My Week In Movies - That's Fishy!

Dolphin Tale (2011) There's a difference between making a film for children and just making a bad movie. Just because a movie is directed at a young audience doesn't give a filmmaker the right to omit things like rationale, reason or logic. There's very little going on in this tale except that a dolphin gets a fake tail. They don't ever really explain why this particular dolphin has people going out of their way to save it's life and they never explain who pays for all this work. Winter the Dolphin is held up at a rundown, broke Aquarium. Morgan Freeman plays a doctor who decides to help create the dolphin tale. He's just a crazy old man with a heart of gold and we know this because when we first meet the good doctor, he cuts off Ashley Judd to tell her he's having a greasy hamburger for lunch. And it's the best damn hamburger in the world...he says. There's also a scene where completely unnecessary graphics fill the screen and then fly around for two or three minutes to justify the hiked up 3D ticket prices the half dozen people who saw this in the theatre paid. The end of this "true story" has such a tacky Hollywood ending, it's been lifted directly out of 39 other sports movies. Yes, I said sports movie. Also at the very end of the movie, It appears the boy has romantic relations with the dolphin.

Oh, God! (1977) This is one of those flicks that I used to watch all the time as a kid. I haven't seen it in quite some time and now that I'm older and oh-so-wiser I gotta say I really enjoy the philosophical side of the movie. In the picture, God appears to grocery store manager John Denver and tells him to spread the good word of the Lord or else the world will come to an end. God appears to JD in the form of an old man, in particular George Burns. It's good stuff. If you've never seen it, I suggest a rental.

Yes Man (2008) My Jim Carrey-obsessed son has been begging me to let him watch this title for quite sometime now. We taped it off TBS hoping to bring the PG-13 down to a PG. I also checked up on CommonSenseMedia.com, which is a great website that breaks down potentially objectionable material in movies for parents. With my finger on the fast forward button, I successfully navigated past the oral sex gag without the kids even noticing. What's left in the movie is a really sweet tale about opening yourself up to new experiences in life. It's actually quite a feel-good message at the heart of this movie, and it lets Jim Carrey be Jim Carrey complete with all his silly faces, screaming and mugging for the camera. A really good return to form for Mr. Carrey.