ESCAPE FROM PLANET EARTH (Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes)
RATED PG Animated with
the voices of: Rob Corddry, Brendan
Fraser, Sarah Jessica Parker
I get tired of clichéd characters,
even in kids movies. Here we have the brawny but dense younger brother and the
brainy but scrawny older brother. Brawny is a daredevil on planet Baab, where
everyone is a pleasant shade of blue while Brainy pulls the strings behind
Brawny’s daring acts. The brothers don’t get along. They are jealous and
competitive with each other.
Scrawny, brainy brother is married
and has a son, who worships his uncle. Brawny saves a bunch of babies and is
idolized by everyone on his planet. At this point, except for some scary
critters at the beginning who want to eat the babies (this is a kids movie?),
it’s fairly mild.
Brawny brother is sent to the DARK
planet, Earth. There we meet an evil general who wants to make a machine that
will destroy all the other planets in the solar system because his father was
squished by a flying saucer in Roswell when he was a kid. This is a kid’s
movie?
On Earth, the evil general has
imprisoned, by freezing, creatures from outer space. This gets a little kinky
when the general woos the woman running the show on Baab to manipulate her. This
is a kid’s movie?
Brawny and Brainy save the day and each
other. The little kid saves the day on Baab, bringing his parents home and the
brothers declare their love for each other. All ends happily. There is violence
and plenty of adult humor along with references that I enjoyed but I the kids
didn’t get it. The violence is all sci fi with no blood. Escape from Planet Earth should be fine for kids nine and up who
aren’t sensitive. Send the kids with Grandma.
SAFE HAVEN (Spoiler alert) (Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes)
RATED PG-13 Starring Julianne Hough, Josh Duhamel Another
NicholasSparks books makes it to the big screen. The movie opens with Katie
(Hough) fleeing her
home and escaping on a
bus. She gets off at a rest stop,because the
tiny town on
the coast of one of the Carolinas is charming. She
needs to hide and this looks
like the perfect place.
Alex (Duhamel) is the attractive man running a small general store
in
the town. He’s a widower
with two kids. The love story builds
slowly, beautifully. The cinematography is
gorgeous. But always in
the back of your mind is what she’s running away from.
I don’t
want to spoil the story but there is an alcoholic, abusive husband in
the picture. There are scenes of him hitting her and knocking her to
the
ground. He’s a frightening character.
There is one love scene that doesn’t
show much skin and is very tender. The movie builds their relationship through
his children and the town folk -- in a non-sexual way. There are several
surprises at the end, which I won’t ruin here. There is violence against a
woman, some bad language and a sexual scene. Safe Haven is best for kids 13 and up. See it with them if you can.
I loved it.
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