{"id":4874,"date":"2010-08-10T06:13:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T12:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=4874"},"modified":"2010-08-10T06:13:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-10T12:13:54","slug":"cary-vs-summer-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/10\/cary-vs-summer-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"Cary vs. Summer Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The summer season is known for having many blockbuster movies. And since summer is nearly over, I figured I\u2019d write a blog about all the summer movies I\u2019ve seen this year in theaters. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Clash of the Titans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, OK, some of these movies were shown more in the springtime, but I didn\u2019t see them until early summer. I just waited until they hit the dollar theater. Such was the case with the first couple of moves on this list (and I think you can get this movie on video now).<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed the original Clash of the Titans as a little bitty kid. In fact, I remember me and my friend getting paper plate shields and cardboard tube swords and \u2018playing Clash of the Titans\u2019 when we were bored of bashing each other in the head with our toy light sabers \u2018playing Star Wars.\u2019<\/p>\n

A lot of people complained about the new Clash of the Titans movie, but I didn\u2019t think it was THAT bad. I was entertained and that\u2019s all I expected out of the movie. I think audiences today are too picky about their movies. Yeah, the original was one of the better stop-motion movies of its time, but I never saw it as more than a dopey monster movie. And that\u2019s all the remake is, too. Just a fun and dopey monster movie you can just sit back and enjoy if you don\u2019t think too much. And personally, I think it\u2019s pretty amazing how far we\u2019ve come in special effects over the past 30 years.<\/p>\n

How to Train Your Dragon<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another spring movie I waited until early summer to see. Most DreamWorks CG animated films are mildly entertaining at best, but mostly forgettable. And sometimes they can be downright awful (like Monsters vs. Aliens or Shark Tale). But How to Train Your Dragon was one of DreamWorks better attempts. It had a neat Viking theme, which you don\u2019t see much in movies nowadays. And it did some things with the characters, especially near the end, that kind of surprised me. And of course, it had some cool dragons, too. I would recommend taking your kids to see this movie, but it\u2019s not in theaters anymore so you\u2019ll just have to enjoy it on video.<\/p>\n

Iron Man 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes the audience in the theater is more entertaining than the movie itself. Such was the case with Iron Man 2. When we went to go see it, there was a row of little boys sitting behind us. I think they were part of a birthday party or something. But they were all talking and cutting up during the previews. And you know what? That\u2019s perfectly OK because you really have to expect to have little boys acting up in a theater about to show a super hero movie. And aside from a couple of kicks to the back of my seat, they DID stay well behaved during the actual movie. But boy, during the previews and commercials beforehand, they really raised a ruckus!<\/p>\n

There was one car commercial before the movie that had rapping hamsters driving toasters and washing machines and such. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve probably seen it. During that whole commercial, the boys behind us were laughing constantly throughout the WHOLE thing. Sure the commercial was cute, but it wasn\u2019t THAT funny! And during the previews at every single explosion or car crash, they were all like, \u201cAwwwwww,\u201d \u201cWhoooaaaaaa,\u201d \u201cOoooooo!\u201d And you know how kids, especially little boys, think every stupid thing they say is funny? Well, at the end of the previews when they showed the Cinemark movie logo, one of the boys blurted out, \u201cHuh, huh, huh, it looks more like \u2018Cinnamon-mark,\u2019\u201d and all the others laughed at that dumb comment. Now every time I refer to that theater, I have to call it Cinnamon-mark. Thanks, kid.<\/p>\n

Oh, the Iron Man 2 movie? It was OK I guess. Typical super hero movie and I don\u2019t know much about the character anyway. He was on a bunch of Dr. Pepper cans, I guess that\u2019s what gives him his powers? I have to say that Iron Man 2 was one of the few movies this summer that was NOT shown in 3-D. Which is nice because I\u2019m blind in my left eye (since birth) and can\u2019t see the 3-D effects anyway. So I\u2019m really sick of this 3-D fad, personally. What\u2019s bad for me is it seems to be a fad that a lot of movie makers are spending a lot of money on, and now it\u2019s seeping into the realm of video games, too. Ugh!<\/p>\n

Prince of Persia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most movies based on video games are crap, but this one was surprisingly entertaining. I\u2019ve never played any of the 3-D Prince of Persia games, though, so I don\u2019t know how close the movie was to portraying the games. I only played the original 2-D Prince of Persia game and I hated it. It was too hard and I prefer my video game heroes to be able to jump ten feet high in the air, thank you very much.<\/p>\n

Shrek 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Originally I wasn\u2019t going to see Shrek 4. But after reviewing the video game of it, I kind of got in the mood and I figured since I had seen the other three, I might as well see this one, too. I guess it was better than the third one, but not by much. Some of the ads had the subtitle \u201cThe Final Chapter\u201d on it, so maybe this will be the last we\u2019ll see of Shrek. Which is good, because I\u2019m getting a little tired of the green guy, myself.<\/p>\n

Toy Story 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

I took my dad and his family to see this on Father\u2019s Day. Since I have five little brothers on my dad\u2019s side, it was kind of an expensive outing for me, but it was worth it to do something with the whole family aside from staying home. Toy Story 3 was probably the best movie I saw all summer. Pixar\u2019s CG films are always leaps and bounds above the competition, and that tradition continues with this one. And ever since Up and maybe even a couple of Pixar movies before, not only are they good at making timeless classics, but their last few movies had such powerful raw emotional moments in them. While I didn\u2019t cry during any part of Toy Story 3, I can think of a few moments where I might\u2019ve. I think I still like the second Toy Story movie better, but the third one is definitely more powerful emotionally. And I really dug the Totoro cameo. My favorite Pixar movies are Finding Nemo and Up, what are yours?<\/p>\n

Despicable Me<\/strong><\/p>\n

While not as good as Pixar\u2019s stuff, I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. At first, the initial previews of it looked very unappealing, but as more were shown over time, it got a lot cuter and more fun. And there was even a bit of dark humor here and there, like the scene with the iron maiden and the juice box. With a little reworking of the characters, they could\u2019ve made this into a Misadventures of Tron Bonne movie, thanks to those cute little minion characters. They even almost look like Servebots! I\u2019m surprised Capcom didn\u2019t sue, but then, I imagine Capcom would be worried about LEGO suing them! The only thing I didn\u2019t like about the movie was the previews showed too many of the funny parts. But, this movie cheered me up when I was feeling a little down and depressed, so I guess it was still good.<\/p>\n

Movies I Missed<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all the movies I saw this summer! There were a few that I originally planned to see, but never got around to it. One was the A-Team movie, but I don\u2019t feel too bad about missing it. I can just Netflix it if I want to. It didn\u2019t seem to be in theaters for very long! I wasn\u2019t much of an A-Team fan as a kid anyway. I was more into Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, and ALF. I know that Mr. T. was really popular when I was a kid. He even had his own cartoon show and breakfast cereal. They made breakfast cereals out of EVERYTHING back then! Brother Jeff didn\u2019t believe me when I told him they even had a Bill & Ted cereal!<\/p>\n

My mom wanted to see the Karate Kid remake, because I think she secretly has a crush on Jackie Chan (ha ha, just kidding). I would\u2019ve taken her to see it, but we never got around to it. I remember seeing the original as a kid, but never particularly enjoyed it. Of course I remember the famous parts like catching a fly with chopsticks and \u2018wax on, wax off.\u2019 But mostly I remember playing the crappy NES Karate Kid game at my cousins\u2019 house.<\/p>\n

And finally, while I never really watched the Avatar cartoon show, I do appreciate Nickelodeon having an action fantasy based cartoon that isn\u2019t anime. So I considered going to see the live action The Last Airbender movie. But after hearing how so many people hated it, I decided not to.<\/p>\n

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the last \u2018big\u2019 movie before summer will be this Scott Pilgrim movie I hear so much about. I really have no interest in the movie. I like silly video games and some silliness in movies, but this just looks WAY too silly, even for me! The previews made me go \u201cUgh\u201d anyway. And I\u2019ve been corrected on this several times, but the characters in the movie look like awkward teenagers, and I can\u2019t stand teen romance movies (maybe I\u2019m just bitter at the lack of romance in my teen years long ago). I don\u2019t care that it\u2019s based on a comic book I\u2019ve never heard of before. I\u2019m not going to see it.<\/p>\n

HOWEVER, the downloadable video game based on this movie looks rather cool, believe it or not! It\u2019s an 8-bit\/16-bit styled side scrolling beat \u2018em up, and I\u2019m all for that! So while I won\u2019t see the movie, I\u2019ll probably at least try out the game!<\/p>\n

Looking Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a couple of movies I\u2019m looking forward to this December. One is TRON Legacy. I loved the first one as a kid, and while a computer generated film doesn\u2019t have that kind of impact nowadays, I\u2019ll still go see it. And I also can\u2019t wait for the third Narnia movie. It\u2019s based on my favorite book in the series: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Yeah I know these books have Christian overtones and themes, but you know what? I\u2019m a Christian and I like that stuff! So there! Nyeah!<\/p>\n

So what movies did YOU see this summer? Like any of my picks? What movies are you looking forward to seeing? Tell me in the comments section! Later! –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The summer season is known for having many blockbuster movies. And since summer is nearly over, I figured I\u2019d write a blog about all the summer movies I\u2019ve seen this year in theaters. Enjoy! Clash of the Titans Well, OK, some of these movies were shown more in the springtime, but I didn\u2019t see them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}