What to Watch on Rainy Days in Your PJs (movie ideas)

We've been watching movies for so long it's getting hard to find new ones to watch, it seems. Thankfully  Fatso keep us supplied so when the school holidays come around, and it's a long wet winter week, we can slob about in our PJs and watch DVDs by the fire.

Here a few of the movies we've been watching (and enjoying) in our PJs lately...

RATING GUIDE:

***** Outstanding, Highly recommended

**** Very good, enjoyable, Recommended.

*** OK, decent, but not memorable

** Barely OK, could do better.

* A bomb. Avoid at all costs.

"Little Kid Watchability" is based on children aged 3-6 years. Movies with PG are more suited to older, not-so-sensitive children. Some (M) movies may be suitable for older children if they are clean (no bad language or sexual content) and just contain fight scenes, e.g. Amazing Spiderman, The Hobbit etc. I personally find that when you mute the sound (the forboding music) scenes lose their scariness, so we hit mute when the tension builds too high. Having older children as well as a younger one sometimes we have to push the boat out a little to find something everyone can enjoy. Parental judgement and guidance is always required!

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THE LEGO MOVIE (PG) *****

We have watched this one over and over these holidays. It's a new release and so is a welcome addition to our holiday viewing. This movie was an instant favourite when we first saw it at the cinema; the humour and storyline cleverness is AWESOME. In fact "everything is awesome" about this movie. There is some great voice talent (including Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman) and the message which comes through the story is also fab. It's not just funny, it's also MEANINGFUL. "You are special" "You can do amazing things if you believe you can". I love this movie. the kids love this movie. We'll be watching this one again and again during these rainy school holidays I'm sure.

LITTLE KID WATCHABILITY: This is a (PG) but only the most sensitive kids would find anything worrisome about it. It's LEGO after all.
SCARY BITS: Very sensitive littlies might get upset when Emmett is captured by Lord Business?!
GROWNUP WATCHABILITY: Very watchable, very enjoyable, even on repeat.

THE HOBBIT: DESOLATION OF SMAUG (M) ****

We took Dash (age 11.5) to watch this at the cinema when it came out and it was fabulous. When Fatso sent the DVD to us for the holidays we knew where the scary bits were so we played film editor and hit "mute" or "Fast Forward" in the darker bits when we watched it with the other kids. This movie is a bit darker than the first one, but still very clean (no bad language or sexual content) and with a fast trigger finger, it was made suitable for a whole-family movie night. Everyone enjoyed this movie and it has been watched a few times now these holidays. We eagerly await the final instalment at Christmas time!

LITTLE KID WATCHABILITY: Not recommended for younger kids; but if you have a little brother and a fast trigger finger on the remote, you can easily "edit" this movie for the whole family.
SCARY BITS: Lots of fight scenes, a few chase scenes, there's a pretty wicked dragon and the orcs are of course very ugly. You know your kids and whether this would disturb them... or not. (The dragon is not scary, just cool, IMHO)
GROWNUP WATCHABILITY: This grown-up has watched it (and enjoyed it) several times. But then I'm a LOTR/Hobbit fan from way back and so are our kids. Each to their own.

THOR (M) ***

The Marvel movies (with the exception of Iron Man who is a bit of a womaniser) are all very clean in terms of language and sexual content. We've watched and enjoyed the Avengers so I thought we'd give "Thor" a go and it was... fine. What you'd expect from a superhero movie, action, fighting, goodies and baddies; no sex, no swearing just lots of non-gory fighting. This movie is the back story of Thor and how he came to earth, his conflict with his brother Loki and how he became worthy of his hammer. I've given it a three stars because we enjoyed it, it's a decent watch, but nothing to rave about. If you're like us and running out of ideas for movies to watch with your kids cos you've seen so many over the years... you could give this one a go.

LITTLE KID WATCHABILITY: Boys would love this movie. Lots of action. Best for school age. Don't show this to your preschooler!
SCARY BITS: The "Ice Giants" (an alien race) are pretty weird-looking; there's a fight between "the destroyer" and Thor near the end which is pretty full on and a whole town gets smashed to bits. But not scary for kids who like fight scenes.
GROWNUP WATCHABILITY:  Ahhh it's fine. No complaints here. I'm gonna order number two... and Captain America as well, just for fun. These movies are clean and action packed after all.

 SOME MORE OF OUR MOVIE REVIEWS 

Arthur and the Invisibles

Awesome Animal Movies

Bedtime Stories

Despicable Me vs. Megamind

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Family Movie faves: Oldies but Goodies

Gulliver's Travels

How to Train Your Dragon

Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy

Mirror Mirror

Movie Duds to Avoid

Movie Marathon: 80's Classics

Mr Popper's Penguins

Peter Pan

Rio

Rise of the Guardians

Space Jam

Tangled

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl

The Adventures of Tintin

The Amazing Spiderman

The Avengers

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey

The Lorax

The Muppets

The Pacifier

The Princess Bride

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

The Zookeeper

Shrek Movie Marathon

Star Wars Movies (Episodes I-VI)

Titanic

Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Narnia III)

Wreck-It Ralph

(For more movie reviews and theme night ideas, click the TV)

If you haven't tried Fatso Online DVD rental before, check out my post about why I love it. 

Then click the box above and use the magic code FAMILY45 to get a Month's Free Trial 

on the Super Plan (worth $28.99).

What are your favourite family movies? We're desperate for some more recommendations...

Enjoy the holidays!

♥

Family Movies: Latest Picks by the Super-Cool-Fab Review Team

Movie Nights are back, and about time too. We love to share our ideas for family movie nights, with Movie reviews, fun theme night ideas and a month of FREE DVDs courtesy of our sponsor, Fatso (see below for details).

Sometimes to mix things up the kids take turns "hosting" a movie night in their bedrooms. We have a TV and DVD player on a wheeled cabinet which we can roll into the host's bedroom. Miss fab particularly loves to play hostess; she makes up her trundle bed and invites her brothers for a sleepover. There's usually a ticket box office at the door... (no stamp, no entry). A few times Miss Fab and I have had our own private girlie movie night in her room, while the boys watched boy movies with their dad in the lounge. And more recently Scrag has begged to play host, and invited the older kids for a sleepover on his bunk beds.

Here's some of what we've been watching...

Dash. B. Cool: I like lots of action and fighting in movies, and I love battle scenes, so some of my favourite movies lately have been The Avengers, Man of Steel, The Amazing SpiderMan and other ones like that. The Pink Panther movie was really funny, we watched the the other night and it was crack up. I thought my mum might of picked a lame one but it was actually really good. I also like The Hobbit and "Lord of the Rings" movies - there's a good story and lots of action on those movies so they are all good with me. My worst movie ever is probably Hop - It's so lame! And the old Spiderman movies - the guy who plays Spiderman is also lame. I hate lame movies.

DASH B COOL's coolest movie of all time: Anything with lots of action

Foxy Fab: These days I like funny family movies but nothing too babyish. (I gave away all my Barbie DVDs to some little kids) but I still like princess movies, if they are cool. Like I enjoy watching Princess Diaries, Princess Protection Programme, What a Girl Wants, Monte Carlo and other movies like that. I still love Enchanted cos it's so funny. A movie has to make you laugh. My mum tries to get me to like some of her favourite old movies like Emma and boring ones like that but I just tell her, Mum that's so lame. I do like having girlie movie nights with my mum but as long as I get to pick the movie! I'd rather watch Mr Bean or Johnny English cos those movies are really funny!

FOXY FAB's favourite girlie movie of all time: PRINCESS DIARIES 1&2

Super Scrag: I like super hero movies a lot. My favourite one is still The Amazing SpiderMan, and spiderman is my favourite super hero. I watched Man of Steel and it was OK but it was really loud, and I think Spiderman is way awesomer than Superman. I wish my mum would let me watch MARVEL on TV but she says I'm still too little. Other movies I like a lot are the Lego ninjago DVDs. I always ask my mum to get me ninjago DVDs from Fatso. I like ninjago, I think I would be a good ninja. I am good at Cardjitsu on Club Penguin. My worst kind of movies are the ones with lots of talking: BOOORING! I like Mr Bean's Holiday cos there was hardly any talking but he did heaps of dumb stuff which was really really funny. Mr Bean movies are very funny, and I like them a lot even though he's not a superhero.

SUPERSCRAG favourite movie of all time: THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN

What have you been watching lately?

OUR SUPER-COOL-FAB REVIEW TEAM...

If you haven't tried Fatso Online DVD rental before, check out my post about why I love it. Then click the box above and use the magic code FAMILY45 to get a Month's Free Trial on the Super Plan (worth $28.99).

Christmas Movie nights: Elf

One of the best ways to get into the Christmas mood is to watch Christmas Movies. Although we enjoy re-watching our favourites each year, I'm always on the hunt for new Christmas movies to watch so I have no idea how "Elf" had managed to remain unwatched by us until now.

In the past few weeks I'd seen a number of FaceBook statuses which said something like "can't wait to snuggle up by the fire and watch my favourite Christmas movie, Elf"...
Based on these random recommendations (and since we'd never seen Elf before and wanted to watch something new) I  ordered Elf from Fatso and we snuggled down to watch it last Friday night.

Starring the very silly Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, this movie has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. Even Mr G (who is a very picky movie-viewer and has been known to walk out of sub-par movies on a regular basis) enjoyed this one tremendously.

What is great about Elf is that it doesn't take itself seriously at all. Everything seems just a little bit tongue in cheek, and Buddy the Elf is so clumsily naive and daft that you can't help but snort at his stupidity.

Buddy is not a real Elf, but is a human who crawled into Santa's sack one Christmas when he was just a baby. He's big and clumsy and is the only one at the North Pole who has no idea that he isn't really an elf at all. When he discovers his true identity, Buddy sets off for New York (where else?) to find his dad. Of course everyone in the real world thinks he's a total nut job, which makes for some pretty funny viewing and some of those LOL moments.

If you have never watched this one (perhaps thinking, as I did, that it was just another lame cheesey American Christmas flick) we recommend giving it a go. We were pleasantly surprised by Elf and have now added it to our list of Christmas favourites.

Starring Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, James Cann and Ed Asner (2003); Rated [PG]

MORE FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS MOVIES

Our Top Ten Christmas Movie List
Arthur Christmas
The Polar Express
The Santa Clause Movies
It's a Wonderful Life
Rise of the Guardians

Christmas Movie Nights - The Santa Clause Movies

One of the best ways to get into the Christmas mood is to watch Christmas Movies. This year the kids requested a Christmas Movie Marathon Family Sleepover in the lounge to kick things off.
The movies they requested? The Santa Clause 1, 2 & 3, back to back.

Scrag in particular loves these movies, and has been watching them endlessly since Fatso sent them to us, long before our Movie Marathon. I have to admit that cheesey as they are, I rather enjoy them. Especially the first (original) one, made back in 1994.

For our Christmas Movie Marathon Sleepover we dragged in mattresses, hung Christmas bunting, strung Christmas lights and snuggled down together to watch Scrag's favourite Christmas movies (he loves to play Santa Claus like Charlie in the movie)

Tim Allen stars as Scott Calvin, a divorced dad, who has his son Charlie to stay on Christmas Eve. Charlie is woken by a clatter on the roof, and Scott goes out to investigate... only to startle Santa Claus, who trips and falls off the roof. Santa disappears leaving only his suit; a card in the pocket instructs: If something should happen to me, put on The Suit. The Reindeer will know what to do.

In doing so Scott unknowingly becomes subject to "The Santa Clause" - he is now the new Santa.
Of course Scott is a cynical adult who stopped believing in Santa long ago. Even after he finds himself at the North Pole talking to an elf named Judy, sipping hot cocoa, he still doesn't believe what he is seeing.
Judy tells him: "But Santa you've got it all wrong. Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing!"
What follows is a mix of comedy and heartbreak as Scott finds himself turning into Santa in spite of himself.

The second movie was made ten years later, when little Charlie is all grown up. Santa discovers a "Missus Clause" - he has to get married or cease to be Santa. In the third Movie Jack Frost is jealous of all the attention Santa gets and finds a way to trick Santa into invoking "the Escape Clause" so he can take his place and remake Christmas in his own image.

We've never watched all three back-to-back like that, but I have to say it was a lot of fun, and set the scene for the start of Christmas.

MORE FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS MOVIES

Our Top Ten Christmas Movie List
Arthur Christmas
The Polar Express
Elf
It's a Wonderful Life
Rise of the Guardians

Family Movie Night: Aliens in the Attic

Each weekend we share our ideas for family movie nights, with Movie reviews, fun theme night ideas and a month of FREE DVDs courtesy of our sponsor, Fatso (see below for details).

Our Super-Cool-Fab Review Team...

Our crack team of expert Movie Reviewers are this week reviewing Aliens in the Attic.

This one is a bit of an oldie. But if you haven't seen it and you have a reasonably wide spread of ages in your family that you need to cater for, you might also find it's a goodie.
In our family it's actually a classic, which you may think is a bit sad, but for us, "a classic" is one of those movies you don't mind watching again and again. Where the funny bits are still funny when you're watching it for the seventh time. And where everyone doesn't mind the reruns.

It's silly. It's goofy. It's light. You can't take it seriously, yet somehow Aliens in the Attic remains at the top of our "don't mind watching again" list. Go figure.

This movie has a bit of everything. Teen girl angst and a slappable boyfriend. A nerdy older brother who wants to be cool. A family holiday. A cute little sister, cousins, weird uncles, a ninja-kicking nana... and aliens. In the Attic.

 

I should make mention of "Ricky". Oh yeah. Almost all the laughs are centred on him. He's the one you want to slap, and who at the beginning of the movie, you worry might make this movie less-than-PG. (He is the teen sister's boyfriend, who is lying about being in high school. The brother knows he's a loser and is trying to get his sister to see that.) Don't worry. Ricky gets what's coming his way. And the geeky older brother learns the value of family. And the siblings who once fought like cats and dogs, learn to get along and help each other defend the planet. Oh and the aliens? They're pretty harmless.

Parents Guide:  This is rated [PG], mainly because of the aliens (who grow large at the end of the movie and who may scare little ones when they are taller than house), some gratuitous (funny, slapstick) violence and a bit of kissing and bikini wearing very early on. This doesn't last long at all and is interrupted by the nerdy brother with a paintball gun. He's doing his bit to defend his sister's honour from Ricky, the creep. Gosh am I making this sound worse than it is? It's a very clean movie. The kids say "heck" instead of "hell".

For a more detailed parental breakdown of the movie, visit IMDB.

Here's what our experts have to say about Aliens in the Attic.

Dash. B. Cool: "Aliens in the Attic is a cool movie. it's funny, really funny. Especially when Ricky is being remote controlled and when he fights the grandma. "It's the Po-Po, be cool!" - now I have a stuffed toy called Po-Po. I like that there's lots of action and lots of laughs. Kids my age will like this movie."

Dash scores this movie's "coolness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Foxy Fab: "Hahahaha, I love it. I love Ricky. I love how they get him back. It's so funny. And Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale)is in this movie but she's not mean. The Aliens are funny too. It's not a scary movie. It's just funny."

Foxy rates this movie's "fabness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Super Scrag: "I like this movie. I like the Ricky bits the best. It's funny for me and it's not scary for me either. Really little kids might be scared of the aliens but I'm not. It's a funny movie."

SuperScrag scores this movie's "super-ness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

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What are your favourite family movies? Send me an email or leave me a comment with your suggestions so we can check it out and feature it here.


If you haven't tried Fatso Online DVD rental before, check out my post about why I love it. Then click the box above and use the magic code FAMILY45 to get a Month's Free Trial on the Super Plan (worth $28.99).

Have a great Weekend!
♥

Family Movie Night: Wreck-It Ralph

Every Saturday we will be sharing with you our ideas for family movie nights. Movie reviews and fun theme night ideas.

Our Super-Cool-Fab Review Team...

Our crack team of expert Movie Reviewers are this week reviewing Wreck-It Ralph.

When Wreck-it Ralph turned up in our Fatso packet this week the kids all went YAY! Wreck-It Ralph! Secretly, I did too. This is one of those kids movies that is clever enough that  grown ups really don't mind watching it at all.
I shouldn't have been surprised that John Lasseter - who is also the creator of Toy Story - had a hand in this one too.
Like Toy Story, this movie is original, funny and clever, with witty dialogue and plenty of tongue in cheek. It is populated by characters who are creatures from video games, and like the Toy Story characters, they think and act like game characters, not humans. Their concerns and worries and struggles are all consistent with being characters in video games. The story has no gaps in logic, the characterisation is superb and the pace is brilliant.
Wreck-It Ralph is action packed and full of laughs, but also there's some deeper truths that can be drawn and tucked away to illustrate a truth in parent-child chats (especially the one where Venellope who thinks herself a glitch, a mistake, discovers that all along she has been deceived and is in fact the star of the game; the one where Ralph learns that his job doesn't define him as a bad guy; he may be "the bad guy" but he's not a BAD GUY.)

It should say a lot that first thing this morning, our tween movie expert "Dash B. Cool" creaked open our bedroom door and whispered, "Can we watch Wreck-It Ralph again in the lounge...?"

It really is one of those movies you can watch over and over...

[source]

Movie Plot Summary: Wreck-It Ralph is the bad guy in his 30 year old arcade game. When the arcade closes each night he goes back to the dump where he lives, alone. His fellow gamesters think that because he is "the bad guy", he is also a bad guy. He is tired of being lonely and sets out to try and prove to people he can be a hero too. He gets into a neighbouring action video game to try and win the "hero's medal", accidentally setting off a chain of events which could be disastrous for every game in the arcade (a virus gets loose thanks to him; he is Wreck-it Ralph after all). In the mess of his crash landing in the game, Sugar Rush, he loses his medal to a "glitch" (Venellope) who is also trying to escape exclusion and isolation by entering a race using the medal as the entry fee. Can Ralph get his medal back and prove he's not really a bad guy? Will Venellope ever get to race and prove she's not just a mistake, a glitch? Will the virus bugs destroy the whole arcade or can Ralph fix something for once?

Ahhh, it might sound confusing, but just watch it. Really. It all makes sense when you're watching it and is loads of fun, for kids and grownups alike.

RATED [PG] but is really more of a [G]. Very sensitive of children might be a little scared by the scenes in the Soldier video game and when the virus gets lose in Sugar Rush.

Here's what our experts have to say about Wreck-It Ralph.

Dash. B. Cool: "Wreck-It Ralph is cool. I like it a lot. It makes me laugh and it has a cool story. I also think it's clever. This is a very cool movie for everyone. Everyone should watch this movie."

Dash scores this movie's "coolness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Foxy Fab: "My favourite bit is when the glitch asks: Are you a HOBO??? It's funny. This is a funny movie. I like it a lot cos it makes me laugh and it's not boring at all."

Foxy rates this movie's "fabness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Super Scrag: "THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE I HAVE SEEN IN AAAAAGES! I love Wreck-it Ralph. It it the coolest movie ever."

SuperScrag scores this movie's "super-ness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

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All together we wholeheartedly recommend this movie to you for all but the very youngest and most sensitive children. Try it. You will LOVE it!

What are your favourite family movies? Send me an email or leave me a comment with your suggestions so we can check it out and feature it here.

Have a great Weekend!
♥

Family Movie Night: The Avengers (with DIY Super Heroes)

Every Saturday we will be sharing with you our ideas for family movie nights. Movie reviews and fun theme night ideas.

Our Super-Cool-Fab Review Team...

Our crack team of expert Movie Reviewers are this week reviewing The Avengers.

[IMDB]

Hands up who likes Super Heroes? OK, well I can usually take them or leave them but my kids LOVE them. So when I spotted The Avengers available with a Get Now (GN) symbol while browsing Fatso this week, I thought I'd give it a go.
Since I am not a major comic book fan either I can't give a geeky exposition on how well the characters and villains were depicted, I can only tell you whether this was a decent watch for a family movie night and whether it held  the kids attention without making the grownups cry tears of boredom. All round? Not bad.
Lots of action and drama and fight scenes; plenty of villains trying to take over the world and heroes attempting against the odds to stop them. The usual stuff. But rather classy in its way. My personal fave hero is IronMan (he's rather snarky and has the coolest flying suit), but I also rather liked the Black Widow a.k.a. Scarlett Johannson. There's nothing sleezy or coquettish about her portrayal, in fact this is a very clean movie. The reason it's PG13 (I'm guessing) is because of the invasion of ugly aliens and all the fighting. Any inuendos certainlyOh and in one scene Black Widow is slapped while under interrogation and I reached for the remote... but not to worry, Scarlett taught those Russian nasties a lesson. She is awesome.

There aren't really any surprises, it's pretty slick and formulaic "good vs. evil"... but I have definitely seen worse.

[Source]

Movie Plot Summary: There's a powerful cube called a Tesseract that everyone is trying to get their hands on, including Thor's estranged half brother Loki (the plotter) and his allies, the Universes' ugliest aliens. Thor is trying to stop Loki, and so is SHIELD, who have called in The Avengers to help find the Tesseract before Loki can use it to take over earth. Quite a lot of time is spent establishing who is mad at whom etc. (The beginning is a little hard to follow if you don't speak ScienceGeek or ComicBook, so you just have to hope that if you keep watching it will all come clear...)
The Avengers are a motley crew of rejects a.k.a. superheroes, comprised of IronMan, the Black Widow, Captain America, Hulk and Hawkeye, with help from out-of-towner, Thor. They have to figure out a way of becoming a team, not just a collection of clever individuals if they have a chance of winning... blah blah blah. You know how it goes. Bad guys lose, good guys win in the end. But still, not bad. And makes for a fun theme night.

RATED [PG13] This isn't one for little kids - it's too complicated; primary age kids will love it though.



Here's what our experts have to say about The Avengers.

Dash. B. Cool: "This is a very cool action movie. It's a four star for me."

Dash scores this movie's "coolness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Foxy Fab: "I liked Captain America and also the Black Widow. The Black Widow is flexible and she's got good aim and Captain America saves people. I liked the fighting scene and the action."

Foxy rates this movie's "fabness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

Super Scrag: "I love it!!! I want to give it ten hearts! I love it because the good guys won. If the bad guys won I would give it two. I like it because it has super heroes."

SuperScrag scores this movie's "super-ness" as: ♥♥♥♥♥

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The Avengers: Super Theme Night Fun

We thought we'd add a bit of extra fun to our movie night by raiding the dressup box and coming up with our own super hero persona.

Let me introduce you to: SuperSoccer (super stinky feet, super strong kick); AquaGirl (can do amazing things with a glass of water); the Amazing SpiderBoy (has "strong webs" and is "really really strong")

And just because the parents have to lead by example we also have Mother Nature (who else?) and Kung Fu Geordie (super skilled at rarking up kids far and wide).

Photo Booth: String up a stripey sheet and snap away
Dinner: Pizza delivered super fast...

What are your favourite family movies? Send me an email or leave me a comment with your suggestions so we can check it out and feature it here.

Have a great Weekend!