Aladdin Movie Review

Tania Says:
Oh Aladdin. I use to love you and your movie. Maybe I have seen you too much – maybe we needed more space. Maybe it is because I saw a dear friend in a magical stage version of your little tale and that was more entertaining. Maybe I am just cynical and it isn’t you at all but it’s me.

Okay – we watched Aladdin and I was honestly a little bored. I liked the songs and stuff but I have never realized how slow it is until the Genie shows up AND usually I hate Robin Williams. I mean – I really think he is on crack. I do enjoy some of his dramatical work but his crazy improve, look at me stuff isn’t funny to me. Yet, I found the movie improved when he showed up – go figure! And I actually think Gilbert Godfrey as Iago has some entertaining moments. Maybe the magic of this film is that they can take annoying actors and make them mildly funny. Maybe it is because we don’t have to actually look at said annoying actors and that makes them funny. Either way, it is an unusual phenomenon and one I would like to explore further. Maybe a Disney cartoon is the way to make Dr. Phil and the little kid from Heros less annoying.

Anyway – the movie is fine I guess. I am probably selling it short because of the millions of times I watched it back in the day and the millions of times I popped the cassette tape of the soundtrack into the car “stereo” and listened to the music. The movie is a welcome addition to any household with children. I guess it teaches you to be yourself and all that stuff.

Josh says:
Well, after seeing the stage version at the Children's Theatre, I was expecting Jasmine to be....well......hotter. I guess that's one of the downsides to movie adaptations of Musicals (it was a musical first...right?), it's so hard to find the right talent in Hollywood.

I actually didn't hate this movie as much as I thought I would. Understand though, that this means that I actually sat through the entire thing with only occasional, fleeting thoughts of suicide.

It's not so much that Jasmine wasn't the hotty I was hoping for (she actually ended up looking really cartoony for some reason?). It's not just that I find Robin Williams to be one of the most annoying human beings on the planet (sickeningly, he's one of the most enjoyable things about this movie). It's not even that Gilbert Gottfried is one of a select few that stand ahead of Robin Williams in the quest for "America's Most Annoying Celebrity" (why isn't this on Fox?). It's more simply just because I HATE MUSICALS AND I HATE DISNEY CARTOON MOVIES!!!!!!!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I like a good cartoon. You really can't argue with the greatness of The Simpsons or Family Guy, I even like some less adult, more old school stuff. Animaniacs? Love it. Pinky & The Brain? Come on now. I just think that Disney has been robbing the American public blind for a long time now by marketing trash to little kids in such a way that makes it hard for them, nigh, impossible for them to resist.

Save your kids, save yourself and save the art of movie making. Stop propelling movies like this to the top of the box office charts year after year.

Kramer vs Kramer Review

Tania Says:
This movie won Best Picture in 1979 and I can completely understand why. It is definitely a product of its time and of the changing world we were living in in 1979 (well – maybe I hadn’t been living in the world that long but from what I know about the time – it seems a good representation.)

Dustin Hoffman (who rules!) is an overworked father spending many hours at the office to bring home the bacon (his words, not mine). Meryl Streep is the oppressed wife whose only identity is that of a stay at home mom taking care of the kid and the house. Dusty comes home one day and is shocked to find out that Meryl is leaving and NOT taking the kid and poof – she is gone.

The story is then about Dustin turning into a real father and realizing the most important thing in the world is to take care of the kid. Of course, Meryl comes back and wants the kid and a courtroom battle ensues. It sounds dull in today’s society and it is a little slow but I can imagine that at the time a single father and a mother running off to “find herself” was something new and something that was starting to really happen in the world. The performances are certainly enough to keep the story interesting – especially Hoffman who has an amazing transformation over the course of the film which is pretty cool to watch. The kid (Justin Henry) does a fantastic job for a 6 year old. He and Hoffman share a real connection that grows over time.

Meryl Streep actually drove me crazy – well not her, but her character. I thought she was whiney and I got really frustrated when she was all wishy-washy and like, “I don’t want my kid, wait, now I want my kid.” Geez woman! Make up your mind – it’s a kid not a hamster! Now, I am not a mom but I can’t imagine a mom (or a dad really) just up and leaving their kid. And then I really can’t see why that mom should have any opportunity to even try to get the kid she abandoned back. Anyway – I am sure that is the reaction I was suppose to have and they got it out of me so I guess that was a victory.

I did like the movie though and was glad I watched it just for the Hoff alone!

Josh Says:
Not sure what to say (again) about this one. I liked it. I mean, it's a classic and it's classic for a reason, well, two reasons. Hoffman & Streep, but that's probably not news.

I guess the one thing that bugged me was the whole court case. It seemed that the Hoff either had an extremely bad lawyer, the Judge was a moron or (and most likely) both. I mean the whole case is about who is a better parent or whatever so to 'prove' that he's a bad parent, they show that he is screwing up at work over and over again BECAUSE HE MAKES THE KID A PRIORITY and the judge and Hoff's lawyers seem to be like 'oh yeah, good point, he's a bad worker" or whatever. COME ON.

The whole scene just seemed a bit to absurd to me.

I guess though that the idea is that the legal system and perhaps society as a whole are so predisposed to the concept of Mother's rights that even the most inane argument to that affect will be accepted so as to ultimately allow 'justice' to prevail and to reunite the Mom (no matter how flawed) with the kid.

The more I think about it, if that's the tone and premise of the movie, it seems at least somewhat likely that the writer was a mysoginist but that's probably going a few too many layers deep for our one reader (thanks mom!!!).

Oh yeah, one last thing. Though I think this movie was good, possibly even very good, I am appalled at the injustice perpetrated against the rightful Best Picture of 1979. Apocolypse Now was a far more revolutionary, ground breaking movie than this and easily should have prevailed.

*Edit: also - this movie doesn't have nearly enough Affleck. In fact, it gets a big ZERO Affleck points.