http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/06/08/two-good-movies Comments On: Two Good Movies by Paul Constant en-us Copyright 2009 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by McGee]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:31:37 -0700 The Stranger Posted by zachd]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:17:08 -0700 The Stranger
**More spoilers**

I'd also add that Muntz is pretty menacing. Even I was kind of terrified of how evil he was. Example: When he more or less threw Russell, tied to a chair, off the ship.
Posted by Gloria]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:54:16 -0700 The Stranger
The Incredibles is my boyfriend's very close second to Up; If my favourite wasn't Up, it'd be Monsters Inc.
Posted by Gloria]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:51:42 -0700 The Stranger Posted by elm+1character]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:50:32 -0700 The Stranger Posted by rob!]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:36:37 -0700 The Stranger Posted by giffy]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:36:14 -0700 The Stranger Spoilers below

See my post @5 for how the 3 year old behind me took it.

Somethings that might be of concern:
The guys wife dies and her death is a big part of the plot.
He is pretty mean for most of the movie, but a kind of grumpy old men style mean.
There are some rather scary dogs(they are mostly played for laughs but I can see it being scary to a kid)
There is a reference to having a baby but it is pretty obscured and sexual
There is some violence including a little blood.
The kids father has basically abandoned him and left his mom for another women. again the references are pretty obscure and they are only a couple.

If it were my kid I would probably take them assuming that they are not the kind of kid that is prone to being scared easily. It is a great and sweet movie. My biggest concern would be that they would not understand it so I would probably go during the day so I could sit away from people and be able to explain things to them. That being said there is a lot of color and cute characters and the 3D is pretty cool so they would probably enjoy it just for that.
Posted by giffy]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:35:39 -0700 The Stranger Posted by SH]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:06:24 -0700 The Stranger
That's the driving force of the film, and in the end when (spoiler alert) Ben leaves the hotel to go do some splainin' with his wife, you feel unsettled, like he didn't get it out of his system as his wife had asked.

Ben and Andrew needed to have more of a confrontation at the hotel and tear each other open or something. Figure that shit out. But it just stays under the surface. It's like a movie about Pompeii where the ground shakes a little bit and everyone's confused and then it ends. Pretty, yes, but not real story.
Posted by rubus]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:23:10 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:21:30 -0700 The Stranger
Lynn Shelton admitted that no lines were written for the actors at the Q&A, and Alicia admitted that she was out of her element -- it shows on the screen.
Posted by Meatbot3000]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:03:45 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Julie in Eugene]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:54:53 -0700 The Stranger
What's that about? It is the most common plot device in children's fiction. You'd be hard pressed to find a children's book (at least for the 9-13 set) that doesn't involve the death, abandonment, or disinterest of (usually) the mother. Off the top of my head, see:

Out of the Dust
A Single Shard
The Giver
Bambi
Cinderella
Posted by elm+1character]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:45:45 -0700 The Stranger
It also scares the be-jesus out of small children (to whom the thought of mom dying is about the scariest thing they can conjure up.

Disney figured out fast that its exciting to be scared shitless and weepy sad all at the same time... when its not real.

That and the fact that Disney's characters are usually forced to rise alone through complete self reliance. (He was a supporter of Ayn Rand and shared her philosophic principals of Objectivism.)
Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:36:26 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:14:11 -0700 The Stranger I call it Disney's Cavalcade of Matricide.
Posted by Wicked Virgin]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:49:58 -0700 The Stranger
Now that is a trip!

Mind you, you need some ... medication.
Posted by Will in Seattle]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:48:58 -0700 The Stranger
@10 - I never really though about that, but you are absolutely right now that I do. A ton of Disney films that feature a family have the mom die at some point.

Wonder what that's about?
Posted by Sheryl]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:44:52 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Matt the Engineer]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:26:51 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Wicked Virgin]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:22:54 -0700 The Stranger
also, Alycia Delmore is dreamy.


Posted by stinkbug]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:12:40 -0700 The Stranger
KCRW's "The Treatment", from last Wednesday: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tt/tt09…

Fresh Air, from the Tuesday before last: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story…

(both are also available free through iTunes)
Posted by Peter F]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:02:30 -0700 The Stranger love it. Primarily related to [SPOILER] the part where they decide to drag the house (long parenthetical here, but it would have been better, I thought, if when they first landed the house was entirely too heavy to get off the ground, and he had thrown a bunch of stuff out, but couldn't bring himself to throw his wife's things out -- then the house floated, but not enough to really fly; the later scene where he throws stuff out could have been him finally deciding to throw his wife's stuff out so that the house could fly).

Also, I was a little surprised about what happened to the hero guy at the end. I think they could have come up with something more creative and on message than what actually happened to him.

The opening 10 minutes was amazing (I cried a bunch) and I thought the talking dogs were pretty funny, but afterwards I couldn't get past some of my gripes with the story...
Posted by Julie in Eugene]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:50:40 -0700 The Stranger
I agree that the initial creation of the central idea was not developed at all well. Because, seriously, what?

But, the rest of the movie rang relatively true. And, no, they wouldn't talk ad nauseum about why they were squicked...they just were. If you want an emotional or phyisological verbal dissection of human sexuality, a shoegaze comedy is not where you're going to find it.
Posted by TheMisanthrope]]> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:37:26 -0700 The Stranger