Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade(2003)

Fans of the Recess gang can follow along as the kids graduate from the fourth grade to the fifth, all while learning about friendship and growing up.

Recess: Taking The Fifth Grade is a movie containing three interconnected stories, starring the cast of one of the greatest animated series of all time. The common thread being friendship, humility, and being a kid in a world where adults have long forgotten how.

In Story One:

The kids come back to school as fifth graders, excited to take on the world.
Much to their dismay, they discover that for some odd reason, The Board of Education has decided that irrational changes were necessary and those changes included removing their favorite teacher, replacing their lockers with motivational posters, replacing their lunch with "nutritious paste" and heartbreakingly, ending recess.

Fed up with the bullshit, T.J. decides he will take no more and barricades himself in his room, declaring that he will no longer go to school out of protest of the changes. His protest soon gains traction with the rest of the school and eventually the adults come to their senses and see the error of their ways.

In Story Two:

Now playground heroes, T.J. and the gang are requested to meet with King Fred, the new Big Chief, who inducts  them into the super secret fifth and sixth grade club, a place where ALL of the fifth and sixth graders can relax and shit on the stupid kids that are younger than them. 

Finally feeling accepted, they nearly lose Gus and Mikey to gluttony, temptation and ignorance, but TJ, Gretchen, Vince and Spinelli manage to snap them out of it by reminding them they are good people, who are in danger of losing their way.

In Story Three:

It's Halloween, and Spinelli, who is usually the biggest Halloween nut, suddenly feels that she's too old for Halloween, and her cynicism begins to ruin it for the gang. When she gets her spirit back, she sets out to right her wrongs and prove that you're never too old for Halloween

Recess was a great show. I think it cracks my top ten, definitely top 20 at least. But one thing bugs me about this film, maybe it's because I'm watching it now, but the voices don't sound the same. Like something feels/sounds off. It's not a huge deal, but still, it's distracting.

Violence? No
Explosions? No
Nudity? No

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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)

Picking up where the first film ended, Flynt has saved the town and has finally earned the respect of his peers. But what he seeks now is the respect of,  xxx, master inventor and the guy who made flynt into who he is today.

Volunteering to clean up the town, xxx, offers Flynn a job and relocates the town's entire population. After running into trouble with the island, he seeks Flynn's help in locating the machine that started it all. Once flynt returns to the island, he finds that although the food has evolved into foodimals, they aren't the only threat to his existence.

If you watched and enjoyed the first Cloudy film, you'll enjoy this one as well. It's more or less the same, but with "higher stakes," and foodimals within a Jurassic Park vibe. All of the familiar characters return and we're introduced to xxx, who's portrayed as a Steve Jobs' type inventor but is in reality a corporate villain.

Kinda like Steve Jobs actually...

Anyway, watch it.

 

Violence? No
Explosions? Yes
Nudity? No

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2013)

The third installment of the Wimpy Kid series. Have enjoyed the first two. Don't think they can keep it entertaining forever....

It's summertime and Greg and the gang are headed to the 8th grade in the fall. Greg has plans to make the most of his summer by playing video games and getting closer to Holly. His father on the other hand thinks he should be doing active sports and pretty much forbids him from playing any games. However, fortune smiles on Greg when he discovers that Rowley has a membership to a prestigious country club and Holly is also a member.  There, he makes plans to salvage his summer, even going so far as to lie to his parents about working there.

As always in these scenarios, the parents find out the truth and after the most recent turn at disappointing him, he faces the threat of being sent off to Spag Union, a disciplinary boarding school. A Wilderness Scouts retreat with his father is Greg's final chance to save himself and change his father's mind.

Stray Quotage:

"Fregly claims to wear a special cologne, but everyone knows he just never washes."

"In case we don't make it, there's something I must tell you, "one time I went to the bathroom without washing my hands.
One time I used your toothbrush to get dog poop off my shoe.
Wait, what?"

The Wimpy Kid movies are always good for a laugh. Especially that Chirag Gupta. [Man, that little dude is hilarious.] But the one thing I've taken away from these films is that  no one is really aging but the dude that plays Greg. He's noticeably getting older and the weird thing is, Roderick, who's supposed to be the oldest sibling, isn't. Man, it must suck to hit puberty on film. I bet that money is right though.

Violence? No
Explosions? Yes
Nudity? No

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Fun Size (2012)

When feisty teenager Wren losses her offbeat kid brother on Halloween, she joins forces with her best buds to find him during one crazy night.

Fun Size has been on my radar since I learned that it featured Jane Levy. She's my new favorite. It should be known that this is a Disney movie and I've set my phasers to "family."

Wren Desantis is a senior in high school with dreams of attending NYU in the fall. She gets invited to the hottest Halloween party by the hottest guy in school. Everything is going perfectly until her mom, in the midst of a midlife crisis, sticks her with her bratty brother Albert, who is a seriously destructive kid with no boundaries. 

Long story short, she loses him during the night and spends the entire night looking for him while he has a baby's day out type of adventure. Which includes him getting revenge on a bully who has stolen his candy. Their mother comes to her senses and they each regroup in time to have a heart warming family moment before the end of the night and Wren finds love.

Fun Size is like Baby's day out + Adventures in Babysitting. It's an okay family movie. Wasn't expecting a home run and I was only watching it for Jane Levy anyway. Thomas Cub from Project X was a pleasant surprise though. 

Line of the Film:

Why do you say his name like that?
         Because it's either Kevin or Steven. Pick one because Keevan doesn't exist!

Haha. Classic Keevan.

Violence? No
Explosions? Shit bomb
Nudity? No

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