At the Movies

Last night, Ande and I had free passes to go to the sneak preview of "Paul Blart, Mall Cop" starring Kevin James.

For those of you who don't know the gist of the story - basically it's about a single dad (James) who lives with his mom & daughter. He desperately wants to be a State Police officer, but can't pass the test due to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). In the meantime, he works as a security officer at the mall.

There is an incident at the mall, and Security Officer Blart comes to the rescue.

It was pretty funny, and Kevin James' physical comedy was great. There were a few times when the movie had a lull, but overall it was not bad. This is one that the kids could watch as well, although some of the scenes might be a little intense for the younger crowd. There's very little (mild) swearing, no nudity (there is a scene where a woman's bra is exposed, but it's not in a sensual manner), no sex scenes, and the violence is mostly slapstick and all bloodless. There is one scene involving drinking, but it shows some negative consequences for the character's actions. You can learn more by clicking here.

Overall, I can say that I would watch this movie again, and probably still laugh. Ande says it's no "Dumb and Dumber", but it was okay. (Dumb and Dumber is the measuring stick by which Ande measures ALL comedy movies)


This is NOT a paid post.

What's Happening?

It's so hard to find a decent (new) movie to rent these days. The other night, I literally spent like an HOUR perusing the video store trying to find something to watch. Nearly all the movies in there that were targeted at people who are over the age of 10 are either full of sex, nudity, swearing, or all of the above. Very rarely do you find a movie that isn't like that. Well, I guess there are a few movies that I would watch, but they are mainly targeted towards women, and well, Ande just isn't into chick flicks. So I guess the issue is finding a movie that both men and women will enjoy, without having it littered with garbage.

Finally, I settled on a movie. it was rated R for violent and disturbing images, but I knew it didn't have nudity or sex in it, so I went ahead and rented it.

Have any of you seen "The Happening"? You know, that movie by M. Night Shyamalan (or M. Night SHAMA-LAMA-DING-DONG as Ande calls him).

Well, I was disappointed to say it was a shama-lama-ding-DUD. Fortunately, our local video store was running a special on the rental of new releases, and it only cost $.99 to rent, or I would have really been annoyed.

Now, I wasn't expecting some great work of art or anything, but this was just not a good movie. ***SPOILER ALERT***

The basic idea of the movie is that something begins causing people to inexplicably kill themselves. (Had I known that was the premise, I would have been MUCH less likely to rent it) There was quite a few scenes with violence, although it was fairly blood-less, and many incidents were more implied than shown on screen. Most of the time, after the first few scenes anyway, you see it coming before it happens.

In one scene, a kid says the "P" word, but I believe that is the only swearing. I could be wrong, though, so don't quote me on it. The whole premise of people killing themselves for no apparent reason does get (sort of) explained, but it's so far-fetched and ridiculous that it makes the remainder of the movie even more lame. I won't go into detail, just in case someone actually wants to see it.

This is definitely not a movie to watch with kids, should you decide to rent it. Overall, I would give this movie "two thumbs down".

Any suggestions for movies that men AND women would enjoy, that don't have a bunch of "junk" in them?