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Reviews
The Witches (1990)
Hilarious but TOO SCARY FOR KIDS!!!!
Yes, it is excellent and underrated but this movie is only for teens and adults. It is WAY TOO SCARY for pre-teen and younger kids. They won't sleep for a week.... The central theme of normal-looking, adult women turning into vicious, child-killing witches with the talented direction making for intense suspense throughout and the violence directed at children is really too much for kids. My kids, 9 and 5, couldn't even finish it and they will watch just about anything. See the message board for "scariest movie iI ever saw as a kid" and this one is right up there. No surprise! Other comments: Mr Bean talks! Yes, he has a speaking part. In his later movies he does not, allegedly because of his poor speaking voice. It sounds fine in this movie, though he may have been dubbed.
Big Fat Liar (2002)
Underrated.... hilarious for parents and kids
I just had to add my comment to raise the average on this one. Paul Giamatti lets it all hang out in this one and is a hoot. He would probably say it was easy, but he really does a great job and should have won something for it. We've had the DVD for several years and my kids (boy now 4 1/2 and girl 9) will watch this one over and over, and the humor is adult enough that I don't mind having to hear it in the background (and I do run to the TV for the really funny parts). Simple moral message, lots of decent action and slapstick, "bad" grownups acting goofy to take the edge off, minimal bad language and minimal potty jokes make it hard to beat for a family standard.
The Dark Backward (1991)
Not "cult" awful, just awful.
OK, fans, it's out on DVD. But the only reason to watch this is 1) to say you did (due to its notoriety), or 2) if you're a hardcore Bill Paxton fan. I am not a hardcore BP fan but he was fun to watch and it was the only thing that kept me from turning this off from sheer boredom. It's a shame, because this could have been a good movie with some script work and if made by someone with some intelligence (and with a cast led by someone besides the totally miscast and talentless Judd Nelson). Sure it's gross, but it's BAD, and not in a good way. If after reading all the comments on how bizarrely revolting and dystopianly filthy this movie is you are still interested, do yourself a favor and see some GOOD bizarre revolting dystopian filth instead. Films by John Waters, David Lynch, Peter Jackson's "Braindead", Henenlotter's "Basket Case", etc., all come to mind. There's lots better out there.
Barnyard (2006)
The kids loved it, I loved it...
OK, forget all the complaints about the male cow thing, the udder thing, the ferret thing, and the Lion King plot thing. Lighten up; it's a cartoon, and unlike the Lion King, it does NOT take itself too seriously. This is strictly for laughs.
The music is top-notch (the sound track is great for car trips with the kids), the jokes and sight-gags come hard and fast (well-balanced for both kids and adults), the villains get beat, and the plot is straightforward (yes, it's the Lion King plot). When we rented it, my kids (4 and 8) watched it over and over again until we had to take it back. I didn't mind at all hearing it in the background all week and even rewatched some of the bits myself and laughed as hard as the first time I saw them.
Admittedly, much of the humor is a bit subversive and low-brow, with the joy riding hijinks, the drinking jokes (with milk, of course), and the mule-kicking. So, it might be a little country for some people. If you won't let your kids watch old Three Stooges shorts and you don't even know what mud surfing is, you may want to pull Lion King out to watch again, instead of this one.
Antz (1998)
What the ....?
What was this movie trying to be? It has a serious social/political subtext, but its too simplistic and naive of a message to support the whole movie as entertainment for adults. It's got action and goofiness for the kids, but it's a bit scary and dark for young ones. While the double-entendres will go over their heads, there are adult usages of words you won't want your grade schooler repeating. The animation is generally impressive but the characters' faces range from human-like (Weaver/Sly Stallone) to weird and alien-looking (Z/Woody Allen) with a limited range of emotion. The big name casting doesn't work at all. Woody Allen does the same shtick he's been doing for almost 40 years and it's just bizarre to hear him in an animated feature with a plot like this. (At least in his old TV cartoon his character looked like him, but that really didn't work well either.) Sharon Stone is wooden and old-sounding as the young princess. The other characters are shallow clichés of their particular voice-actor's typical movie role (except for Walken, who does a great job of not being one of his usual nutjobs). I guess it was all a novelty at the time. As mentioned in other comments, the story line is a mish-mosh of old plots from much better movies or books. The music is high quality but odd in places. The only humor in the movie is Woody's, so if you don't find his routine especially funny, this will be agony to sit through. Whatever the movie was trying to be, it doesn't work now. It does occur to me, though, that maybe its entertainment value is as a study on early mistakes made during the rebirth of full length animated films aimed at general audiences. Thank goodness Hollywood finally figured it out.
Back to Gaya (2004)
Almost awful....
I don't agree 100% with what jnaradsay says about this movie, but that reviewer is on to something that likewise irritated me about it. In this era, a mainstream movie for kids should be beyond having a villain with a physical disability, for one example of all the weird stereotypes, prejudices, and symbolism in this movie. (You Californians may not realize how offensive the barroom couple would be to southerners in a humorless movie like this.) As for technical, I can assure you Europeans that the English dub is equally as bad, though one can tell that indeed the characters' mouths were animated for English. I thought Atlanta was cute, too, but given to cartoonish gestures that were jarring in a movie like this. Though they sat through the movie last night (we rented it), neither of my kids (3 and 7) liked it enough to want to watch again this morning. Enough said.
To Please a Lady (1950)
Great vintage auto racing/stunt action
I couldn't care less about the story line, though it's not too bad to sit through. But the authentic open-wheel midget and Indy-car racing footage is worth every minute of Clark and Barbara's banal banter. There's even a montage of a racing engine being machined and assembled, some nice race car closeups, and pit stop action. To top it all off, there is a couple of minutes of what looks to be authentic footage of Joie Chitwood's famous stunt car show. This is a real sleeper and highly recommended for vintage race fans.