Movies: Good and Bad

It has been raining in Boston, well, it feels like forever. Weekends have been largely washed out. So, we have been taking in some movies. Some have been successful, others… not so much.

First off, we took in the Superman movies, specifically I and II. Wow, special effects have come a long way. The boys liked the first movie well enough, I sat staring at how bad each flying scene was, etc. Superman II gave us some pause, the boys weren’t sure how to take in 3 super-bad guys. My favorite part of this movie had to be the battle between Superman and Zod & Co. in Metropolis. At one point Zod uses his heat vision against Superman and when the camera come back from a cutaway, the ray is clearly coming out of his chest for a second. A second not missed by my kids. “Whoa!” yelled M, “his heat ray comes out of his nipples!” Mostly, however, they spent most of each movie wondering why K and were laughing. I can’t figure out why Netflix has the first two available instantly, but not the second two, but maybe it’s a defensive move. I redeemed special effects and the Man of Steel by letting them watch Superman Returns which may be our favorite. Thankfully, exposure to Kal-El has not reinforced M;s demand that I wear my Superman boxers

This past weekend we took in a high point of cinematography and one of the very lowest. First off, the high point was Cars 2. Well made and clever, it wasn’t a full rehash of the first movie, but it was close. Vincent Daly over at CuteMonster has a great review of the movie which covers most of what I was thinking. It was a little predictable from an adult angle, but a bit too complicated for the kids. Some of the plot points took us quite some time to explain after the movie. Loved Eddie Izzard though.

Then we hit the lowest of the low. In perusing my Netflix cue, I was looking for other movies that the boys could watch on the instant feed. I came across “The Mystical Adventures of Billy Owens,” a 2008 movie that sounded familiar, a boy turns 11, gets a magical wand, etc. Sadly, the name is probably the best part. Imagine… well, imagine if an “adult film” had finished being made and they had the sets all made, so they brought in some kids to film another movie. No sex, but the same level of acting, the same quality script and the same quality plot line. In fact, I have no idea what the movie was about, Billy got a wand, his teacher glowed and I think there was a dragon under the river. The boys got more out of it, I kept getting stuck on how bad it was. It was a mimic of Harry Potter in many ways, a school, a bad student, the boy magician and his two side kicks, a smart girl and a boy who ultimately saves the day by wielding a sword. But even that was painful. The smart girl showed she was smart by spouting off random facts that had nothing to do with anything in the movie and the boy and sword pair took on a dead… viking, maybe? Looked like a viking, but had a scepter that glowed and shot sparks, but no one seemed to think that was important. I think the best part of the movie was that Roddy Piper played the Dumbledore type role, but I only realized it was him by looking up the movie on IMDB. I’m also pretty sure he died several times during the movie.

My true horror was in finding out that there is apparently a second movie, “Billy Owens and the Secret of the Amulet.” I think that will remain a secret…

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