Madagascar Three Europe's Most Wanted

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While on vacation, my family and I went to the drive in twice.  They always play a double feature, and as luck would have it, we had already seen the second film both weeks that we went.  The first week we saw Madagascar 3 followed by Dark Shadows.  My review of Dark Shadows can be read here.

As you all know by now, my family watches a lot of movies.  We aren't really TV watchers, and will choose a movie over a TV show most of the time when we want to watch something.  So it probably comes as no surprise that not only have we seen the first two Madagascar movies, but we own them on DVD as well.   They are  movies we like, but not necessarily movies we LOVE.

This third movie followed the same four animals, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra ( Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), as they try to get back to Central Park, NY. Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and other characters from the first two are still in this one, but their parts aren't very big.

As they are they are trying to escape Europe, they are nearly caught by the head of animal control, who REALLY wants a lion to hang on her wall.  In an effort to fool her and leave the country, they join a traveling circus.

When they join the circus they make up lies about how they are all traveling circus animals already.  They shake up the way the other animals perform as they travel the world on their way back to the United States.  They get caught in some of the lies, but ultimately realize that friendship is the most important thing.

We liked the movie overall, but I felt like it was a little too busy jumping around, and cramming too much stuff into a short time frame.  There were things that were hard to keep straight through the rush.

We didn't see it in 3D since we were at the drive in, and we didn't think it was worth another trip to a theater to see it in 3d.  We will probably buy it when it comes out on DVD, but we own well over 500 DVD's, so that's not necessarily a big deal.

Elliott really enjoyed it, and said it was worth seeing on the big screen, but he also admitted his favorite parts were all shown in trailers as well.

The Amazing Spider-Man in 3D

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As a lot of you know by now, my six year old loves superheroes.  He has a hard time deciding who his favorite is between the Hulk and Spider-Man, so he was obviously really excited and looking forward to seeing Spider-Man in the theater.  He's been counting down to the day it came out since the date was released!  We weren't able to go on the 3rd, since my husband was at work late, but we did go yesterday afternoon and we all three really enjoyed it.

First off, let me admit that no one in my immediate family has read any of the Spider-Man comic books.  We've seen some of the cartoons, and the three films that starred Tobey Maguire, but that's pretty much it.  So we know that the storyline is quite different than those films, but we don't know how much it stuck to comic book roots.

Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man.  This was the first thing we had ever seen him in, and we all thought he did a good job.  He wasn't the same type of Peter Parker we are used to, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Other stars included Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Denis Lear as Captain Stacy, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, Sally Field as Aunt May and Rhys Ifans as the Lizard/Dr. Curt Connors.

This film starts with Peter as a child, on the night he moves in with Uncle Ben and Aunt May. It just shows that single night, before fast forwarding to when Peter is in high school, but it proves to be a very important night. Peter's parents drop Peter off, along with a briefcase, that Uncle Ben and Aunt May store in the basement and forget about.

Peter is a pretty good child and generally does what's expected of him.  He stands up for the underdog, even if it lands him in trouble.  He seems to have a pretty good relationship with boy his aunt and his uncle.  As he is helping his uncle he stumbles upon the briefcase that belonged to his dad, and his world starts changing.

The briefcase leads him to the company where his father worked.  He meets his father's best friend and fellow scientist, Dr. Curt Connors.  This is where Peter gets bit and develops his powers.  He forms a friendship with Dr. Connors and helps him with some stuff, without giving away that he found it in his father's notes. Before he knows it, things get out of hand.

With a little bit of help from his girlfriend (the only one he tells about his secret powers) Spider-Man manages to save the day.  The movie ends in a way that leaves no doubt that there WILL be a sequel.

Like I said before, my family and I all liked the movie. We saw it in 3D, and while some of the scenes were pretty awesome, I'm still not positive it was necessarily worth the extra cost.  My guys both seem to think all movies are better in 3D, though, so they both disagree with me on that.

Elliott liked that this was a funnier, sillier Peter Parker than he was used to.  He thought the movie was just a little bit scary, but not too bad.  The scariest part for him was when someone died.  He says the movie was appropriate for kids 5 and up, as long as their parents are around to talk about the scary parts after the movie is over.

Sorry About Missing Reviews!

Sorry I didn't get any blog posts up while I was on vacation in June.  I ended up having a lot more trouble with my husband's old slow laptop than I thought I would.  I do plan on getting some extra ones up this week, though, now that we are home and unpacked and ready to go!  We've recently seen several movies including Brave, Madagascar 2, The Amazing Spider-Man, and the Lucky One, so expect all of those in the next few days!

I also have a few movie reviews to do on movies that are out on DVD, including Mirror Mirror (which just came out last week).  I do have another vacation scheduled this month for about 2 weeks, but I'll get some reviews done before I leave and hopefully Darla will remember to post them, so there will still be new ones up. :)