JURASSIC PARK 3D

John Hammond: “All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!” Dr. Ian Malcolm: “Yeah, but John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't EAT the tourists.” 

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are paleontologists, which means they study dinosaurs! Dr. Grant mainly studies bird dinosaurs and his theory is that the dinosaurs just turned into birds that fly on the earth now. Well when well-known John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) shows up at their site and offers them full paid expenses for 3 years if they will come and preview and okay his theme park, they hop on a jet with Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) and a lawyer to head to John’s island, where he has built the coolest theme park in the entire world… Jurassic Park! This isn’t any normal theme park---instead of roller coasters, they have live dinosaurs. Back when dinosaurs walked the earth there were mosquitoes and those mosquitoes would landed on dinosaurs and sucked their blood. Some of those mosquitoes then landed on a tree and got covered with tree sap. Over time, the tree sap with the mosquito (with dinosaur blood inside) gets fossilized. Humans find it and John puts the puzzle together. The fossilized dinosaur blood mixed with some frog genes, and boom, biologically cloned dinosaurs! Suddenly it’s possible for dinosaurs to walk on the earth next to humans. Malcolm can’t believe it; he thinks it’s a bad idea and that you shouldn’t mess with something that couldn’t beat survival of the fittest. Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler are amazed, and feeling very proud that most of their guesses about dinosaurs are proving out to be right! And the lawyer is only thinking about the money. John has 2 grandkids, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello), who have also come to the island to see the dinosaurs.  

Jurassic Park is still an awesome movie, 20 years later! I wasn’t even born when the first Jurassic Park came out in 1993, but it’s such a solid movie it still found its way onto my list of favorite movies. Imagine how great it is to finally see it on the big screen, and it being in 3D, and on the mega screen! The T-Rex is even louder and meat-eatingly awesomer and Dr. Ian Malcolm is still charmingly funny! Real, live, dinosaurs in 3D---heck yes! Imagine sitting in a movie theater thinking “Hey, the 3D is usually not that good”… NO, THE 3D DINOSAURS ARE A-MAY-ZING! I’m not big on 3D movies but who doesn’t love that enormous T-Rex popping out at you? I definitely recommend seeing this movie in 3D on the mega screen; your 20-years-later experience will be thrilling! My favorite part is when the T-Rex comes in at the end and saves the day, heroic dinosaur right there!  

I am Lauren, a 2^nd generation Jurassic Park fan, and I rate Jurassic Park 3D …  

5 out of 5 freaky sneaky Velociraptors!

“Fee Fye Foe Fumm…ask not whence the thunder comes…between heaven and earth there is a perilous place…home to a fearsome giant race…who hunger to conquer the mortals below…waiting for the seeds of revenge to grow.”  

Jack (Nicholas Hoult) was sent to the castle to sell his uncle’s horse and wagon. While in the castle, Jack is saving the princess from a group of drunken guys when the castle goes on lock down to find a monk that stole some beans from Roderick (Stanley Tucci), who is set to marry the princess. Jack runs into the monk (Simon Lowe) and the monk makes a trade, Roderick’s magic beans for Jack’s horse. Jack grew up with the legend of great Eric, the giants, and the bean stalk so of course he takes that trade! When he gets back to the farm, his uncle (Christopher Fairbank) is very mad about Jack not coming home with money and storms out with some of Jack’s parents things. Jack’s Dad (Tim Foley) died from the plague but it was his dad who used to read him the story’s about the giants! The princess, Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson), doesn’t want to marry Roderick, she wants to be adventurous and fall in love. So when her father, The King (Ian McShane), doesn’t approve of her dreams she decides to run away, but then it starts to rain and the only house she could find was Jack’s, so she goes in. Jack knew it was her, the girl he saved earlier, but he didn’t want it to be too obvious. He spilled his magic beans and forgot one that fell under the house. Everything would have been fine if there wasn’t a hole in the roof which let water drip onto that bean. A giant bean stalk sprouted up, taking the house with it! Jack falls down the bean stalk, but Isabelle is still trapped in the house. Jack awakens to the king and his army staring down at him demanding to know why Jack has the princess’s bracelet. Jack told them the princess is up at the top of the bean stalk. The king sends a group of his best men, including Elmont (Ewan McGregor), Roderick, Crawe (Eddie Marsan), and Wicke (Ewen Bremner). Jack volunteers to help them, but he really just wants to save Isabelle and impress her! Roderick knows that Jack has the beans and threatens Jack’s life, and Isabella’s…and then giants come and capture them all but Jack! 

We were expecting a lot more from this movie; it didn’t really satisfy either romance or action. Jack is Amber’s favorite character because he is the hero. Lauren’s favorite is Isabelle because she is adventurous and smart! We love the giant's names! We like the animation---when the bean sprouts, it is amazing animation! This movie is in 3D but it isn’t that exciting, so it’s not worth the extra bucks. The “fight” scene was not what we were expecting, very disappointing! The little kids in the movie theater kept saying “I shouldn’t have seen that” at some of the scary parts! We recommend waiting for this one to come out on dvd and only for older kiddos. 

We are Lauren and Amber, fairy tale freaks, but we rate Jack The Giant Slayer 3 out of 5 pigs in a blanket!  

SAFE HAVEN

“I love you and I can’t let you go… there’s no safer place for you than here with me.” ~ Alex

Katie (Julianne Hough) is running away from her past. She lands up in Southport, North Carolina when her bus stops for a break, and she just happens to miss the bus. She buys a house deep into the woods and gets a job waitressing at Ivan’s restaurant. She goes to the local store to buy some food and meets Lexie (Mimi Kirkland) the shop owner’s daughter, who talks her into buying yellow paint for her wood floors. The shop owner Alex (Josh Duhamel) comes out and is shocked to see Katie didn’t leave with the bus. He is all nervous with getting the yellow paint order. Katie walks from town all the way to her house and she meets her neighbor Jo (Cobie Smulders), who is very talkative, and super nice. Alex is a single dad with 2 kids, Lexie who is so outgoing and cute, and Josh (Noah Lomax) who is so quiet and shy. His wife died from cancer when the kids were little. Katie doesn’t want to get close to anyone because of her past. But love is stronger than anyone's past and she becomes friends with Alex, which turns right into love! Katie loosens up and becomes friends with Jo, and loves her job with Mrs. Feldman (Irene Ziegler) the owner of the restaurant. There is a detective (Juan Piedrahita) hunting for Katie and her past is doomed to catch up with her.

Safe Haven is a wonderful Valentine's Day movie! This movie has drama, mystery, romance and is even a thriller. Lauren’s favorite character is Lexie because she is so cute, and is a people person like Lauren. Jessie’s favorite character is Katie because she is a strong willed person, she is funny, and she's awesome with Alex’s kids. Our favorite part is when Alex and Katie go canoeing and it rains down hard on them, and they end up taking shelter in a restaurant/gas station, watch for the dancing! Get ready guys, because your girls are going to want to see this movie!

We are Lauren and Jessie and we rate Safe Haven 4 ½ out of 5 water bottles!


BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

"I don't believe that we have one fate and no choice...we make our own lives." ~Ethan Wate

Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) is one of the popular kids in the small town of Gatlin. Gatlin is a southern town that revolves around their church and "You’re either too dumb to stay, or too stuck to leave." Ethan’s mother passed away in a car accident so Ethan lives with his depressed dad, and his mother’s friend Amma (Viola Davis) watches over them. Being a churchy town there are a lot of banned books, which Ethan loves to read. Ethan is always reading books. The first day back from school break there is a new girl named Lena (Alice Englert), and Ethan cannot stop staring at her. When his ex-girlfriend Emily (Zoey Deutch) notices and gets jealous, she speaks out loud all the bad things she has heard about Lena and her family, the Ravenwoods, saying that they are devil worshipers. Emily keeps bad mouthing Lena out loud in class until a freak window explosion shuts her up… and Lena runs out the door! Kind of obvious, right? After school Ethan drives to the Ravenwood house to make sure Lena is alright and finds her sitting in the side yard. That's when they first click, it is destiny and right then and there they fall in love with each other. Lena’s Uncle Macon (Jeremy Irons) does not like this one bit, and puts a spell on Ethan to make him look pitiful in front of Lena. Suddenly it's the next morning and Ethan is mysteriously back in his own bed as if it had never happened. Since he's hopelessly in love, he heads straight back to the Ravenwood house. He gives Lena an antique pendant he had found and when both Ethan and Lena touch the pendant they see things that really freaks them both out. Lena explains to Ethan that the rumors are somewhat true and that she has special powers and the Ravenwood family are Casters (new term for witches). Lena tells Ethan the big problem is that when she turns 16 her life will either be claimed for the light or the dark and she has no control over which side. If Lena is chosen by the dark she will do unspeakable harm and Ethan won't be safe around her. Ethan refuses to just walk away, but he doesn't realize his dead mother is somehow entangled in the Ravenwood history and a seemingly unbreakable curse is soon revealed. Curses are always seemingly unbreakable, right?

Beautiful Creatures is a great romantic drama! Lauren’s favorite character is Lena because she isn’t afraid to stand against her family for true love. She is strong and very pretty! LeAnna’s and Alexis' favorite character is Ethan because he is cute, and stood up for loving Lena! Our favorite part is when Lena’s crazy cousin drives onto the football field, right up to Ethan in her awesome red car, and steps out and just makes out with Ethan right in front of all his friends. This is a perfect movie for boyfriends to take their girlfriends to; in addition to being a totally romantic movie, it has some small action scenes. We definitely recommend seeing this movie in theaters, so head out to the theater and see Beautiful Creatures, but don’t forget the Vday chocolate and flowers too!

We are Lauren, LeAnna, and Alexis and we rate Beautiful Creatures 5 out of 5 Civil War Reenactments!


RISE OF THE GUARDIANS

"The big four all together! Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, Sandman, and...the Easter Kangaroo?" ~Jack Frost

They go by many names and they take many shapes. They bring wonder and hope; they bring joy and dreams. Thier powers are greater than you ever imagined, their job is to protect the children of the world. They are the guardians. When North (voice of Alec Baldwin) gets an unexpected message from The Boogieman/Pitch (voice of Jude Law) threatening to turn all believers into non-believers, he calls the rest of the guardians together---Sandman, Tooth (voice of Isla Fisher), and Bunny (voice of Hugh Jackman). They all listen to the man in the moon, who creates a new guardian to help them defeat Pitch, and that new guardian is Jack Frost (voice of Chris Pine). No one really likes him, and he’s not really that important because none of the kids know about him so they can't see him, unlike all the other holiday creatures. But the guardians realize they can’t protect the kids without him, so Bunny and Santa’s yeti's go and get him. Yeah Santa has yetis, they actually make the toys not the elves, the elves are just messes waiting to happen, but they're really cute!

So Jack doesn’t really want to be a part of the guardians but when he finds out that the Tooth Fairy had his memories of before he was Jack Frost, he agrees to help them defeat Pitch if they will help him get his memories back. Pitch creates fear horses and captures all of the little tooth fairy helpers, and destroys every kid’s belief in the tooth fairy, which cause Tooth to lose her powers. Then next, Pitch goes after Sandman, actually getting rid of him all together, so the kids are all having nightmares. After Sandman, Pitch goes after the Easter Bunny, crushing all the eggs, so there are no eggs for the kids to find, and they stop believing. It comes down to being all up to Jack to save all the kids and to save the guardians.

Rise of the Guardians is super cute and the 3D snow is super cool! This movie is about finding who you are and what you can do for the world; I think it has a great moral! The timing is near Easter so it’s not really a Christmas movie, but over the Thanksgiving weekend, take the family and head out to the theaters to see Rise of the Guardians!

I am Lauren, a true believer in Santa, Tooth, Bunny, and now Jack Frost... and I rate Rise of the Guardians 4 out of 5 Sandman dream swirls!

“After 18 years of being utterly ordinary I finally found I can shine… I was born to be a vampire.” ~Bella Cullen

Bella (Kristen Stewart) is finally a vampire, and still completely in love with Edward (Robert Pattinson). Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy), their baby girl is part vampire and part human and she is super cute!! Bella’s vampire power is to be a shield and that’s why no one can use their power on her. Renesmee, with just one touch, can show you her first experience with you! Even though Bella married Edward, super-hot Jacob (Taylor Lautner) is still in the picture---because he imprinted on Renesmee. Imprinting is something wolves do with the love of their life. Bella is extremely mad over the imprinting thing, which gives her a good reason to beat the crap out of Jacob. Being a ‘newborn vampire’ Bella has some strength against him, but they work it all out and Jacob becomes Renesmee’s protector, kind of like Edward did for Bella in 1, 2, 3! One day Bella, Jacob and Renesmee are out playing in the snow and one of their vampire cousins, Irina (Maggie Grace), sees Renesmee and thinks she is an immortal child and runs to tell the Volturi, particularly Aro (Michael Sheen), the head Volturi. Creating an immortal child is considered “breaking the rules”, but Renesmee wasn’t bitten she was born, so the rules weren’t broken on purpose. Well, the Volturi go on the hunt to kill the Cullen family for ‘creating an immortal child’. Alice (Ashley Greene), like always, sees them coming. Edward thinks that if they get enough people that know the truth, maybe they can convince the Volturi to listen. Their search begins, looking for vampires in the most remote corners of the world, each with their own gift. Even the wolfpack joins in to help. There was an increasing number of wolves because they change when vampires are near, and since more and more clans were gathering at the Cullen’s, more kids from Jacob’s tribe were changing. Everyone agrees to fight for Renesmee, to fight for their freedom, to fight for love…

Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is breathtaking; we were on the edge of our seats in fear, all watered up in sorrow, and laughing with joy. Amber is a book reader and is very upset with some parts that were not left unexplained. Lauren, on the other hand, from the point of a non-reader, loves it all. This is the perfect adventure, romance, drama, fantasy, and comedy. We love all the characters, particularly the new ones introduced in this movie. Lauren especially loves Benjamin, played by Rami Malek! Amber is Team Both, and Lauren is still a true Team Jacob fan. We recommend everyone definitely go see this movie---perfect for a Thanksgiving date, or a girl’s night out!

We are Lauren and Amber, sad to be finished with the last one, but we rate The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 … 5 out of 5 Vampire Heads!

“I bet you really have to watch where you step, in a game called Hero’s Duty!” – Vanellope

Imagine a world where you’re the bad guy and everyone is scared of you; that’s life for Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly). Ralph is the bad guy in a video game called Fix It Felix Jr. and every day he tears down the building in the game, then Felix (voice of Jack McBrayer) fixes it, then the townspeople award Felix a medal, and then they throw Ralph off the building. Since he’s the bad guy and he doesn’t have any friends, he lives alone in a trash pile. All Ralph wants is to be given a medal and have everyone like him, so he decides to leave his game in search of a medal to prove his worth. He heads to a modern game called Heroes Duty, where Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch) doesn’t realize that he’s not one of her regular soldiers and Ralph causes a ‘game over’ for the player. Ralph refuses to give up, and goes forward to get his medal. He succeeds, but with his medal, he also gets a flying psycho bug that he ends up letting loose in another game called Sugar Rush.

And while all this is going on, since Ralph is MIA from Fix It Felix, it gets an out of order sign---Felix can’t do his job, so he ventures out of the game to hunt down Ralph. Felix follows Ralph’s trail and meets the love of his life, Calhoun, in Hero’s Duty. Calhoun is really mean to Felix, but they join forces to find Ralph, and that deadly bug. Ralph is in this girly game, where he runs into Vanellope (voice of Sarah Silverman), a so-called glitch in the game. Vanellope steals Ralph’s medal and uses it to enter herself in a race, and everybody freaks out, especially King Candy (voice of Alan Tudyk). The other racers bully Vanellope and ruin her homemade vehicle. Ralph feels bad for her so he decides to help her win the race to get his medal back. King Candy is after them both, and Felix and Calhoun are in Sugar Rush trying to find the deadly bug, which has already laid millions of eggs underground that will destroy the Sugar Rush game.

Wreck-It-Ralph is a great movie! It’s so funny and has a heartwarming story about being true to yourself and going against the odds to show your real worth. My favorite character is Vanellope, because she is so cute, and extremely hyper! You will recognize tons of fun video games from the 80’s and 90’s and current games too. The whole family should take a video game trip down memory lane and see this movie in theaters!

This is Lauren, a true Flick Fanatic, and I rate Wreak- It- Ralph…

5 out of 5 homeless Q-berts!

“Ugh, Halloween…all the lame-o’s come to school in costumes. It’s like they have bat signal” ~April

Wren (Victoria Justice) and April (Jane Levy) get invited to Aaron Riley's (Thomas McDonnell) Halloween party. Aaron is crazy-hot and he says he’s going to dedicate a song to Wren. All crazy-hot guys have to be in a band…duh!! But what Wren doesn’t know is that her Mom, Joy (Chelsea Handler), has plans to go out with her boyfriend Kevin (Josh Pence) on Halloween and Wren is expected to babysit her little brother, Albert (Jackson Nicoll), which means bye-bye crazy-hot Aaron. So “Dorothy” aka Wren and “Sexy Kitty” aka April, are walking with “Spiderman” aka Albert. Suddenly Albert just disappears. Wren is freaking out, but April sees it as a good opportunity to get to go to the party. Albert is on a mission with Fuzzy (Thomas Middledithc), the gas station clerk, to avenge a broken heart. Wren needs a car and fast so she turns to Roosevelt (Thomas Mann) and Peng (Osric Chau). While driving around looking for Albert, April is spending the whole time still complaining about not going to the party, and calling Roosevelt and Peng the lame-o’s. As they’re searching for Albert, Roosevelt is trying to get the courage to tell Wren he likes her. Albert is getting into some trouble himself as he makes enemies with Jorgen (Johnny Knoxville), who actually kidnaps him… and Wren and April are in a total social suicide moment!

Newsflash---THIS IS NOT A KIDS MOVIE. We know it’s made by Nickelodeon, but it is rated PG-13!!! It’s more of a teen movie, so of course we loved it!!! We loved Roosevelt because he was the nerdy cute guy who got the girl in the end. Our favorite part was when Wren rejected crazy-hot Aaron Riley after he got done singing her song. It’s romantic, adventurous, funny, and an overall great movie for teens. We recommend seeing this movie with all your friends for Halloween to get into the Halloween spirit!

This is Lauren and Amber, a fanatical two...and we rate Fun Size 5 out of 5 poopbombs!

 
He was a great dog, a great friend; the best dog anyone could ever have.” ~Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein

Victor Frankenstein (voice of Charlie Tahan) is the smartest kid in the school and he loves science. He doesn’t really have any real friends, but he does have the best friend anyone could ever want---his dog, Sparky! Sparky does everything with Victor; they even made a movie together. His new super cool science teacher (voice of Martin Landau) told his class about the Science Fair and everyone wants to be Victor’s partner because it’s obvious he will win. After school Edgar (voice of Atticus Shaffer) asks to be Victor’s partner but Victor kindly declines. Mr. Frankenstein (voice of Martin Short) wants Victor to join a sport, so in order for Victor to do the Science Fair his dad forces him to play baseball too. His first time at bat, he gets two strikes and on the last pitch, hits an amazing homerun! Best moment of his life that turns into the worst moment of his life---Sparky chases after the ball and gets hit by a car! Sparky dies right in front of Victor! Of course he is super sad, his one and only best friend in the whole world died! So with all his smartness, he decides to bring Sparky back to life. Drum roll please, du du daaaa, he succeeds! His best friend is back and things are great, except Sparky must stay quiet and hidden because Victor knows it will weird people out if they find out he brought his dog back from the dead. When Victor’s at school Sparky gets out of the attic and is wandering around town and gets spotted by that kid who wants to win the Science Fair, Edgar. Edgar goes to Victor and threatens to tell everyone about Sparky if Victor doesn’t show him how he brought him back to life. Victor agrees and brings a dead goldfish back to life for Edgar. Everything seems to be under control, but they don’t realize that something extremely big is about to happen!

Frankenweenie is not our favorite movie, but if you enjoy Tim Burton (like The Nightmare Before Christmas) then you will enjoy Frankenweenie. We don’t think it’s for normal little kids, but if you have weird children they will dig it. It reminds us of Coraline, which we thought was just bizarre and scarey, and not in a good way! We like the character Mr. Rzykruski the Science teacher (voice of Martin Landau). Amber’s least favorite part was when Edgar (voice of Atticus Shaffer) couldn't keep Victor’s secret. There is a cool part when the Asian kid, Toshiaki (voice James Hiroyuki Liao) brings his pet turtle back to life and it turns into a giant that looks like a lizard/turtle, and it’s funny because a giant lizard terrorized Japanese people in another movie! Frankenweenie is funny and sad, but we just did not see the point, it doesn’t take time to build the characters and it really doesn’t have much of an actual story. It is hard to follow, Lauren was very confused in the end. This is one movie where the 3D was absolutely pointless and the black and white did nothing to keep us entertained.

We are Lauren and Amber and we are Fanatical about movies, but not about Frankenweenie…we rate it 2 out of 5 giant sea monkeys!

“Hey Mr. Grumpy Gills, ya know what you got to do when life gets you down? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...” ~ Dory

YES… Pixar brought back a great movie and made it into 3D and it is amazing!!! Finding Nemo never disappoints, every time we watch it we find something to laugh at. With so much underwater scenery, the 3D is cool, and some of the fishies even pop out at you. Totally worth the bucks! Before the movie begins, there’s a short clip about Party Rex from Toy Story which totally gets you pumped for Finding Nemo 3D!

Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks) is a super over protective single parent-fish because his wife, Coral (voice of Elizabeth Perkins), and all their 200+ baby fish eggs get eaten by a barracuda. Well, all the baby fish eggs, EXCEPT one...Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould). On Nemo’s first day of fish school, he is pumped, but Marlin's not. Nemo’s teacher, Mr. Ray (voice of Bob Peterson), is super cool and is taking then to a special place in the ocean called the drop-off. Of course Marlin says, "Heck no!" When Marlin rushes over he finds Nemo and his new school friends out in the open sea and Marlin freaks out on Nemo, telling him he's not ready and can’t handle school, so in a fit of rebellion, Nemo swims out to the boat “butt” and touches it, which makes his dad even madder. On his way back a scuba diver floats up behind Nemo and snatches him up, and another scuba diver snaps a picture, blinding Marlin. Marlin tries to catch up to the boat half blind, and loses track of it, causing him to go down to the bottom of the ocean where he runs in to Dory (voice of Ellen DeGeneres), who claims she knows what direction the boat went, but really doesn’t because she has short term memory lost, and thus the adventure of "Finding Nemo" begins. Blowing up sharks, going into the darkest spot in the ocean, surviving jelly fish forest, chillin' with turtles, and being swallowed by a whale!

We love Finding Nemo, it's one of our top favorite movies. We love Dory because she is hilarious and lovable and she is always either the cause of the problem or the solution to it! Every family should own Finding Nemo and watch it snuggled up on your couch with a bucket of popcorn, but if you really like the movie, go see it in eye-popping 3D right now because Finding Nemo 2 is not supposed to be released until 2016, that's 4 years to wait! We just hope Dory will still be singing, "Just keep swimming..."

This is Lauren, Amber and Kyra, and we rate Finding Nemo 3D --- 5 out of 5 fish tank bubbles!

Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim (Joel Edgerton) Green are registering to adopt a child and the lady interviewing them questions why one of the answers to a question on the form just says…”Timothy”… they say, “We want to tell you the story!”

Cindy and Jim get the bad news that they will never be able to have a kid of their own, so they go back home to Stanleyville, the pencil capital of the world. Cindy gets really depressed about the idea of never having a kid, so Jim thinks of a way, just for one night to pretend to have a kid. He takes out a pad of paper and he writes “our kid would never give up”. At first Cindy doesn’t want to do it, but then Jim gets out some wine and they write down everything their kid would be like. When they couldn’t think of anything else, Jim places the pieces of paper into a box and they bury it in their garden. Later that night it rains and thunders and Jim and Cindy get woke up by a huge clap of thunder. As Jim goes downstairs to check on things, he notices the front door swinging open. He shuts it, gets a drink of milk, goes back upstairs and climbs in bed with something other than Cindy. They all freak out and the thing runs out of their room and into the empty baby room. Cindy and Jim follow and find a boy covered in mud sitting on the floor. He says his name is Timothy (CJ Adams) and he came from the ground. Cindy ran outside to their garden and there was a big hole in the ground and the box is shattered to pieces. Timothy responds to Cindy and Jim as Mom and Dad, so Timothy is their miracle child. There’s something very strange about Timothy, he has leaves growing out of his legs. But he’s super honest, good at meeting new people and really comfortable being who he is! At a family potluck he first lays eyes on his big crush, Joni (Odeya Rush), and he gets nailed in the face by Jims crappy Dad (David Morse). What Cindy and Jim don’t know is that as Timothy fulfills each of the ideas they had written down, a leaf falls off his legs, and when all the leaves are gone…

This movie is so sweet. It’s surprising me how Timothy is grown up and childlike all at the same time. My favorite character is Joni because she doesn’t care how weird Timothy is, and she is super artsy and mysterious. This movie shows that you don’t and shouldn’t have the perfect parents or the perfect kid, it’s okay to make mistakes. It is very romantic when Cindy and Jim are naming off what their kid would be like, with their bottle of wine, and good laughs. Warning, people who can’t, or are close to someone who can’t have kids may cry. The Odd Life of Timothy Green is appropriate for all ages, I think this is a great family movie!

I’m Lauren and I rate The Odd Life of Timothy Green…4 ½ out of 5!

“Enough with performance art…it’s time for protest art” ~Emily

The question on everyone’s mind is…who is “The Mob”? The Mob is a group of amazing street dancers who want to be heard. They’re actually trying to win $10,000 from a YouTube contest to be the #1 hit. Sean (Ryan Guzman) is the leader of The Mob, and his best friend, Eddy (Misha Gabriel Hamilton), is his co-producer who also handles the entire computer hacking part. Penelope (Cleopatra Coleman) is the sickest DJ in Miami, and Francisco (Claudio Pinto) is The Mob’s artist who makes really cool signature art marking where The Mob has been. Most of The Mob works at a hotel and they go to the hotel beach club even though employees are not allowed. That’s where Sean meets Emily (Kathryn McCormick) and they first show there moves, and then they are just about to kiss…and Emily runs away just like Cinderella. Emily is the daughter of the guy who owns the hotel, but Sean doesn’t know that and he thinks she just works at the beach bar. When he waits her table he’s all shocked and Emily’s just like, “I don’t know you”, because her Dad was around. Mr. Anderson (Peter Gallagher) disapproves of Emily’s dream of being a dancer and he wants her to give up that dream and work at the hotel. Sean tells Emily to meet him at an art gallery where The Mob performs. Trying to just inspire her to be a better dancer, instead she decides she wants to be in The Mob. They let her in, but The Mob doesn’t know that she’s Emily Anderson, daughter of the guy who is trying to tear down their homes and jobs to build another hotel. When Emily finds out about it, she goes straight to her dad to try to change his mind, but when that fails she comes up with the idea to fight back…to stand up and be heard.

Dance movies make us wanna get up and dance at the end…this movie is great!!! It has humor, romance, hot guys and sweet dance moves. We loved all The Mob’s dances but we especially loved the art museum dance, it was so cool how they represented the art in there dance, making it art instead of a disturbance! Amber’s favorite character is Sean because he is strong and awesome, and superhot! Lauren’s favorite character is Emily because she isn’t afraid to stand up to her dad for what is right! Amber likes how Moose (Adam Sevani) from Step Up 2 is in it, and apparently so did a bunch of other girls---since they all screamed. We don’t like how predictable the romance scenes are, we prefer edge of your seat romance. Lauren thinks the 3D is actually good this time, making the dances really interesting. We recommend seeing this one in 3D for the full experience!

We are Lauren and Amber, at the movies with Nick Gates

and we rate Step Up Revolution…5 out of 5 "Ocean Motions"!

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some suggestive dancing and language

Running time: 97 minutes

“As much as I’d love to stay here with an ape, the Easter bunny, and a giant cup of pudding…I have a family to get back to.” ~ Manny

Like always, this Ice Age starts with Scrat (voice of Chris Wedge). He’s trying to stick his acorn into the icy ground and as usual the ground cracks, but this time it’s a really deep crack that causes him and his acorn to fall straight down to the Earth’s core. Every time he moves to try to grab his acorn the core moves, causing more and more cracks on the Earth causing the continents to separate, and every time he hits the walls he creates land marks of himself like a Scrat president on Mt. Rushmore, and a Scrat sphinx.

We find our favorite mammoth, Manny (voice of Ray Romano) being an over protective dad to his daughter Peaches (voice of Keke Palmer). When Peaches sneaks out with her best friend Louis (voice of  Josh Gadher) to go meet up with a super-hot mammoth, Ethan (voice of Aubrey Graham), Manny just happens to catch her in the act.  Peaches gets into tons of trouble with her father, but when Peaches tries to stand up for herself, she and Manny get into a huge disagreement, and then Peaches says the six words no father wants to hear… “I wish you weren’t my dad!” And right at that moment is when the Earth begins to slip apart and the rock walls start closing in. Manny, Diego (voice of Denis Leary), and Sid (voice of John Leguizamo) end up on one side, with Peaches, Ellie (voice of Queen Latifah) and the rest of the herd on the other. After Manny is separated from them, Peaches realizes she didn’t mean a word she said, and now she believes the Earth cracking is all her fault (even though we all know it was Scrat, haha!). As Manny drifts farther and farther away from the herd he promises that he will do everything in his power to meet them at the Land Bridge.

Manny, Diego, and Sid drift out to sea and come across a huge iceberg ship, and meet Captain Gutt (voice of Peter Dinklage) and his crew. They will only lend a helping hand if Manny, Sid, and Diego join their crew, but that offer is rejected and Captain Gutt doesn’t like to be rejected! As Gutt is forcing them to walk the plank into a swarm of Narwhal, the iceberg ship breaks in two and Sid, Granny, Manny, and Diego get away, making the Captain madder than ever!

We think this is the best Ice Age of all of them, because of how funny it is… everyone in the movie theater was laughing. Lauren’s favorite character is Louis because even though Peaches hurts his feelings, in the end he still comes back to be the hero. Amber’s favorite character is Granny because she’s so underestimated in the beginning but pulls through in the end and shows everyone she’s not actually crazy.  We think this movie is good for all ages. The 3D isn’t that great, so skip that extra expense, but we do recommend piling the kids in the car and heading to see this movie in theaters, it’s a good family movie!

We are Lauren and Amber and we rate Ice Age: Continental Drift … 5 out of 5 paralyzing berries!

 
MPAA rating: PG for mild rude humor and action/peril

Running time: 94 minutes

If you had a chance to change your fate…would you?” ~Princess Merida

Only a first born may compete for the hand of the fair maiden, Princess Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald). There's young MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd) son of Lord MacGuffin (also voice of Kevin McKidd), young Macintosh (voice of Steven Cree) son of Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson), and Wee Dingwall (voice of Callum O’Neill) son of Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida does not like this, she is an adventurous archer, with her mind set on being free. Her mother Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson) the queen, wants Merida to be a petite young woman, so she's very strict on what Merida can and can't do, and most of Merida's time is spent studying how to be a lady. Merida's father Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) is nicknamed The Bear King, because of his historical fight with a very large and scary bear. Merida tries to rig the competition so she won't have to get married, but it only messes things up with her mother … they have a huge fight and Merida runs out. She follows whispers to a hut deep in the woods, and inside is an evil witch (voice of Julie Walters). Merida asks the witch for a spell to change her fate. The witch makes a little cake that will change her mother. What Meredith doesn't know is exactly what the spell will do, and how drastically her life will change.

Brave is by the same people who made Nemo and Wall-E, two really great animated movies. Unfortunately, Brave is not as good, and left me disappointed. I like Merida's three little brother's, they are so cute and make really cute bear cubs! I do like how adventurous and independent Meredith is and it's very funny how the King relies on his wife for so much help. The bear is very scary and I heard some of the little dudes crying, so I think 7 and up is a good age. The 3-D is not worth the extra cost, which seems to be common lately with these 3-D flicks. Is the 3-D not that great or are we just used to it so it's never breath taking anymore?

This is Lauren and I rate Brave only 3 out of 5 greasy turkey legs!

MPAA Rating: PG for scary action and rude humor

Running Time: 100 minutes

“Just because a black guy has a nice car and suit doesn’t mean he stole them…well besides right now.” ~Will Smith as Agent J

Men In Black III begins 40 years ago, when Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) shoots off the arm and locks up an alien criminal named Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement). Boris’ girlfriend (Nicole Scherzinger) brings him a cake, which leads to him breaking out of his imprisonment on the moon. Boris goes back in time to 1969 and kills young Agent K before K can shoot off his arm. When Boris kills the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) he alters the timeline, which changes the Agency and places the Earth in danger. Agent J (Will Smith) is the only one that can go back in time and set things right. When Agent J is back in 1969 his only mission is to kill Boris before he kills agent K, but Boris gets away and young K meets up with J and almost puts him in this giant zapper thingy, until J tells K the truth about why he’s there. Then J and K head out to kill Boris. While hunting down Boris they have to save some people including this really cool alien named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg). Griffin’s planet was destroyed by Boris and other aliens like Boris, so he wants to help save earth. Griffin gives young agent K this protector thing, but it must be placed into outerspace. The first launch to the moon is how K is going to get it into space. But what they don’t know is that Young Boris and Boris have met up and made a plan to stop and kill young K before he can protect the Earth!

This movie is downright amazing! Lauren says better than MIB 1 and 2, but Alyssa thinks nothing can beat the first MIB. This movie has action, comedy, and is even sad...Lauren almost cried at the end. Lauren loves the part when young Agent K, Griffin, and Agent J are at the Mets Stadium and Griffin has the ability to look into the past and the future! Lauren loves Griffin, she likes his personality, he is so truthful, and funny! We’d watch MIB 3 a million times, because Will Smith is in it and we love how they fit everything in, even things from the first 2 movies. We think Josh Brolin makes a good Young Agent K. We like how MIB 3 explains why K chose J. We do recommend seeing this one in 3D on the mega screen and this is definitely the best movie to see over Memorial Day Weekend!

This is Lauren and Alyssa, a Fanatical Twosome…

and we rate Men In Black III --- 5 out of 5 Cute Little Alien Fish Thingies!

MPAA Rating: PG13 for sci-fi action violence

Running Time: 103 minutes

“Witch, you cursed me to be this hideous creature! You may strategically place your wonderful lips upon my posterior and kiss it repeatedly.” ~Banabas Collins
 
Back in the 1700's, the Collins family is cursed. Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) grows up believing the accidental death of his parents is really the work of dark magic…so he becomes deeply obsessed with dark magic. Barnabas meets Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote) and falls in love with her, but he doesn’t realize one of his maids, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), is a witch and she curses Josette to walk off a cliff. Barnabas is heartbroken so he jumps off to die with her, yet he doesn’t really die, he comes back as a vampire. Angelique convinces the townspeople to turn on Barnabas and bury him alive, in a box. 200 years later, in the 1970’s, workers find the box, open it, and Barnabas jumps out and kills them all. He heads straight to his old home where he turns Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) into his servant and demands he take him inside. Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) doesn’t believe it is really Barnabas Collins until he shows her a secret passageway that leads to a lot of $$$. He promises not to harm any of the people in the Collins house, so she agrees to let him stay. Carolyn Stoddard (Chloë Grace Moretz), Elizabeth’s 15 year old daughter, thinks Barnabas is totally weird. David Collins (Gulliver McGrath), who recently lost his mother and is very unstable, admires Barnabas.  Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote) is David’s governess. Barnabas sees that Victoria looks like Josette and can’t help falling in love with her. Barnabas is taking control of the family business while Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), the family’s live-in psychologist, is discovering what Barnabas is. Angelique is still around and still wants Barnabas and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants, and she can do a lot, because she is a witch!
 
Dark Shadows is not a kid flick … its romantic, dark, and a little scary. All the funny parts are in the trailer, so be warned this is not really a comedy. Dark Shadows is still a very enjoyable story and we think Johnny Depp is super hot in this movie (even though we know he is really old, lol!). We all love the part when Barnabas rises from his grave and thinks the McDonald’s sign is a demon and we think any Johnny Depp fan will LOVE Dark Shadows!
 

We are Lauren, Jessie, and Amber, a trio of Flick Fanatics... and we rate Dark Shadows 4 out of 5 groovy red lava lamps!

MPAA Rating PG13 (comic horror violence, sexual content, drug use, language, smoking)

Running Time 113 minutes

THE AVENGERS

“I still believe in heroes.” ~Nick Fury  

The world is under attack from Loki (Tom Hiddleston), an ex-god wanting the power to rule the world! Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson) and agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) are part of a program called S.H.I.E.L.D. and they are there when Loki comes through a portal from space. He comes to Earth to steal an energy source to build a giant portal for his army to come through and destroy the human race. Loki puts a powerful spell on some agents, including Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Professor Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) and they help him escape from S.H.I.E.L.D’s base with the Tesseract (blue energy source), destroying the base. After that, Fury and Agent Coulson decide to bring in the Avengers!

 The Avengers- a group of the world’s six top superheroes! The Avengers include Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downy Jr.), Steve Rodgers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanuff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Clinton Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). The Avengers were created to fight the battles that S.H.I.E.L.D can’t handle.  

Bruce Banner, with his personal understanding of gamma radiation, is asked to track down the Tesseract. The team finds Loki at a party where he is stealing something to build his portal thingy. Captain America is sent to kick his butt! All of a sudden you hear Iron Man’s theme song and…Iron Man shows up and really kicks Loki’s butt. They capture Loki, but they don’t know that Hawkeye got away with the Tesseract. When Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow are transporting Loki to the new baseship, it gets all thunderstormy and…Thor punches through the plane and takes Loki. Loki is Thor’s stepbrother. Iron Man dives out of the plane, then Captain America grabs a parachute. Black Widow suggests Captain America sit this one out, because those guys are basically gods, but Captain America with his old fashioned values, says, “Ma’am, there’s only one God and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” and jumps out to join the fight. Iron Man, Thor and Captain America battle and in the end captain America wins…his shield against Thor’s hammer! Bruce is still trying to find the energy cube, while a surprise attack by Hawkeye blows out one of the baseship’s engines. Iron Man and Captain America are out in the air fixing the engine, Bruce is turning into The Hulk and chasing after Natasha, and at the same time, Thor is tricked by Loki and ends up imprisoned. Loki is on the verge of pushing a red button that drops Thor straight to his possible death, someone really important gets killed, and Iron Man is pushed to his limit.

WOW, this is the best action movie!!! The Avengers is action-packed-funny, jaw-dropping-awesome, and edge-of-your-seat-amazing! I loved all of the Iron Man movies and he is my favorite Avenger. I like Mark Ruffalo and I wish he had been Bruce Banner in his own movie! Everyone should stop what they’re doing right now and go see The Avengers! PS...Stay til the very, very last credit…you won’t be disappointed!

I am Lauren, a true Flick Fanatic…

and I rate The Avengers … 6 out of 5 “Arrows to the eye” (from Hawkeye)!

MPAA Rating PG-13

Running Time 142 minutes

"I laugh in the face of danger!"
 
The Pirate Captain (voice of Hugh Grant) is probably the worst pirate in all the seas! There’s a Pirate of the year award, the winner is the pirate with the biggest booty, or stolen loot. The Pirate Captain has entered every year and never won, so he thinks this must be the year he will surely win. He’s running up against Peg Leg Hastings (voice of Lenny Henry), Cutlass Liz (voice of Salma Hayek), and Black Bellamy (voice of Jeremy Piven). Black Bellamy wins every year and Pirate Captain just ends up getting made fun of. After all the other pirates laugh at him he heads off to collect more booty. While hopping from ship to ship he comes across Charles Darwin (voice of David Tennant). Charles is a British scientist trying to find the rarest animal. Of course all pirates have a parrot, but Pirate Captain's Polly is not a parrot, it is actually a Dodo bird---one of the last surviving Dodo birds! Charles freaks out and mentions a science fair where the prize is untold riches! Pirate Captain gets the money signs in his eyes and they head to England in search of untold riches. The Pirate With a Scarf (voice of Martin Freeman) reminds him that Queen Victoria (voice of Imelda Staunton) HATES pirates! So the pirate captain and his crew disguise themselves as girl scouts…very funny! They bunk at the home of Charles Darwin, where they meet Mr. Bobo (the monkey), who greets them at the door. Still the Pirate With a Scarf is uncertain about Charles and thinks it’s a bad idea being there. But Pirate Captain doesn’t listen...and bad things always happen in a kids movie when the main character doesn't listen! 

This movie is goodish. Little dudes will love it, but their parents may fall asleep…mine did. It’s a goofy kid movie in 3D, but the 3D stinks! Laurens favorite character is the Albino Pirate (voice of Anton Yelchin) and Alexis’s favorite is Mr. Bobo because she likes how he uses cue cards to speak. There is an obvious use of the word @$$, that we think don't belongs in a kids movie, but we don't know if any of the kids even noticed. We totally recommend this high seas adventure as more of a rental movie.

We are Lauren and Alexis and we rate The Pirates! Band of Misfits 2 ½ out of 5 snoring parents!  

MIRROR MIRROR

I read so many stories where the Prince saved the Princess, it’s about time we change that ending... 

Once upon a time there was a kingdom with a King and Queen and a beautiful baby princess. Skin white as snow and hair dark as night, they named her Snow White. The Queen died and the King wanted a new Queen to be a mother to Snow White. The King fell in love with a new Queen (Julia Roberts), but she was an evil woman and only wanted his power. The King married the new Queen and then a dark magic fell upon the land and the King left the kingdom to fight the dark magic, never returning home. Snow White (Lily Collins) was left with the evil Queen, who kept her locked away in the castle. On her eighteenth birthday, Snow receives a very interesting gift from one of the castle servants (Mare Winningham)---the King’s dagger, and she tells Snow to go into the town and see for herself what the evil queen has done to the people. On her way into town, walking through the forest, Snow finds two men stripped of their clothing and hanging upside down. She agrees to help them, but not until they said “Please.” At first one of the men refuses, but then says the word. That man, Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer), is lovestruck when he sees Snow White. The men are traveling north and she is going south, so they bid an awkward goodbye. When Snow arrives in town, she is shocked to find everything dark and sad. It is nothing like she remembers it from when she visited as a child when people were happy and dancing. Snow goes straight back to the castle to confront the evil Queen. Are you thinking this is not how you remember the fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Well, let’s just say this ain’t Disney, Snow White ain’t so gullible, and the dwarves in this movie aren’t so cute and cuddly!  

I love Julia Roberts in the role of the evil Queen, she’s so sarcastic, but I wish she acted a little more psycho. The romance between Snow White and the Prince is adorable. Julia Roberts and the dwarves are worthy of a “Princess Bride” comparison, but the rest of the characters, and the story itself, fall short of that amazing classic. But, it’s still very entertaining so go ahead and enjoy this movie with your family! 

This is Lauren and I rate Mirror, Mirror…5 out of 5 Giant Dwarves!   

MPAA Rating: PG

Running Time: 106 minutes