Family Movie Blog

While I’m not a fan of most of his works, I still admire the creator of the Spy Kids. Having grown up in small town television stations myself, I followed the career of Robert Rodriquez through the 1990s and 2000s and discovered he also knows how to stretch a dollar. He’s repeatedly turned a scant few million dollars—mere pocket change in Hollywood parlance—into films that made profits multiple times over the investment. Just as surprising is this guy, who cut his teeth on gritty cult horror movies and westerns that you would never want to show your children, created a series of family movies about two kids who didn’t know their parents are spies.

It’s a less-than-stellar week on the home video front, with several unspectacular major theatrical releases — revolving around slackers — coming to roost on DVD. Leading the way, so to speak, is ‘Paul,’ a road trip about a slacker, runaway alien — named Paul — who joins up with two oddball Brits in a mad effort to rendezvous with a rescue space ship so he can go home. Next up is ‘Your Highness,’ a medieval tale about a pair of princes — one a do-gooder who slays dragons and rescues damsels in distress, the other a ne’er-do-well who smokes “wizard’s weed” — and their quest to save a woman kidnapped by an evil wizard. The best bets this week are the Blu-ray debuts, so read on.
What We Say: A wise-cracking alien on the lam? That’s pretty much the heart of the matter here, to which Brits Simon Pegg and Nick Frost add their loopy brand of cynical, dotty, off-the-wall humor. There’s plenty of side trips and excursions to the main plot — government agents, religious fanatics, UFOlogists — as well as more pop culture references than you can shake an alien probe at (or yeah, there are alien probe jokes, too). Though not up to ‘Shaun of the Dead; (a tough film to top), ‘Paul’ is still an enjoyable pastime. And Paul is so real. Hmmm.

Our national anthem. The crack of the bat. Shouts from the peanut vendor. To me, those are the most relaxing sounds in the world because they signify that, for the next three hours, my only earthly concern is whether I’ll have to dodge an 80 mile-an-hour souvenir. Hey, don’t laugh. When I took my son to spring training this year, a hitter let go of his bat, which nailed the guy sitting directly behind us.

Retired OSS agent Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba) thinks she has her hands full trying to bond with her stepchildren (Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook), until she is called back into action. This new assignment will involve her, her twins and a couple of former Spy Kids (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara) in a fight to stop the villain Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven).

When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world and into ours – in fact, smack dab in the middle of Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them down.