The Keenan Family 411

Ga-Ga Over "The Guardians"!

The Keenan Crew celebrated the end of the school and work week with a trip to the movies! 

Nayaug Elementary School hosted a movie night at the theaters in Middletown, and to Cameron's delight, the featured movie was Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, which is based on a book series which Cammy finished reading several months ago.  In 3-D, no less!

The movie drew very mixed reviews from the Keenan's...

"The visual effects were stunning with very effective use of 3D, but the story was both overly-familiar and convoluted."   - Daddy

"I didn't know there would be that much owls!"  - Shane

"It was AWESOME!  My favorite part was the big battle at the end!"   - Cameron

"It was INCREDIBLE...AWESOME...and AWESOMER!"  - Owen

"Hold on, I don't get it.  What's a 'Ga'Hoole'?!"   - Mommy

Please note that Mommy slept through about 2/3 of the movie.

By the way, the film was perfectly appropriate for little guys.  Some intense battle scenes, but we're talking bird-battles with no gore.  The headquarters for "The Pure Ones" was a little creepy, but nothing over-the-top.

Family Movie Review: "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"

After two stellar performances by Cameron and Owen in their respective soccer games this morning, the Keenan crew decided to take a rare trip to the movies this afternoon to take in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian". 

We were hoping to offer five different perspectives on the film.  However, one of our critics fell asleep within the first 15 minutes, but there's absolutely no need to mention any names (Amy).  Then halfway through the film another of our critics had to be forcibly removed from the theater due to rowdiness.  Again, no need to humiliate anyone by providing names (Shane). 

So that only leaves us with three opinions.  Mike thought the film was excellent with a creative climactic battle at the end, but felt that the actor playing the film's namesake was disappointingly underwhelming (despite Amy's swooning over him).

Cameron proclaimed that it was the best movie he's ever seen.  His favorite character was Reepicheep, a swashbuckling mouse, because he was funny yet a master swordsman. 

Owen said the movie was "pretty good" and loved the part when the good guys snuck into the castle.  He was also quick to point out that there was one scary part.

Well, there you have it...a pretty comprehensive analysis of this feature film.  No need to consult any other reviews!

Owen & Mike Review "Alvin & the Chipmunks"

Owen and I went on a "date" this morning to see the new movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks.  We're taking a new approach with Owen by emphasizing rewards for good behavior (since punishing him for bad behavior barely seems to phase him) and he has been doing a great job of behaving the last couple of weeks.  So he had a special movie trip with Daddy...and a bag of popcorn was thrown into the deal, of course!

I was skeptical at first, but I actually ended up deciding that they did a very good job with putting the old Chipmunks in a movie.  Jason Lee did a great job and the computer graphics made the 'munks look very realistic.  Lots of social commentary on the exploitation of young entertainers and the triumph of good old-fashioned family values.  Not sure why it got a "PG" rating instead of "G".  It was pretty clean with the notable exception of a quick but surprisingly less-than-age-appropriate comment by one the 'munks early on (at least for a 5 year-old).  It was well over Owen's head, but see if you can catch the "little hairs" statement if you end up watching it .

Owen says he loved it and laughed often.  His favorite scene was at the very end of the movie where the evil talent agent was trying to get three replacement chipmunks (actually squirrels) to sing.  And I loved the fact that there were only three other people in the theater, seated far away.  So keeping quiet during the movie wasn't as important as it normally is.

So we gave it one big thumb and one little thumb up!