Screenhead

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief  is looking good. I like the special effects and it seems the characters play well off each other well.  I like Pierce Brosnan’s character. I am not sure who he is, but it’s a stretch for Brosnan and he does a good job.

Patty (101) won the movie and her kids will love it.

I really recommend getting this DVD for your kids. My daughter and her four friends watched Aliens in the Attic  and they loved it all. Even the bloopers were awesome.

The movie takes place during summer vacation, but the Pearson family kids are stuck at a boring lake house with their nerdy parents. That is until feisty, little, green aliens crash-land on the roof, with plans to conquer the house AND Earth! Using only their wits, courage and video game-playing skills, the youngsters must band together to defeat the aliens and save the world — but the toughest part might be keeping the whole thing a secret from their parents!

The scene most talked about was when the adults were being controlled by the kids via remote controls. The kids had the two adults fighting each other with the kids flipping them, getting the parents to do anything they wanted them to do.

The cast includes Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”), Andy Richter (“The Conan O’Brien Show”), Kevin Nealon (“Weeds”), Tim Meadows (Mean Girls) and Gillian Vigman (The Hangover), as well as rising young star Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical).

After my daughter’s friends left, she asked if she could watch the movie, again, and did with just as much enjoyment.

All aboard for A Thomas & Friends Holiday Special with Trainloads of fun, snowmen and Christmas trees. This Special Edition DVD includes a collectible and exclusive Holiday train, available on DVD November 3, 2009 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Well Ho Ho Ho!  Guess who’s playing Santa this holiday season?

The new CGI animated title Gotta Catch Santa Claus  – featuring none other than William Shatner himself as the voice of Santa and the captain of the most important sleigh in the world! 

I don’t know if this will become a modern-day holiday classic because both my husband and daughter found the movie too modern and kind of weird because the kids in the movie were not wearing winter clothes in the snow. The characters didn’t set a good example of how children should behave. Yet, the movie is being promoted as funny, contemporary and enjoyable for the entire family and features six jolly jammin’ new holiday songs. My daughter commented that the songs are not all that great either. She also told me about a department store Santa Claus who picked up kids and was mean to the kids as the parents took a pictures. By the time they get off his lap, they started crying. 

Any-Ho! The story centers on a friend who starts to doubt the idea of Santa Claus, 12 year old Trevor sets out on a mission to catch old St. Nick in order to prove his existence and put the skeptics to rest.  Gotta Catch Santa Claus, which will be broadcast nationally on ABC Family during their annual “25 Days of Christmas” programming block, features bonus materials on the DVD that include deleted scenes, behind the scenes Santa footage, sing-along songs and more! 

Screenhead has a copy of Gotta Catch Santa Clausto give away.  Post your name to have a chance at winning the DVD. Screenhead will pick the winner Sunday, December 10, 2009.

America’s first National Park, Yellowstone, is one of the most spectacular wildernesses on Earth and home to some of the richest wildlife beyond the plains of Africa.  Yellowstone: Battle for Life reveals the beauty and struggles of this amazing natural treasure. Every family and teacher must own the documentary. It’s for nature enthusiasts everywhere. The release contains three hour-long episodes that encompass nearly an entire year at Yellowstone National Park, as well as 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes special features. 

I was amazed at the detail and coverage of winter in Yellowstone. The documentary was such an educational and entertaining experience for me and my family. We watched how animals survive in the below freezing weather. Breathtaking fly-overs while narrator Peter Firth explains the paradox of being the home of world’s largest geothermal formation while also being one of the coldest places in North America. 

My daughter was captivated during the coverage of summer in Yellowstone. She learned about the humming bird that migrates every year to Yellowstone from Mexico. If a snow storm kills off the brilliant flowers, the humming bird get it’s nectar from, no problem the bird sucks the tree sap.  The humming birds lay and raise their young, and then head back to Mexico for 6 months before returning the Yellowstone.

In cinema you tend to see two types of directors: those who make different movies across different genres, and those who make the same movie over and over. The latter are often labelled auteurs, obsessed with a particular theme or style that they need to create using different scenarios, as if chipping away at some metaphysical truth. But such people can also lose their audience along the way, boring them with the same themes, the same style. Wes Anderson, writer/director of offbeat comedies such as Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, is certainly in the latter of these characters, with his tales of family dysfunction and his trademark style that can only be described as a quirky mix between JD Salinger and high-school theatre. But his last film, the Darjeeling Ltd, performed poorly at the box office and was criticised for its insubstantiality and repetitiveness. So it comes as a relief to see his latest film is an adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel Fantastic Mr Fox. And it’s a stop-motion animation. But while a Dahl story (which are usually amusingly grotesque) may seem like a perfect way for Anderson to branch out in his use of themes, it’s ironic to realise that Fantastic Mr Fox is possibly Anderson’s most quintessential film.

The tale deals with the eponymous hero, who decides to give up his farm-raiding ways in order to provide a safer life for his wife and son Ash (who is deeply jealous of his cousin Kristofferson for attraction his father’s attention). But Mr Fox decides to return to his wily ways, moving home to reside near the farms of the three most dangerous humans in the area: Bean, Boggis, and Bunce. Enlisting some animal companions to enact his master-plan, complications arise, putting Fox’s family and friend at serious risk.

Once again Anderson returns to his key figure of the reluctant father. Mr Fox is merely a canid version of Royal Tenenbaum or Steve Zissou, too interested in his own entertainment to live up to his responsibilities. His family are just as dysfunctional as the Tenenbaums, with Mrs Fox doubting her decision to marry her husband, son Ash unable to live up to his father’s reputation, etc. And of course despite being an animation the film still has the same feel of an Anderson movie, brimming with primary colours, chapter headings, and the use of understated wit that can make his films either hilarious or dull. Read the rest of this entry »

The third TV Spot for Avatar looks like playing in the perfect paradise.  I want to move to Pandora and find my avatar!

It is now very, very unlikely that we’ll be getting another installment of the celebrated Pixar classic Monsters Inc any time soon, and frankly, that’s probably for the best.

Seriously, the way they ended the last one was going to make for some serious problems if a sequel were to come up.  The whole idea that children’s laughter was several orders of magnitude stronger than their fear, and that solved the monster energy crisis, was pretty much as final as it got.  Who would go back to scaring children?  There’s no percentage in it any more.

But former Monsters staffer Pete Docter is apparently neck deep in something else, and Pixar’s newest project is about a few weeks in, if the advance word is to be believed.

Of course, we’ve all been  wrong before on this sort of thing, but I have to admit that the smart money right now says no more corporate monsters any time soon.

Screenhead is celebrating the Christmas spirit with this unique family story, Christmas Story or Joulutarina (alternately titled). The story is dubbed in English from Finnish dialogue of a Scandinavian production.  We have the movie to give  away.

Just by viewing the trailer, you will see how different it is from Bob Clark’s 1983 classic A Christmas Story.

My daughter watched the movie and seemed captivated at times while a little bored at other times. She is nine years old and the pacing seemed a bit slow for her.  Yet, she sat still and watched the whole movie.  I think, it will grow on her, and Christmas Story will be one of the holiday movies our family watches every year. 

Set against a breathtaking landscape, Christmas Story– soon to become a holiday classic – reveals the magical and untold story of Santa’s life as he overcomes Dickens-esque personal tragedy and hardship in his youth to develop a big and pure heart filled with love for children around the world.

In a remote Lapland village, young Nikolas suffers a loss and the villagers – all poor themselves – band together to look after him. On Christmas Day each year, Nikolas moves to a new home for the coming year. To show his gratitude, Nikolas makes toys for each family’s children. Over the years, his adoptive families become many and almost every house has presents on its doorstep Christmas morning. 

When the villagers suffer a catastrophic food shortage, they must send Nikolas away to work as an apprentice to the ill-tempered hermit carpenter, Iisakki. Under his severe tutelage, Nikolas develops skills that enable him to create even better presents and to work even faster. He soon dons the suit that becomes his trademark and begins to deliver presents with the help of a team of reindeer.

As the years pass and Nikolas ages, his beloved tradition is in danger of coming to an end … and it will take a miracle to save it! 

Christmas Story has received an “All-Star” rating from Kids First! Coalition for Quality Children’s Media and is “Family Approved” by The Dove Foundation. Although there is a death that greatly affects Nicholas, the movie ends in a very upbeat holiday theme. 

To have a chance to win Christmas Story, post your name and Screenhead will pick the winner Monday, November 30, 2009.