I watched an advanced screening of the movie, The Help, as a guest of a friend, New York Times best selling author, Denene Millner. As I watched I couldn't help but be taken back and angered over my own origins, or rather those who preceded me. Specifically my father's mother, plucked from school in the 6th grade to help raise the rest of her 12 siblings after her mother was run over by a white male driver. As far as I know it was an auto-pedestrian accident that ended right there in that street and became the endpoint of my grandmother's formal education as a twelve year old. By the time I came along she was long-since retired, the owner of a three houses on the corner lot of a street in Wisconsin that brought me to tears when I laid eyes upon it during a recent visit. My grandmother made the best biscuits on the planet Earth and introduced me to and enabled my only two addictions: soap operas (which I've overcome) and Frosted Flakes (which I will never give up). Thanks to her and her sisters and the strong men in their lives, I have cousins that range into the hundreds and many are old enough to be my parents. Thanksgiving was a grand event that was so large that the smallest of us ended up eating in the living room. But yet and still despite her land owner and landlord status, despite her grand matriarchal status, and despite having long and flowing wavy hair, able to "pass" for white but opting not to, every year a white woman named Helen would come every Thanksgiving to sit at the head of my grandmother's table. She was someone "Granma" told me was good to her. Someone her sisters turned their noses up to and even harassed in the case of one particularly fiery/crazy great aunt. I would soon come to understand that this woman was "The white lady Gladys cleaned up after." She was nice, so I didn't have a problem with her, but I never understood why my grandmother gave her the courtesy in her home that I know she never received in hers. But my grandmother was a great woman --- a greater and tougher person than I'll ever come close to being.

For starters I didn't read the book, The Help. We should all know by now that there is plenty of controversy surrounding it and the subsequent movie that has been spawned by the tome's popularity. After speaking to a couple of accomplished African American authors I do think I have a handle on the crux of the dilemma: people of color not being allowed (by the publishing gatekeepers) to tell their own stories --- to tell them truthfully and from their perspectives: the perspective of personal experience versus the imagination, interview or research-based, free of the mythologized sympathy of "the one Great White Hope". This is a fantastic wish however. One I'm not sure will ever be achieved in my lifetime.

This isn't to deny that key players in the majority haven't stood on principle, risked their lives and joined in civil rights' movements, but history has shown again and again that the under-served have served themselves --- mounted revolutions, set the world afire with ingenious ideas of equality and launched incredibly organized and peaceful movements to affect change. And for the record Change Doesn't Begin with a Whisper, as one of the movie's many advertising taglines reads. It begins with a thunderclap. You might be out of earshot or hardly paying attention, but nonetheless it does.

To quote a friend with 10 best-selling novels under her belt:

"I'd never be able to publish that. They (publishers + agents = gatekeepers) would tell me it wouldn't sell. It would die right there on an editor's slush pile."

As time passes and the desire mounts to be politically correct, there has been a steady softening short of muting of the actual historical facts of eras long gone. The fear is that the wrong message will be sent. It's just too harsh for our kids to be reading "this stuff" in the classroom. We are getting further and further away from our nation's past and refashioning one that actually didn't exist. If you don't believe me just look at what has been done to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. I'm sure in the not too distant future I'll tap my temple for the overhead projection of the news and read a headline stating that slavery in the United States never existed.

This debate with all of its many, many facets will rage on, seemingly forever, unfortunately. But all of the above isn't what this movie review is about.

The Help starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, an absolutely devilish Dallas Bryce-Howard (daughter of a guy named Ron Howard) and Octavia Spencer showcases Jim Crow Jackson Mississippi that revels in being as backwards as it wants to be. "The Help," African American maids, presumably 2nd tier wage earners in their own homes after their husbands, go into the homes of Southern white women, run their homes like well oiled machines, keeping their lives nice and tidy so they can lunch and be social. This includes raising their children at the expense of their own. Seemingly no one that we are shown onscreen takes issue with this and if they do they are too spineless to go against the grain. All except for Skeeter, portrayed with likable indignation by Emma Stone, fresh out of college and painted as having graduated with Northern mores. We get she is suddenly enlightened and now freed of the mentality that has always ruled the town of her birth since the end of the Civil War.

Pursuing her own desires to be great, distraught over what she can no longer idly observe and tortured by the abject and mysterious dismissal by her own family of the maid/mommy who raised her, Skeeter launches her offensive: to write a book of essays about the Help, for the Help from the Help's perspective. If things go the way she plans everyone wins. She will get a legitimate job as a journalist, her friends in the maid/servitude community will have their stories shared with the world and earn a portion of the royalties to boot and the poison that fuels her Jim Crow town will be neutralized, at least a little bit. Let the bridge burning begin!

Like any goal/dream, things don't go exactly according to plan and get downright ugly along the way. Howard's character, Hilly Hollbrook has a chokehold on her way of life and views Skeeter's progressive attitudes as contrary to anything civilized. And it is great watching what happens when Davis' Aibileen and Spencer's Minny come alive. But I won't spoil the movie for you. It did well in it's first week and the usual Oscar buzz with movies such as these is beginning to swirl.

Is it worth a watch? Sure. Make sure you go out to dinner afterward. It is definitely discussion-worthy, no matter what your opinions may be of the book, the movie and the pre Civil Rights Era. The time and the people who populated it are also worth researching and learning about on your own minus the influence of New York or Hollywood.

[Spoiler-Alert!]
The one thing I would try ignore is the following line:

"Frying chicken make me feel good about myself."

I don't know any self-respecting person of any complexion who would say this unless they were just plain dumb. Cooking maybe, but not frying chicken.

It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll make you angry and it'll make you think. It has been seen before, but this is a worthwhile showing. Out of a total 5 Hollers based on the merit of the screenplay, cinematography, directing and acting, I give the movie a solid 4.




I'm the author of DAD: As Easy As A, B, C! - 26 Dos & Don'ts for Fathers. Click here for my story and the origin of Makes Me Wanna Holler. Do you Tweet? Follow EPayneTheDad on Twitter. Live on Facebook? Like Makes Me Wanna Holler on Facebook.

I want to take a break from the reality of life and have you all take a one minute and forty-five second plunge back into childhood where superheroes did exist and overcoming all odds (especially those from within) was an actual possibility.



In Theaters July 20, 2012

I CAN NOT WAIT!

I'm the author of DAD: As Easy As A, B, C! - 26 Dos & Don'ts for Fathers. Click here for my story and the origin of Makes Me Wanna Holler. Do you Tweet? Follow EPayneTheDad on Twitter. Live on Facebook? Like Makes Me Wanna Holler on Facebook.

Walt Disney Animation Studios returns to the Hundred Acre Wood with "Winnie the Pooh," the first big-screen Pooh adventure from Disney's feature animation studios in more than 35 years. With the timeless charm, wit and whimsy of the original featurettes, this all-new movie reunites audiences with the philosophical "bear of very little brain" and friends Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Roo-and last, but certainly not least, Eeyore, who has lost his tail.(Source: Disney.com)

I was concerned before I went to go see this film. Concerned that despite my love for cartoons it would be too infantile for me or my daughter. But once the movie began I realized there was pure beauty in the simplicity of this tale of a child's imagination run wild. This, of course, was balanced by Eeyore's extreme realism, which provided the bulk of the adult humor in the film. This reincarnation of Winnie The Pooh took me back to my own childhood where I romped around through the playthings of my daydreams. My daughter's face was aglow with happiness as she sat captivated by the mix of animation, words and imagination. It helped me understand her sudden attachment to her new friend, a bunny she named Beyonce (don't get me started).

Winnie the Pooh opens nationwide in theaters this week on July 15. It will definitely be time well spent with the kids.

• Check Movie Times In Your Area
• Listen To The Soundtrack

Disclosure: I saw the advanced screening of Winnie the Pooh courtesy of Klout Perks.

E.Payne is the author of DAD: As Easy As A, B, C!: 26 Dos & Don'ts For Fathers and 2 other books. For the past 3 years he has posted 700+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

If you are able to sit through your typical story arc of the good son (and in this case, bunny) turned loose cannon who's ultimate fate is redemption, the son who never realized his potential until right now, your standard wholesome enterprise being overthrown by the subservient but treacherous Number 2 who dreams of being Number 1, and a talking live-action bunny that poops jelly beans then you've got the chops for Hop, the new movie from the producers who brought us Despicable Me.

I do believe actor James Marsden (X-Men, Enchanted) has sunk to new low in his effort to capture the lucrative children's movie demographic. But I also found Hank Azaria to be masterful as the subservient Carlos, the head chick but number 2 in command of the candy factory at Easter Island, the homeland of Easter Bunny royalty similar to what the South Pole is to someone else we know. David Hasselhoff is quite good at being... David Hasselhoff. He definitely knows how to play himself making fun of himself. Gary Cole most notably remembered for his wonderful turn as Bill Lumbergh in the movie, Office Space, plays the disapproving dad of James Marsden's, Fred, to the point of cliche.

But before I go any further --- THIS IS A KID'S MOVIE! It wasn't meant for adults except for the occasionally dated references that only a parent born in the seventies and early eighties would know. My daughter and her friends liked it and the movie did well keeping their attention through nearly all of it's 90-minute run time. It has given them that much more to daydream about when it comes to Easter and the Easter Bunny.

If you're like me and you're home on the weekend without the spouse or even if your spouse is with you, take the kids out to see Hop. They won't be disappointed. And for the time they are engaged with the movie, neither will you.

Disclosure: This is not a paid review. However this reviewer did attend a complimentary private screening of the movie, HOP. This review was not influenced in any way by the movie's producers or it's affiliates.

E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

Anyone who has been to Brazil for Carnival knows first-hand the powerful hypnotic rhythms of Samba and the explosion of colors so intense it's absolutely intoxicating (if not unbelievable) to the eyes.

From the makers of the hit ICE AGE series comes RIO, a comedy adventure about taking a walk on the wild side. Blu is a domesticated Macaw who never learned to fly, living a comfortable life with his owner and best friend Linda in the small town of Moose Lake, Minnesota. Blu and Linda think he’s the last of his kind, but when they learn about another Macaw who lives in Rio de Janeiro, they head to the faraway and exotic land to find Jewel, Blu’s female counterpart. Not long after they arrive, Blu and Jewel are kidnapped by a group of bungling animal smugglers.

You'll have to take the family to the movies to find out if and how Blu & Jewel escape and who they meet along the way.


If you're a parent, and even if you're not, you may have noticed in the last few years that soundtracks from animated movies are better than most of the music currently being spit out. And I do mean spit. Most of these albums include music the entire family can jam to. The soundtrack for Rio The Movie is no different. Especially if you can dig samba rhythms like I do.

In advance of the April 15th debut of Rio The Movie, Makes Me Wanna Holler.com readers will have the chance to enter to win the original motion picture soundtrack. This CD covers the range of Brazilian music featuring tracks by Bibel Gilberto and Carolinhos Brown, Jermaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), Latino sensation, Taio Cruz, Jamie Foxx and multi-platinum artist Will.i.am.

CONTEST RULES
One (1) winner will be selected at random from three (3) drawings held on Thursday, March 24, Tuesday, March 29, and Tuesday, April 5, 2011 beginning at 10 am EST. Only (1) "Like" per contestant will be allowed on each drawing day. Only one (1) CD will be allowed per winner. Winner will be selected within 24 hours of each drawing. Winner will be selected via Random.org. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize after being selected. The RIO Official Movie Soundtrack will be distributed by Big Honcho Media after the conclusion of the final drawing and once the product becomes available to ship. Contestants must be over the age of 18 and have a valid Continental U.S. mailing address.

HOW TO ENTER
"Like" the above image on each day of the drawing on the Makes Me Wanna Holler Facebook Page. Contests will launch between 10 am and noon on each contest day. Valid entries can only be made within 24 hours of the posting of the drawing on each contest day as listed in the Contest Rules. In order to enter you must be a member of the Makes Me Wanna Holler Facebook Page.

Any entries not in compliance with the above will not be considered. This giveaway ends April 6, 2011 at 10:00am EST - the projected conclusion of the 24 hour time frame of the final April 5th contest.


E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

RIO FLYS INTO THEATERS APRIL 15!

RIO on YouTube
RIO on Facebook
RIO Official Website

Synopsis
From the makers of the hit ICE AGE series comes RIO, a comedy adventure about taking a walk on the wild side. Blu is a domesticated Macaw who never learned to fly, living a comfortable life with his owner and best friend Linda in the small town of Moose Lake, Minnesota. Blu and Linda think he’s the last of his kind, but when they learn about another Macaw who lives in Rio de Janeiro, they head to the faraway and exotic land to find Jewel, Blu’s female counterpart. Not long after they arrive, Blu and Jewel are kidnapped by a group of bungling animal smugglers. With the help of street smart Jewel, and a group of wise-cracking and smooth-talking city birds, Blu escapes. Now, with his new friends by his side, Blu will have to find the courage to learn to fly, thwart the kidnappers who are hot on their trail, and return to Linda, the best friend a bird ever had.

Disclosure: This is a press post.

Just in case you haven't noticed there is a new video in the sidebar of this blog. It is the trailer for a documentary in which I had the honor of briefly appearing. Aside from me, the message is powerful, but more importantly, timely. There are men out there, good, honest, hardworking, loving, protective, responsible men!

Presenting the latest Tyler New Media production, Men Ain't Boys. Check it out and hopefully when it comes to your town you'll be in line at the theater to watch it.




E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

As per my stats on GetGlue my house is a cartoon-watching household --- animation domination on full tilt. This is for two reasons: 1)I have 2 kids spaced 10 years apart who seem to agree on most cartoons they watch together; and 2)my wife and I are some cartoon watching grown folks who never stopped watching them from childhood.

One the absolute favorites around the house is The Incredibles. Released in 2004, my daughter recently got hooked on this movie. She now refuses to watch anything else. Here, every viewing for us is almost like watching it for the first time. But why wouldn't we? We live it every day.

Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr - His strength is immeasurable and he's seemingly physically invulnerable. His exaggerated shoulders and back are an illustration of the weight he carries: that of the world. But at times has the attention span of a flea. He reminisces about the good old days, but loves his family. He's the father and the husband.

Elastigirl/Helen Parr - Flexible isn't even the word to describe how agile and flexible this superhero is. She's poised and constantly focused on what needs to happen in the moment and in the next. She's ferociously protective of her kids. She keeps her man Mr. Incredible in line (often to his chagrin) and gives him the love and support he needs to thrive. She is the mom and the wife.

Violet Parr - The teenage daughter of the Incredibles has the ability to disappear and throw up force fields at will. She's shy, awkward and often unsure of herself and where she fits in the world. Sounds like most teenagers...

Dashiel "Dash" Parr - The little brother. A hot ball of energy who is moving a mile a minute. On in the case of this young man he's so fast he can run on water. He antagonizes his older sibling to no end and drives his mother up the wall at times. Anyone who owns a preschooler - grammar school student knows this all too well.

Jack Jack - the baby. At all appearances he is "normal" possessing no powers at all. But at the critical moment at the movie's end when he gets upset we see the full breadth of his capabilities. He morphs into a screaming fireball to a possessed demon to a lead weight. The parallels don't get any more obvious.

According to these characters most families are incredible. And maybe they are. Although I'm sure most haven't seen The Incredibles as many times as the members of my family and myself have. I'm not sure I've met anyone who can honestly say they didn't enjoy the movie. Can you?



E.Payne is the author of Investing In An Emotional Letdown and I Didn't Invented Sex. For the past 3 years he has posted 600+ articles about fatherhood, marriage and everything in between here at Makes Me Wanna Holler.com. To learn more, click here.

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Although this trailer is hardly new, this is it's debut on Makes Me Wanna Holler. Of course I saw the original TRON in 1982. Back then (I won't say what grade I was in) I had dreams of destroying the MCP, getting the girl and most importantly, holding a stick out in front of me and having a futuristic motorcycle form around me out of thin air. As wide-eyed as I was over the whole thing back then, I thought the graphics were just a little cheesy.

So of course I was totally skeptical when they announced the "sequel" about two or so years ago. It's been almost 30 years! Yet again Hollywood was tampering with something that should remain untouched in its space (and decade) for the sake of one potential big box office weekend. Or so I thought.

But it is 2010 and technology has most certainly caught up with the imaginations of us boys who are now men, but are forever boys at heart (and in our dreams). Watching these trailers for TRON: Legacy turned me into a believer once more. Now I have something to look forward to this December to satisfy my inner geek. The acting juggernaut, Jeff Bridges, is back, Daft Punk is doing the soundtrack and the light cycles from back in the day have nothing on these bad boys featured in the next clip.



Shhh...can you hear that? That's the sound of you wanting one in your favorite color complete with a killer frisbee.

Have You Subscribed Yet? * Are You On Facebook? * Do You Tweet?

If there's anything you should see this weekend this is the movie. Playing in select theaters now. Please check the Waiting For Superman Official Website for movie times and locations. They also have some great information there and ways for you, yes you, to get involved via social media to better education here in America.


Have You Subscribed Yet? * Are You On Facebook? * Do You Tweet?

My Achilles Heel is a woman who rolls her R's --- Puerto Rican, Colombian, Dominican, Panamanian --- women of the Latina persuasion. But I've also dated Guatamalen, Ecaudorian and some I don't know because I never bothered to ask. People who know me know that I was stung during my junior year of college by a Puerto Rican freshman or sophomore (I can't remember) from another college where I was visiting fraternity brothers. I remember how she stared into my eyes while we danced at some party and when our time together was over she wrote her number in lipstick on a piece of scrap paper and handed it to me through the window of my car before sauntering off. She knew my eyes were following her movement away from me.

Her name was Loida. I remember vividly how her name rolled, literally, off her tongue and across her full and plump lips when she said it. The way she laughed with a flavor I had never before heard. She looked like me, but didn't talk like me and was different in every way I could ever imagine. Back then I learned I had a penchant for the different/exotic. It was then that I also learned that a woman could be talking to me about taking a dump, but if she did it with a Spanish accent or simply spoke it in Spanish, I became a blubbering fool.

Back to the girl...

Two weeks I was hooked.

Two weeks after that I was in love.

Four weeks after this I was completely strung out, hopeless and desperate.

A couple years later after I picked up the pieces, I realized she was some sort of demonic siren-temptress, something straight out of Greek mythology. She nearly ruined my life, or at the very least the remaining years of my undergraduate career. But I don't know many men who are men who haven't been knocked sideways by that one woman who seems to exist outside the realm of normalcy. That woman who can have her way with any man she wants is not the stuff of movies, she is VERY real. Watch out! Men, you know what I'm talking about...

From that point forward for nearly the next ten years I was hooked. I dated, related or was hit on by women of Latina descent even in the most minute degree. No one could understand it, similar to Mark Wahlberg's, Terry Hoitz's pure bafflement with Will Farrell's Allen Gamble's unassuming ability to mesmerize and attract hot chicks in The Other Guys, so too this seemed to be my effect on Latinas. Even I began to wonder what was going on with me.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of watching The Other Guys starring Will Ferrel, Mark Wahlberg and the Eva Mendes. I loved it and so did my son. My wife says we both owe her a movie. Oh well. One of the highlights of the movie was the hot little tune below that features Mendes, a woman who between her Latina sabor and her mole, leaves me feeling like my skin is melting and Cee-Lo Green, a very eccentric singer who never met a song he couldn't sing.

Happy Monday, folks! Keep it light! Enjoy your week.

There's a new book on Fatherhood coming to a store or e-reader near you! Add your name to list of people who want to see it happen. Please "Like" Bottom Line Fatherhood and count yourself as one who supports positive outlooks on the Dad Life.

CONTEST IS CLOSED!

If you're on this site, I presume it's because you are Superbad, whether you're a dad or a mom. And if you're not a parent, well you're just Superbad anyway. (That is my compliment for the day).

I've posted the movie review and now I've got something for you!

That rhymed.

I am pleased to present what I am calling the Superbad, Superdad. Dispicable Me Prize Pack Giveaway.

What's Up For Grabs, You Ask?
Two (2) winners will receive a pack consisting of the following:

• T-Shirt
• Hat
• Moo-Can (it really moos!)
• Pencil with Minion Topper
• Balloon
• Minion Ink Stamp

What Are The Rules?

Mandatory Requirement for Entry:

You MUST be one (1) of the following:

• A RSS Subscriber
• An Email Subscriber
• A Friend of this blog on Google Friend Connect
• A Facebook Page Fan
• A Follower On Twitter

Anyone entering who is not one of the above, your entry will be discarded and not considered.

Additionally, you must be a U.S. resident or have a U.S. mailing address to enter and be 18 years of age or older.

The Rules Are Simple:

State your above status (Facebook Fan, Google Friend, Subscriber, etc.) & answer the following in the comments section of this post (1 Entry Per Person) :

If you could be a Supervillian parent what kind would you be? What is your power that makes you Superbad and what would you do with it? For example: Steve Carrell is a criminal mastermind with a variety of inventions (including his minions) and is plotting to steal the moon.

The 2 commenters with the most creative (and non-offensive) answers will win the prize packs! (Prize packs will be distributed by Big Honcho Media)

My son will be our judge on this one. Who better to judge than a wily teen who lives to see the bad guy win?

The Contest will Run from Today July 14, 2010 at 4pm EST and end at 11:59pm EST on Friday, July 23, 2010.

Good Luck, Let Your Creativity Flow, But Don't Get Too Crazy (please)!

Disclosure: E.Payne the author of Makes Me Wanna Holler was provided with a Despicable Me Prize Pack for the purpose of reviewing it.



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Disclosure: This is an unsolicited review.

Despicable Me is hardly despicable at all. In fact it's arguably as crude and violent as your everyday Spongebob Squarepants episode or DVD pack.

In a happy suburban neighborhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Unbeknownst to the neighbors, hidden deep beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by an army of tireless, little yellow minions, we discover Gru (Steve Carell), planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon (Yes, the moon!)

Is the plot ridiculous and far-fetched? Of course it is! It's a cartoon! Steve Carell's Gru drives a rocket car, carries a concealed freeze ray gun and somehow manages to live in suburbia without drawing any attention to himself. But that isn't what this movie is truly about. This is just the subplot that sets up the bigger story: a man in his never ending quest to be super successful and lauded by all (even if it's for being bad) crosses paths with three little orphaned girls, falls in love with them and discovers, through trial and major errors, that family is what truly matters.

Sound familiar?

I went to see this movie on opening day (in 3D) in Chicago with my daughter, one of my high school buddies and his two daughters. We loved it. As with most modern day animated features there were moments when I thought it was running a bit long (my daughter's brief moment of pacing the row confirmed this), but there's a little something for all ages in this movie. And the minions? These little yellow creature may have provided me with some of the best comic relief I've experienced all year...



Despicable Me proves that family changes everything. Even the quest for world domination. Grab your wallet (3D CGI ticket prices are insane), grab your kids, grab your friends or the one you love and kick back for a couple hours of air conditioned laughs with Gru and the cast of Despicable Me, featuring the talents of Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Jason Segal and Kristen Wiig.

Want to get more day to day, hour to hour musings from E.Payne? Then please "Like" the Makes Me Wanna Holler Facebook Page and join the movement. You won't be disappointed.

It's the differences that attract us, but then it becomes the differences that stand between us...

I say this to say I have been waging a video holy war with my wife since we began living together (one of many reasons not to do such a thing - yeah, if I've never mentioned it before I'm totally against living together before marriage even though I did it myself - both based on my spiritual beliefs and just basic cons outweighing pros - which I learned the hard way).

I like old movies. She does not.

I like foreign films. She does not.

I like blaxploitation flicks. She does not.

I like kung fu movies. She sometimes tolerates them.

I can watch a good action movie until the DVD player breaks. She wants to know what is a "good" action movie.

I thought LOTR (Lord of the Rings) was amazing. She thought they were the worst movies she never saw.

And she likes girlie stuff, and the occasionally heavy piece, and I can't be bothered.

At one point we both had Netflix accounts. But it didn't make financial sense to have two accounts once we moved in together. Since her plan allowed for more movies per month I discontinued mine and effectively silenced my rights to have a say in what we watch on DVD.

Until now...

One day I happened to be driving by the good old public library and I had an "A Ha!" moment. I swerved out of traffic, parked and walked inside. In less than five minutes I was able to verify my residency at the front desk. They handed me a crisp new card. And I walked out with not one, not two, not even three or four DVDs. I walked out with 10.

So now my wife's DVD selections trickle in here 2 or 3 at a time and are movies we may or may not have already seen based on how out of date here queue is. I now rule the pile with stacks upon stacks of my quirky movies. And did I mention they were free? As long as I return them on time. And I have a week to do that, which is more than enough time to view or decide not to view a movie.

I have since reignited my love of the movies of my youth. Movies that were meant for kids first and a toy line second. Today's toy-driven cartoons just don't do it for me (except for Transformers). In the last month or so I've been able to introduce my daughter, and in some instances my teenage son to the following:

• Almost every Disney princess offering in existence.
• A ton of Pixar movies and even Pixar shorts.
• Disney's Robin Hood (the one where Robin Hood is a fox).
• Disney's first full feature Jungle Book movie.
• Several Charlie Brown/Peanuts movies - my stand alone all time favorites, period. I was Charlie Brown and I always wanted my own Snoopy even though I didn't get why real beagles didn't look like Snoopy.
  
• Rikki Tikki Tavi (a personal favorite of mine based on Rudyard Kipling's tale of a rescued mongoose who loves his adopted family and goes on the warpath against two despicable cobras that threaten his new family and all the animals in their garden)
• American Legends (a James Earl Jones hosted and narrated piece about US icons, John Henry, Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed)

Believe it or not, next on my list is a compilation of all the School House Rock shorts and Puff the Magic Dragon (I cried after this one and my father took me to McDonald's and soothed me with their Quarter Pounder --- they hadn't added the cheese yet --- yeah I'm really, reealllly dating myself now).

If you haven't considered it or never thought of it, your local public library is a great source of movies and those other things called books. Some even have gallery spaces for artists. The original paintings and sketches of Dr. Seuss are currently on display at mine. Who knows, you may rediscover your youth (or at least your interests) while looking through their selections.

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In the last ten years...

• The movie, Spider-Man, made all my daydreams about superheroes visually plausible.

• Batman Begins and Dark Knight made real for me the notion that a man with no superhuman abilities could don a costume and will himself to be a force against crime (if you can get past the fact that his billionaire status completely exposes him to be Batman) and that a crazy person (Heath Ledger's Joker) could easily exist in today's times.


• Daniel Craig returned to the 007 franchise the brutality, swagger without schtick, and fine tailoring that disappeared from under our noses once Sean Connery departed the role of James Bond.

And now there's Avatar...

Now that the Oscars have run their course and everyone who was supposed to win has, I feel comfortable in speaking out about my love for this movie. Is the story one that we've seen or heard before? Yes. Were the Na'vi a very obvious sampling (or celebration) of all the indigenous and aboriginal Indian peoples of Earth? Yes. Should James Cameron have given credit where credit was due? Where? In the credits? For all who were up in arms about this movie I have one thing to say...Sci-Fi. Other than the Western European ideology of Eminent Domain and the violence it breeds and the classic science might vs. military might clashes, there was very little that was real about this movie --- from the Robotech derived military exo-suits, to the impossibly large gunship, to the blue (translucent at night) people who were described as being ten feet tall but looked closer to fifteen in most of the scenes with humans, to all that beautiful scenery and all those ugly, UGLY animals.

This movie was so unreal that while watching it the first time, it took me nearly a quarter of the movie for my mind to accept what it was seeing. Suspension of disbelief at the movies has never taken me so long. But then there was the love. And the love was real.

I absolutely loved this movie. I loved everything about it. I loved the celebration of simple living. I loved the visually stunning landscapes and airscapes (if there is such a thing). I loved the love story that evolved between Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), even though it was totally obvious from the very beginning. I LOVED watching her fight for her man. I LOVED that she loved him fiercely and with no drama.

Was the dialog complex? No. But I don't know how complex a conversation can be between people who speak different languages, let alone aliens. (Some of my best conversations ever were had in Brazil when I could barely put a sentence together in Portuguese).

For me, Avatar was a movie that allowed me to escape into a life of simplicity I'm not sure I'll ever know and see through the eyes of someone else. Kind of like an Avatar. I recently saw it again after having seen it just two weeks earlier. It was like watching it the first time. It didn't drag for a second and I didn't sit though a single scene haughty because I knew what was going to happen next. It was like seeing it brand new all over again. And amazingly, I want to see it again. Something I never want to do while a movie is still in theaters. I simply can't get enough of it.

For being able to do that writer and director, James Cameron nailed it. Without seeing or reading about it, it was obvious to me that this was the story he had in his heart, the one that had to wait for all his other movies to be made first. There's a story like that inside of me. It's been in my head since 1985. At the end of this blog and all the other projects cooking in my head I hope and pray I get to share it one day.

But despite all this and maybe because of it, Avatar was no Hurt Locker. There is no comparison whatsoever, nor should there be. Why we force creative forces to compete alongside one another will never make sense to me. Nor will making real world arguments against sci-fi/fantasy movies that are about as real as a teenage boy getting bitten by a radioactive spider and instead of dropping dead instantly, he wakes up the next day and transforms himself into the one of the most powerful superheroes ever.

For a great take on all that was Oscar please visit the craziest dad I know, Jason Mayo is Outnumbered for his Oscars Through Interpretive Dance.


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Robert Downey, Jr....

Don Cheadle...

Mickey Rourke...

Iron Man...

War Machine...

Whiplash...

May 2010...



One word: "Yessssssssssssssssss......"

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Yesterday evening, my daughter and I along with a friend and his family, watched Wall-E under the stars at a park along Moshulu Parkway in the Bronx. It was our second time seeing it and it was just as incredible as the first time around. If you haven't had the pleasure, check out the trailer below.




When my daughter went to bed last night she kissed me several times while shouting, "Goodnight, Daddy!"

My wife smirked and told her to be careful not to step into the puddle I had become.

Whatever.

Happy Friday! Make it a great weekend.

What movie(s) do you enjoy with your little ones?

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Like a thief in the night, it arrived.



I just soiled myself.


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My son has been harassing me to see Terminator Salvation for the past seven days. Every day he asks me the same question: "Dad, we're going to see it, right?"

"Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad?!" [insert scream here]

Each time, I answer yes, I do so slightly more frustrated than the last time.

My wife came home from work yesterday to tell me that the critics said it was heavy on action thin on plot.

REALLY?...And the first three Terminator movies had layered, textured plots?


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