Where Are the Family Movies?

Manfrengensen and I went to see Iron Man last night.  I’m not going to do a full review for you here because you can read one almost anywhere else, but I do want to say that it totally lives up to the hype.

For once, we didn’t stay until the end of the credits, and I have to say that I am sorry we missed what’s on the other end of them.  If you go, be sure to hang out.

And with that, the 10th anniversary was the best one ever. We went out for a lovely meal, and Manfrengensen came up big with the gift, offering something sparkly.  Very sparkly.  Not that I am hard to please in the gift department, or that there was even anything I wanted in particular. In fact, I’m not big on sparkly at all.  But something about this gift…I’m a little over the moon.

I gave him a wallet and a Wii game.  He’s probably not walking on the same slice of angel cake as I am today.  I’m not even sure the former is genuine leather.  Maybe I should have gotten him one like my brother has.  It looks like slices of raw bacon.  It’s just fun to imagine Manfrengensen pulling his gold card out of that greasy-looking thing in front of one of his business clients.

So, I’m looking at the summer movie releases here, and I don’t see much in the way of family viewing.  Sure, there are superhero movies, The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight, Hellboy II etc., but I wouldn’t take anyone under 10 or 12 to see those.  For young boys, pretty much the only option this summer is going to be Wall-E.  There are also Space Chimps and Kung Fu Panda, but we’ll only venture to those if their reviews indicate that they don’t completely suck.  What are the chances?

Also next weekend, there’s Speed Racer, which is kind of obligatory for us because T3 is a car FREAK.  But again I don’t have high hopes.  Plus, the running time is two hours fifteen minutes.  That is not good.  No family film should be longer than ninety minutes, and that goes especially for movies about pirates,  whether they are made for families or not.

So, that leaves us maybe one movie release a month for the kiddies. There are a few others coming out, like Narnia, which mine are too young for,  and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery, which I’m guessing is geared more toward female viewers. 

It’s not a family film, but I do feel the need to mention that Manfrengensen and I saw a preview for The Love Guru.  Are we the only two people who think Mike Myers is not the least bit funny?

Early in the formation of this blog, I said to my husband, “What do you want your alias to be in the blogosphere?”  And he gave it to me.  I had no idea what a pain in the ass it was going to be to have to type “Manfrengensen” on a regular and repeated basis.

Here’s some good monkey for you:

p.s. – Family life continues to be a cave of wonders: Today J was sick, and he actually napped for two and a half hours!  (He corrected me – two hours, twenty-three minutes.)