Takin' Care of Business (everyone sing along)

Today I'm going to catch up on a few items of business. Movie business, that is.


My mom has been reminding me that I was stated in a post long, long ago that I would review the movie "City of Ember" and that I never did. So here's my review, even though it's no longer in theatres and is likely to be on video by Christmas.

The movie is based on a book Jeanne duPrau. It is the first in a series of three books. It's confusing though because it's actually 2nd in the story line. The 2nd book, "People of Sparks", is 3rd, and the 3rd book, "Prophet of Yonwood", is 1st. Got that? Okay, okay. In all fairness, the third book is a prequel that takes place before the "City of Ember" and "People of Sparks", and you should read it last. Let's recap--read C.of Ember, P. of Sparks and then P. of Yonwood. Phew!!!
Back to the review now. I LOVED it! My kids LOVED it! And Curtis, who never even read it and was thinking it would be a bomb because he didn't see one commercial for it, LOVED it! Grace was a little bored (she's 6 and there were no dancing high schoolers or animated characters anywhere to be seen). It is about a group of people that live underground in a dark world where they rely on electricity in order to see anything! The city was built over 2 hundred years ago to save a small group of humans from the Apocalypse and extinction (but the current residents don't know that). It is breaking down and falling apart. Two teenagers, Doone and Lena, find a cryptic note that was intended to be read years before instructing the residents on how to get out and return to the surface of the Earth. Part of it was eaten by Lena's little sister and they had to piece it together and decipher what it was telling them to do.
Of course they are smarter than the adults, what kid isn't? Though they do find a few who will sort-of listen.

They find their way out (I'm really not giving away anything by telling you this) and the last scene when they see the sunrise for the first time will bring a tear or two to your eyes. I thought it was well-made, imaginative and well-acted. I saw a trailer for this movie (probably the only one) in which the boy, Doone, looks positively ghastly. I thought "How could I possibly watch this boy, who clearly needs to be on life-support, for a whole 2 hours?" Well, he looked much better in the movie. Remember that Seinfeld episode where he is dating "Two-Face"? She is totally hot in certain lighting and a troll in other. That was this kid. He looked really cute most of the time. That one scene was clearly not his best. Tim Robbins was good as the dad, Bill Murray was good as the Mayor (though my mom thought he was too cartoonish), and the girl who played Lena was sweet and likable. There were a few liberties taken with the book. Not many, but they were there. The most notable was the giant mole thing. It was weird and confusing. But not detracting from the larger message of the film.
Worth the rental? Yes!!!
Worth buying as a stocking stuffer? Yes (for older kids)!!!
I really hope they make the other books into movies, but alas, I don't think it made enough money to merit it.

My next review is "High School Musical 3". We talked Curtis into going with us last week on Veteran's Day. He fell asleep about 12 times. But at least we were together.

So, anyways. The movie. I don't have to tell anyone what it was about. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know everything about it. My opinion is what I will share. Disclaimer: this is my opinion and not the opinion of the other females in this house.
Okay, here it goes. There were waaayyy too many musical numbers. They would finish one song and 2 seconds later the next one would start. I am a musical-lover and I really like the music in all the HSM movies. But it was song over-kill.
The other thing I thought was that it was way more adult-themed under-tones than the others. Maybe it's because "Troy and Gabriella" are together in real life, but he was looking at her like he was going to drizzle her in chocolate and lick it off the WHOLE TIME!!! And her lacy bra was peeking above her neck-line on more than one occasion. Now, before I had 3 daughters that I was trying to teach modesty to, I wouldn't have even noticed. Or cared if I did notice. But things are different now. I don't know when it happened, but I'm a mom now. I used to poke (just a little) fun at mom's that cared about stuff like that, swearing that I would never be that sheltering. Now I'm that mom. I don't want my kids exposed to sex everywhere they turn. My kids didn't even notice what I did. And I won't point it out. They just thought it was fun, and I want them to have fun, and have fun things to watch. I just wished that it weren't so apparent that Troy "knew" Gabriella that well.
Worth watching? Yes (begrudgingly). The kids love it.

I really want to see "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" but we would have to drive to Harkins Camelview to do so. And I don't know when we'll have time to do that. Hopefully it will be there for at least another week. I am drooling already though, at all the movies that are going to be coming out over the holidays!

So many movies, so little time (and $).