Movie Suggestion Post #87

(Movie Ratings are on a scale of 1-5. Anything rated over 3 stars and is in bold, is usually a pretty good rating (5 star ratings are very rare with me)! – Content is listed for those who are careful about what they or their children view (or what to be aware of). I usually rate based on content, plot, photography/direction, and acting.)

Ender’s Game 2013 (w/ Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfield, Viola Davis) – 4.5 stars - I loved this movie! Seriously! There are children who are selected to be trained through playing various war games to see if they would be able to appropriately face real life situations and battles. It started out where Ender is a bit bullied and seems to stand out and is tested, though most likely the best candidate as a natural born leader. He goes through training and I loved the whole concept of the plot and ending! I can’t even say much because it will give things away. I want to read the books now too! The film was pretty clean and there were some fighting scenes, but no blood or graphic violence and nothing sexual and no language. Therefore, I’m certainly fond of it. On top of that the story was amazing! The acting was really well done too.
content: bullying, kids fighting (kicking repeatedly, punching, hitting them in the face with hard objects), a war “suicide” is shown (nothing shown but you imagine and understand what most likely happened), a kid is alone in a public shower (his chest is shown only as boys walk in on him), kids fight and there is a head injury, teens hugging and holding each other, we see that there are dorm rooms that are co-ed (they never show them getting dressed or having issues at all though)

The Lying Game (TV show seasons 1 & 2, 2011-2013) – .2 stars - This show stinks. I was hopeful about it, but I think it has been done pretty poorly. The first season was better than the second one. There are twins who have found each other after not even realizing that they had a twin. One of them has grown up in foster care and the other has grown up in luxury with a family that loves her. She seems fed up though with her parents while the one who grew up in foster care would love to have a family to call her own at all. While the one goes in search for their mother and leads about her, the one in foster care (Emma) is going to live in luxury while pretending to be her sister (Sutton). There seems to be lie after lie after lie. The concept of the show interested me, but to have one person play the twins instead of getting an actual pair of twins for the show would have been better. Also it is a bit boring at times and seems to have too many flaws about it.
content: sexual harassment, talk about sex, kissing/making out, immodesty (bikinis and tight and small dresses and cleavage as well as a couple underwear scenes), people cheating on others and making it seem like it is no big deal, deceit, some bad language used every once in a while

My Week with Marilyn 2011 (w/ Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Dominic Cooper, Emma Watson, Julia Ormond, Judi Dench) – 3 stars- This film is set in England during the time that Marilyn Monroe went to film The Prince and the Showgirl with director/actor Sir Laurence Olivier who had her cast instead of his aging wife Vivien Leigh who had made the role famous. The two of them had a lot of clashing between them, and she was suffering from illness and issues in her new marriage to her third husband. She finds comfort in the companionship of Colin Clark who worked on the film. This is based off of his actual writings about his week with her. As you can tell by my actual reviews of Marilyn Monroe’s film, I’ve always been a bit mixed about her acting. I think that this film about her showed a more vulnerable side that we never got to truly see on screen. It was a good movie, though slow at times. I think Michelle Williams did a pretty grand portrayal and I believe Kenneth Branagh did a great Laurence Olivier! They tried to recreate famous photos of Ms. Monroe in various scenes in the film, which was pretty interesting as well. I think it was directed so well and I would have rated it higher (but you’ll see in the content what changed that).
content: the entire backside of a woman is shown a couple times, a man walks in on a woman who just came out of a shower (we know he sees her naked in front, and her backside is shown), A male and female skinny dip together (we see her backside, her bra straps, and him in boxer shorts in which he holds himself down in front to indicate his lusts), kissing, married person kissing someone they are not married to, a man tries to unbutton a woman’s top, The F word is said about 5 times in this, the s word, small “a” word, d word, “hell” used incorrectly, and misused word about women’s breasts is said, blood shown on a sheet, a woman is naked under sheets sleeps in bed next to a man who is not her husband while she is married (sex is never implied, as far as the movie seems to say, they refrained because she was tired of being viewed in such a way), immodesty, mockery of people, a woman is in a bathtub and a man who is not her husband watches her (no nudity seen), drinking shown, smoking shown, a woman takes sleeping pills

Love Wrecked 2005 (w/ Amanda Bynes, Chris Carmack, Jonathan Bennett, Alfonso Ribeiro) – 2.5 stars - Jenny is obsessed with the pop sensation Jason Masters. She wants so badly to be with him! When she works at a hotel during the summer at a resort with her best friend (who obviously likes her, but she doesn’t seem to notice him at all other than as a friend), Jason Masters ends up staying there at the hotel. Her dreams may just come true! Perhaps she will end up with him as she hoped would happen! This movie was corny and funny at times, but it definitely wasn’t great. It reminds me of the many teenie boppers out there though. Open your eyes and see how great guys are right in front of you!
content: language (hell used incorrectly, “d” word, God’s name in vain, small “a” word), immodesty (midriff shown, bikinis worn, bra straps revealed when a girl starts acting like she’ll take her shirt off from the top, short skirts), a teen tries doing CPR on a young boy who ends up kissing her in return, kissing, deceit, objectifying people, a woman in a towel (you can see the sides of her bosoms sticking out), punching, innuendos,

Strangers on a Train 1951 (w/ Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Patricia Hitchcock) – 3.25 stars - This is a Hitchcock movie that was based on a book that I have not read (though I read that it is absolutely different from the movie). Two men meet on a train ride, one is Bruno who wants his father dead. The other is Guy who has problems with his wife who was unfaithful to him with many people, so he found another woman himself that he longs to be with but his wife refuses to divorce. Bruno suggests to make a trade: murdering each of the people they want gone. When Guy doesn’t comply, Bruno tries to pin the murder on Guy and is a bit crazy trying to hold Guy to his end of the bargain that he never agreed to! This whole film is basically done around a lighter of Guy’s that Bruno stole from him. The imagery throughout it was really great. There wasn’t much of a need for talking in this movie as it was pretty visual (so much so that I had to re-watch the ending because I was afraid I might have missed something). Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter played a pretty good role in this film and was my favorite character in it!
content: several people shown being strangled (one to death), talk of murder, talk of unfaithful spouses, smoking, drinking, kicking, punching,

Cyberbully 2011 (w/ Emily Osment, Kay Panabaker, Meaghan Rath, Kelly Rowan) – 3 stars - At first I thought this story was so cheesy and bad, but at it went along I started to like it a bit. It turned out in a bit of a positive way. I understand what it is like to be mocked, myself. This story was about a girl named Taylor who gets a laptop and signs up to a site that is popular for teens. It asks personal questions and many kids use it as a way to show off themselves and pick people up. Taylor seems to be really close to her mother (which is definitely something you don’t see in movies). Taylor gets bullied by many people because a guy starts saying that he got an STD from her even though she never met him. It causes her to go through quite a difficult time at school because she is being mocked all the time, mainly online. I definitely can understand how this would be very terrible for many people to have to go through. I think it is a good movie for teen girls to watch mainly. What I liked about this was there was actually a highly involved parent and the daughter actually cared to trust her mom most of the time, which I do think is rare, but is good for kids to see, that parents should be involved!
content: talk about people wanting to see a girl in a bikini, talk about sex and STDs, some immodesty (little shorts worn by a teen girl), bullying (lots of name calling such as prostitute, whore, slut, skank), deceit, someone tries to OD on pills (suicide is talked about), language: “b” word, misuse of word hell, small “a” word

The Lone Ranger 2013 (w/ Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, Tom Wilkenson, Helena Bonham Carter, William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson) – 3 stars - This is based off of the 1950′s western hit TV show (which I have in fact seen a few episodes of but not in a very long time. . I played the board game more). The movie’s story is told by Tonto, a Comanche who is very old and comes across a child dressed as the Lone Ranger. John is a lawman who is going to meet up with his Texas Ranger brother Dan who is also married to John’s former girlfriend. When working towards the recapture of an outlaw, John has to decide how to handle the situation, with the help of Tonto, whom he continually comes in contact with. The movie was way too violent and at times too disturbing. I think it should be rated PG-13 instead of PG considering the content in it, really. Definitely this is not a movie young children should see. The plot was pretty well developed for the most part to build up a back story of who Tonto was as a child (this whole movie basically has to deal with his past) and to express how John became the Lone Ranger. There were some funny parts in it. I guess in a way though, it was as if Jack Sparrow put on some face paint though. Either way, The idea of how they opened the movie of how Tonto shows up as an old man was a little strange and I still don’t understand that part of the story at all, but for the most part it was okay. There were some slow boring parts. I think the movie was a little too long and I am still trying to figure out a portion of the timeline and how things went together.
content: shooting/killing (no blood shown, but holes are seen), ax throwing, attempt of bank and train robbery, drinking alcohol, peeing into a bucket, body shown dropping after strangling (strangling not shown though), people being tortured by being held up by outlaws, man thrown into windows, man run over by horses., misuse of the word “hell” 6x, stabbing, blood shown being spit out of a mouth and on a hand, understanding that someone likes tasting human flesh/blood, talk about spirits, talk about God, person’s head dragged through horse manure, a man slaps another man across the face, immodesty shown (women in corsets and midriffs seen – women in a brothel being grabbed at the waist), men’s chests seen, name calling against a Native American Indian, a man gets scalped (no gore, but you know it is happening), a man hits another in the face multiple times with a gun’s butt, a man slaps a child, a woman spits on a man, people shot by arrows, machine gun murders, deceit, a couple innuendos a woman lifts her skirt high on her leg, a man pushes a woman in a dangerous situation, kissing, flirting, talk about impregnating a woman

The Long Walk Home 1990 (/w Whoopie Goldberg, Sissy Spacek, Dwight Schultz, Ving Rhames) – 3 stars - In the 1950s there was the bus boycott by people of color in the south in Montgomery, AL. Odessa is a maid for a white family. When the boycott starts, she walks 9 miles to get to work, with her feet in terrible pain. When the mother/wife of the family Odessa works for realizes this, she is willing to drive Odessa to and from work, but this causes a stir in her own household and with her friends. At first this story was so-so and a bit slow but the feeling of hatred towards African American people was portrayed so true that it was very sad and hard to watch. The emotion and love shown to Odessa was very nice. I enjoyed this movie and thought it was well done, but some of the acting wasn’t convincing at times by the lead roles. It wasn’t bad though at all and perhaps it deserves a better rating even. . .but it wasn’t mind blowing or a film I might want to see again, which is why I gave it three stars.
content: much racism displayed (and the “n” word is thrown around constantly), people stalking someone because of their skin color, people beating up on others because of their skin color, people harassed for being in places that they aren’t “allowed” to be because of their skin color, A woman is slapped by a man, some language (“s” word, “d” word)

Geek Charming 2011 (w/ Sarah Hyland, Matt Prokop, Jordan Nichols, Vanessa Morgan, Lili Simmons, Sasha Pieterse) – 3.25 stars - I’ve resorted to watching newer Disney movies (I used to just watch the old ones from the 1960′s and 1970′s). This is about a girl who is popular in school and wants to win “Blossom Queen.” A guy who is a “geek” who is into video film recording and such decides to ask the most popular girl in school if he could film her for a documentary he was making to enter a film festival. He needs to dig and learn what is really behind the girl of Dylan Schoenfield. This is really cute actually. It shows that we need to always try to be ourselves and not be fake for the sake of popularity. There is a bit of a love story too. I cried. . .What’s wrong with me? I honestly felt like I was watching a very clean teen 1980′s movie, as odd as that sounds (and I’m a sucker for 80s teen movies). It doesn’t help that the main characters were already boyfriend and girlfriend when cast as the leads (and as far as I know they’ve been together about four to five years now). It has its cheeseball moments, but I like it!!! Aw!
content: guys seen without shirts on, making fun of people (“Geek” and “Diva” and such), some immodesty (girls wearing strapless dresses), kissing