Dear Hollywood, More Smart Kids Movies Please

This weekend, the animated movie Gnomeo and Juliet almost tied with the new film I Am Number Four at the box office. I Am Number Four, a teen sci-fi flick, brought in $19.5 million. Gnomeo and Juliet brought in $19.4 million, according to to Box Office Mojo estimates on Monday. (The Liam Neeson thriller Unknown topped the box office with $21.8 million.)

That’s a pretty impressive showing for Gnomeo, a retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story starring garden gnomes and set the music of Elton John. In its second weekend out, the film dropped only 23%. Compare that to Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never which dropped 54% and Adam Sandler’s Just Go With It which dropped 40%. Gnomeo and Juliet has already brought in $55 million at the box office.

Animated films that are not from DreamWorks or Pixar tend to get dismissed pretty quickly. Last year Despicable Me (from Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures) took everyone by surprise when it earned $527 million at the global box office.

But as a parent of young children I can tell you, I long for children’s movies. I scan the release schedules looking for tiny lifeboats of appealing kids flicks. It’s not that I’m so desperate to get into a theater where I don’t have to talk to my kids. It’s just that I love going to the movies and I love being able to do it with my entire family.

Like most parents, I won’t go see just anything. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, looked way to dumb to merit me spending any money on it.

But if a film looks halfway decent, I’m there, happily shelling out the money for 3 (non 3-D) tickets, popcorn, candy and drinks.

Gnomeo and Juliet was no Toy Story 3. But it was cute enough. It featured the voices of some of my favorite English actors (including Stephen Merchant and Maggie Smith) and played cleverly with the classic tragic Shakespeare tale. Plus the music was great. So when it was raining out on Saturday and my kids begged to go see it again, I was happy to oblige (at a steep matinee discount). Yup, I saw it twice.

I’m sure I’m not alone. So Hollywood, please, more kids movies with even a tiny bit of smarts. There’s a market out there. We will go. I promise. Every animated movie doesn’t have to be a major event. Just like there are people who will see smart adult films and people who will see female-centric films, don’t underestimate those of us who aren’t teenage boys. We love movies too.

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10 Best 80's Kids Movies

It’s time for a family-friendly marathon with these 10 best 80’s kids’ movies. The 80’s had many kid hits and many of them are still popular today. Many of the characters in these movies are known by kids today even though they weren’t alive during the movie's release.

10. “The Dark Crystal” (1982). This kids’ movie was from the puppet mastermind Jim Henson. This was the tale of good and evil told from the eyes of the fantasy creatures, the Gelflings, who fight to save their world from the Skeksis by replacing a shard from the Dark Crystal.

9. “The Goonies” (1985). This is a great underdog story that kids will instantly like. It’s the story of a group of friends who follow a treasure map in the hopes of saving their homes from a housing project. This was another great film from the mind of Steven Spielberg.

8. “The Little Mermaid” (1989). Disney took on Hans Christian Andersen’s mermaid tale with this story. It is one of the Disney classics that is still popular today. It is the tale of a young mermaid who falls in love with a human.

7. “The Land Before Time” (1988). This is the story of a little dinosaur who loses his mother and must travel to safety with a group of friends. Now twenty years later, the characters are still popular with multiple other movies having been released and a TV series.

6. “The Princess Bride” (1987). This movie is set up like the story is being told by a grandfather to his grandson. It is a wonderful fairy tale that took 80s pop-culture by storm. It is the story of the Princess Buttercup and her true love, Westley.

5. “Short Circuit” (1986). This science fiction movie is great for kids and the whole family. It’s the hear-warming tale of a robot who comes to life and is able to think outside of his programming. The government agency that designed the robot doesn’t like their weapon’s new found humanity and tries to have it destroyed. The movie was so successful that a sequel was later made.

4. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1984). This was Disney’s adaptation of the popular fairy tale. Snow White is put in a magic sleep by her wicked stepmother and is awakened by the kiss of a prince. It became an instant classic and is still a widely popular movie.

3. “A Christmas Story” (1983). This movie was very under appreciated during its release. The movie was set in the 1940s and told the story of a young boy who wanted a BB-gun for Christmas. The movie developed a cult following when TNT began airing it during 24 hour holiday marathons in 1997.

2. “The Last Unicorn” (1982). The movie was based on the book by Peter S. Beagle. This animated movie told the adventures of the last unicorn and her quest to discover what happened to the rest of her kind.

1. "E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982). Not only is this one of the best kids’ movies of the 80s, but it is also one of the most successful movies of all time. This movie helped rocket director Steven Spielberg to stardom. It was the story of a crash-landed alien and a young boy trying to help him get home.

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GLAAD-Handed: The Kids Are Alright, Glee, Scott Pilgrim, Burlesque and More

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has nominated the dramedy about a lesbian couple whose kids track down their biological father for Outstanding Film, Wide Release, for the 22nd Annual GLAAD Media Awards, which honor movies, TV and pieces of music, journalism and theater that include faithful representations of the LGBT community. Not exactly thinking outside the box with that one...but a good choice, nonetheless.

Up against The Kids Are All Right in the Wide Release category (can you imagine how limited the "limited release" films must be?) are Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Sweden's The Girl Who Played With Fire, Easy A and Burlesque.

The Jim Carrey- and Ewan McGregor-starring prison romance I Love You Phillip Morris leads off the Outstanding Film, Limited Release, category, followed by the little-seen but much talked-about Howl, starring James Franco as poet Alan Ginsberg; Sweden's Patrik, Age 1.5, about a gay couple who think they're adopting a 1 1/2-year-old but actually get a 15-year-old; La Mission, in which macho Benjamin Bratt must come to terms with his brother's homosexuality; and Peru's Undertow, about a married fisherman who has an affair with another man.

Glee and Modern Family—both of which saw gay supporting characters take home Emmys and Globes this past year—unsurprisingly head up the Outstanding Comedy Series category, along with Greek, Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara.

Brothers & Sisters, Degrassi, Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars and True Blood will duke it out for Outstanding Drama Series, while 30 Rock, Bored to Death, Law & Order, Law & Order: U.K. and Drop Dead Diva were nominated for Outstanding Individual Episodes.

Top Chef: Just Desserts and Project Runway are among the shows up for Outstanding Reality Program, and country singer Chely Wright, who inevitably made new fans and, sadly, enemies by coming out last May, is up for Outstanding Musical Artist.

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Movie review: Boston kids' breakup scenes in Guy and Madeline break out in song

Of the many movies set in or near Boston in 2010, the black-and-white one about kids who erupt spontaneously into song might be the most exciting. "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench" isn't as well-acted as "The Fighter," as suspenseful as "The Town," as brilliantly structured as "The Social Network," or, for that matter, as confusing as "Shutter Island." It is, however, new and young. Those other movies were made by artists we know well.

"Guy and Madeline" is the work of an artist — Damien Chazelle — you want to know better. It's whimsical and winsome and a touch quaint. Not only does the movie look like it's set somewhere, it feels, cinematically, to have arrived from someplace — early John Cassavetes, the French New Wave, Eastern Europe. The characters drift around Boston environs such as Copley, the Back Bay and South End, with the camera at their backs or near their shoulders. They don't say much. But Chazelle gives his movie a mood that feels precise.

Essentially, this is a breakup movie. Guy is a trumpeter, played by the actual trumpet player Jason Palmer. He loves music. He loves women. It's simply unclear whether he'll ever love a woman. He's dating Madeline (Desiree Garcia), and our time with them lasts for a couple of scenes. Their split confirms that she needs to get her life together. But the lovesickness never leaves her face. In fact, singing about Guy near the old North Church only makes it worse.

Guy's spirit is freer. One afternoon, on the commuter train, he meets someone else. Her name is Elena (Sandha Khin), and they spend the better part of their ride staring at each other in the way that is customary for two attracted strangers. We just saw her giving her phone number to some performer in Faneuil Hall, and now, two scenes later, Guy is lying on the frameless mattress she calls a bed.

Calling this movie "Guy and Madeline" instead of "Guy and Elena" suggests that, at heart, Chazelle is old-fashioned. Madeline is a dreamy romantic. Elena is riskier, more carnal. Not that we see her carnality in action.

By "old-fashioned," I actually mean chaste. This film could have been made in 1957 without having to do much more than change the characters' races — Palmer is black, Khin is Asian, Madeline is Latina. But it doesn't feel like a throwback or even a tribute to another age. It's as though we've picked up a rock and discovered a colony of jazz nerds who attend cramped house parties where tap-danced musical numbers break out.

Guy, Madeline and Elena don't know what they're doing or where they're going. The windows of possibility that are a fact of youth appear only partially opened for them. These are young characters with heavy old souls.

Chazelle could go further into eroticism than he tries to here. The camera does glide down that trumpet as it rests in Guy's lap, pretty much wringing dry its phallic worth. He might turn into Denzel Washington in "Mo' Better Blues." For now, he's Sidney Poitier in "Paris Blues."

What's most exciting about "Guy and Madeline" is that Chazelle bothered to make it at all. Other artists his age (he's 25) and a little older make stage musicals and wind up with "Bat Boy," "Urinetown," "Avenue Q" and "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson." Chazelle made a movie musical instead. I hope he loves the art form enough to make more.

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JBFC Announces One Dollar Kids Films In 2011

The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) has announced that tickets for children for the “Movies for Kids (and their Families)” series will be $1.00 for 2011, in celebration of its 10th Anniversary. “We would not be able to offer tickets for $1.00 without Club Fit’s generous support. While Club Fit is a founding sponsor of the JBFC, we are especially pleased that they have chosen to direct their support in this way,” Steve Apkon, executive director of the Film Center said. “We are thrilled to be able to enhance our longstanding partnership with the JBFC by underwriting the cost of the tickets for this series,” Ellen Koelsch, vice president of Club Fit said.

“Movies for Kids (and their Families)” are shown every weekend at noon as well as some holidays and school vacations. To kick off the New Year, the five films scheduled for January and February feature Gene Kelly, singing and dancing his way across the big screen in such films as Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris. During the school break in February, two Charlie Chaplin films, The Gold Rush and City Lights, will be shown at noon. For a complete listing of films and dates, or to purchase tickets, please visit our website at burnsfilmcenter[dot]org. Tickets may also be purchased at the box office which opens one hour before showtimes on weekdays and 11am on weekends.

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Ajay Devgn confident of the success of Toonpur Ka Superrhero

Ajay Devgn seems very confident of the success of his next home production Toonpur Ka Superrhero. Though the release date of the movie is clashing with that of Tees Maar Khan , the actor-producer seems unfazed.According to him, the film which is based on a unique concept will be appreciated by the audience and the critics alike. " My movie has a new concept.

It is especially for kids. So, I think the concept will pull the audience to the theatres. With so many films being made and released simultaneously, you cannot expect to have a single release date. Whichever release date I choose, it will clash with some or the other film at the box office. Then why should I get scared? Most of my movies are released with big films.So it has now become very natural," he said.

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