Movie Night: Are We There Yet?

Review #661: Are We There Yet?

Cast
Ice Cube (Nick Persons), Nia Long (Suzanne Kingston), Aleisha Allen (Lindsey Kingston), Philip Daniel Bolden (Kevin Kingston), Jay Mohr (Marty), M. C. Gainey (Al), and Tracy Morgan (Satchel Page Bobblehead) Directed by Brian Levant (#491 - Jingle All The Way and #577 - Beethoven)

Review
It's been almost ten years since this film was made, and in that span a sequel and a television series was made following this movie's...success. I guess this was made in an age where anyone thought they could do a family film no matter what they were before (Such as Vin Diesel with The Pacifier or Dwayne Johnson with The Game Plan), but whatever. This is classified as a "Christmas film" by Wikipedia, but I would compare this to giving your distant relative a fruitcake the day after Christmas. It seems this movie was made with good intentions, but it ultimately fizzles into boredom. The characters seem like they'll make a connection to you, but really you're just going through the motions and wondering how much longer it'll last. At least Ice Cube is decent, though he can't save a movie with stale jokes. The kids may seem nice, but really they just get on your nerves, and while later scenes try to make them look more sympathetic, it doesn't work. It's fitting that the movie has a bobble head in it that talks, because at this point, anything goes. It's a forgettable movie that bores you to the point where you truly wish it was Thanksgiving, because then you could go to your relative's house and forget all about it. And then remember it again after too much turkey.

Overall, I give it 4 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: School of Rock.

Review #645: School of Rock.

Cast
Jack Black (Dewey Finn), Joan Cusack (Roz Mullins), Mike White (Ned Schneebly), Sarah Silverman (Patty Di Marco), Miranda Cosgrove (Summer Hathaway), Joey Gaydos Jr. (Zack Mooneyham), Kevin Clark (Freddy Jones), Rebecca Brown (Katie), Robert Tsai (Lawrence), Maryam Hassan (Tomika), Caitlin Hale (Marta), and Aleisha Allen (Alicia) Directed by Richard Linklater.

Review
Rock and roll is awesome, let's just get that out of the way. We (audience included) could discuss our favorite bands all day, what we listen to and if disco is actually better than pop songs today, or we could do it over the comment section below. It's all up to you, but in the meanwhile, there's School of Rock to talk about. It figures that on Rocktober (Or Spooktober, but whatever), School of Rock pops up on television, and it was on my day off, which created a perfect storm (Imagine that, AMC actually showing movies for once.) to review it. Black was practically born to play a rocker turned teacher and he has so much energy, he seems to really just blend into the role and the fact that he's pretty good rocking it out makes for a real fun performance to watch. The rest of the cast is good, I do wonder if I was supposed to like Silverman's character (though I'd complain too if a rocker reject posed as a teacher by pretending to be someone else), though I think I'll just let that one slide, only because sometimes rock just invades the mind, "who made who", as you might say. It is a long way to the top, if you want to make a good film, and this film manages to overcome some quirks and become the pinball wizard. Whoops, I meant an enjoyable film.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.