doesn’t happen to Po (Jack Black), who became the Dragon Warrior in the first installment.

Huh, it’s actually a second origin story.
If the first film had me seeing elements of Star Wars, this second one had a Superman vibe. Like young Clark Kent, Po is found as an infant and raised by someone else, and of course like Clark Kent little Po grows up to be a superhero who is tasked with responding to all threats against their community. Despite their different species, it never occurs to Po—now so famous that children play with his action figure as well as the Furious Five—that he might be adopted, which he discovers in Kung Fu Panda 2. Mr. Ping the noodlemaker (James Hong) is worried that his son might abandon him, as he sets off to learn the truth about his origin and also stop Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), an albino peacock, from taking over all of China. As a result, there’s as much action and as much room for Po to grow as there was in the original Kung Fu Panda.

The animation actually kicks it up a notch.
The peacock fight scenes are especially mesmerizing because of their combination of grace and implied power. Long shots and action scenes are this film’s strengths—no doubt one reason why it received a Best Animated Feature Film Oscar nomination. That Rango won instead probably is a reflection of one thing:

KungFuPanda2screenThe plot of Kung Fu Panda 2 is essentially the same as Kung Fu Panda.
Po tries to find himself in the first film—the son of a noodlemaker who seems destined to follow in his father’s footsteps, though he dreams of being a kung fu warrior—and he does in this one too. Action will help him arrive at a point of recognition, but instead of a former pupil of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) who escapes from prison and threatens to take over China, it’s the son of a Peacock Dynasty that invented fireworks who turns his parents’ good invention into something bad by creating gunpowder, cannons, and cannonballs that Poe and the others must fight. Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chen), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogen) and Crane (David Cross) return to fight like animal Avengers, along with two new characters, Master Ox (Dennis Haysbert) and Master Croc (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Still, despite the warmed-over plot, the action is different enough and the writing and the animation are strong enough to make you overlook any similarities.

Looks like the filmmakers had a trilogy in mind from the very beginning.
We don’t realize until Kung Fu Panda 2, which picks up shortly after the action of the first film had ended, that there’s a three-movie narrative arc. Po’s revelation that he’s adopted and the film’s ending make that perfectly clear.

Beware of several “Bambi’s mother” moments.
There are a few more sad scenes in the sequel than there were in the first movie, because you’re dealing with death and feelings of abandonment and/or rejection, and because the comic relationship between Po and his adoptive father turns more serious at several junctures. Small children might need a little coaching along the way. Or else, heck, you could just let them find their own way, as filmgoing children have been doing for generations now.

But what sense does it make to include identical bonus discs on both rereleases?
In addition to an audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a short voice talents feature, for whatever reason DreamWorks/Fox decided to include the same bonus disc of content on this rerelease as on the Kung Fu Panda rerelease. So if you buy both films on DVD you’ll find yourselves with an extra disc.

Language: n/a
Sex: n/a
Violence: More intense action than the first, especially since Po absorbs more punishment
Adult situations: Those few Bambi’s mother moments of off-camera loss or implied loss
Takeaway: The Kung Fu Panda series is that rare model of consistency that Hollywood too often seems incapable of producing, especially in animated “franchises.” 

KUNG FU PANDA: ULTIMATE EDITION OF AWESOMENESS (DVD)

February 3, 2016

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

 

KungFuPandacover

 

Grade: B+
Entire family: Yes
2008, 92 min., Color
Rated PG for sequences of martial arts action
Dreamworks/Twentieth Century Fox
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Featured audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Bonus features: A- (extra disc)
Includes: DVD, Bonus Disc, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

Twentieth Century Fox decided to rerelease Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2 to coincide with the January 29 theatrical debut of the much-anticipated Kung Fu Panda 3. And when I say “much anticipated” I’m not talking about anyone who lives in my house.

It took two weeks before I could even convince my two teens to finally watch the original Kung Fu Panda with me. I have to admit, I don’t blame them. The previews made it look like an all-action/no-cleverness Saturday morning formula cartoon. Maybe the studio was playing to the lowest common denominator, but if the trailer had included a couple of the many clever lines and character-driven moments instead of all that wax-on wax-off stuff, we would have watched it LONG ago.

Though critics who’ve seen the second sequel at early screenings have said #3 is the best of the bunch, the original film turns out to be a tough one to beat. In it, a Panda named Po (voiced by Jack Black) could be the alter ego for any number of slacker kids who aren’t yet ready to face up to their potential, though that potential is all but proven by a dream for the future that they have. In Po’s case, he wants to be a Kung Fu master, like Master Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Master Viper (Lucy Liu), Master Monkey (Jackie Chan), Master Mantis (Seth Rogen), and Master Crane (David Cross)—though he was “born” into a family business, a noodle shop—and I use air quotes because in Kung Fu Panda his dad (James Hong) is a goose. Is Po adopted? Is this cross-species family a writer’s joke? Could be, because it made us smile. And Po turns out to be the perfect hero for all the kids who have been told they are too short, too tall, too chubby, too uncoordinated, or too dumb to reach goals so lofty you’d have to call them dreams.

KungfupandascreenPo’s dad expects him to carry on the family business—a familiar trope—but destiny intervenes. When Po devises a fireworks way of launching himself into the courtyard of the temple so he can witness the coronation of the Dragon Warrior, a chosen one who can defeat the evil Tai Lung (Ian McShane), he launches himself right into the middle of the affair. And a tortoise grand master (Randall Duk kim) anoints him the chosen one. Hey, if he falls out of the sky, he must be right? Because there are no accidents.

Well, except for a visit to check on the security of the prison where the villain is kept immobilized, which goes horribly wrong. With an escape impending and doom just around the corner, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) has no time at all to train Po to become the Kung Fu master he always aspired to, and the Dragon Warrior he reluctantly becomes. Star Wars fans will also recognize a familiar pupil-gone-to-the-dark-side storyline.

But the film’s familiar action-oriented plot doesn’t come close to telling the whole story of this film, which is brought to life by sharp dialogue, terrific animation, and voice talents who can take that dialogue and use it to make their characters distinctive and sympathetic—and none more so than Po.

This reissue comes with a bonus disc of special features. The main ones are three short Kung Fu Panda “Secrets” films: “Secrets of the Furious Five” (2008, 25 min.), “Secrets of the Masters” (2011, 23 min.), and “Secrets of the Scroll” (2013, 23 min.). These direct-to-video shorts capitalized on the popularity of the full-length features, and while they’ll entertain young ones, the animation isn’t up to the standards of the feature films—which are really quite impressive in their animation and set, character, and background designs. The other bonus features feel like filler: two mash-ups (blooper collections), a martial arts awesomeness music video, and a Kung Fu Panda 3 sneak peek, for those who haven’t gotten to the theater yet.

Language: n/a
Sex: n/a
Violence: Some moments of fighting-related peril
Adult situations: n/a
Takeaway: Kung Fu Panda ought to have plenty of replay potential because it’s complex enough to satisfy with every new viewing.

PAN (Blu-ray combo)

December 16, 2015

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

PancoverGrade: B-
Entire family: Yes
2015, 111 min., Color
Rated PG for fantasy action, violence, language, and some thematic material
Warner Bros.
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Featured audio: English Dolby Atmos
Bonus features: B
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD
Trailer
Amazon link

Pan is an ambitious 2015 live-action fantasy adventure from director Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Hanna) that’s as different as can be from previous film versions of J.M. Barrie’s tale of Peter Pan—and not just because it’s an origin story.

For starters, Hugh Jackman plays a post-apocalyptic looking villain with the kind of flamboyant flair we saw from David Bowie in Labyrinth, and the villain he plays isn’t even Captain Hook. It’s the pirate Blackbeard, who’s snatching British orphans from their beds and taking them to Neverland in his flying ship to work in his fairy dust mines—reminiscent of what we saw in the second Indiana Jones movie. You’ll also have Indy flashbacks when you meet James Hook (Garrett Hedlund), an adventurer whose Fedora and mannerisms seem unmistakably patterned after the character Harrison Ford made famous. Thankfully those “influences” fall short of seeming like rip-offs.

Panscreen1Partly that’s because Pan has distinctively edgy look and feel to it, as if a punk-rock band got inspired by The Who’s rock opera Tommy and decided to make a film of their own . . . without the songs. This fantasy has more fantastic elements to it than even Barrie could have imagined, and young Peter (Levi Miller) goes from being an orphan with a pan pipe necklace and a mother he tries to track down to a budding superhero who finds his place not in London but in Neverland, where he will become champion of the downtrodden.

The people he defends—the Indians of Neverland—are a curious bunch, though. Tiger Lily (Rooney Mara) seems Eurasian, while others of her “tribe” are Asians, blacks, and Latinos. Was this done to avoid racial stereotyping? Possibly, and I wouldn’t blame them. Look at the crap that Disney took for Pocahontas, and they even were careful enough to create a strong, positive heroine who was voiced by a Native American actress. But in Pan the whole idea of “tribe” seems weirdly subverted by multiculturalism.

Panscreen2Those weirdnesses aside, Pan is an energetic fantasy that will satisfy your curiosity about the early days of Peter Pan and his Neverland rivals, unless you’re like my son and you expect to see the story of how Hook lost his arm to the crocodile. Sorry. It’s not here. But would it help to know that the crocodile is animated more like a grand sea monster than the cute nemesis Disney dreamed up? In general, the special and visual effects are quite good, as is the production design. We buy this bleaker, post-apocalyptic version of Neverland precisely because it seems so far-out and young Miller as Pan and the others seem so believably earnest. The action scenes are also more honest and intense than we normally see in a Barrie adaptation. Yes, it’s a little over-the-top in spots and as fantastic as fantasy gets, but Pan is entertaining enough not just for one family movie night, but for replays as well.

Language: A “damn” or two
Sex: n/a
Violence: Some intense action scenes, though no blood or guts or anything
Adult situations: Hook comes on to Tiger Lily, but that’s about it
Takeaway: Just when you thought Peter Pan was as tame as can be, along comes this origin story to prove that you can take even a beloved classic and give it a new, sharper edge

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