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Movie Review: Contagion
Be aware. This is not a movie for kids. The subject matter is very scary but for most people under 40, this is not the kind of thriller they will be expecting.
Contagion is a thriller in the Syriana tradition with plot threads coming at you from all directions. Many personalities and subplots tell an over-arching story, in this case, the spread of a killer virus the that threatens to kill one of every four people on the planet. However, there are no car chases, no surprise twists, and not many love stories going on. Most of the energy is focussed on the science of a deadly virus as well with some side detours to the societal breakdown that happens in cities quarantined for their over-exposed populations.
Dads will find themselves imagining what it would be like to be Matt Damon, the main dad character in the film. His cheating wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the main carrier of the disease who inadvertently brings it from Hong Kong, infecting her Chicago lover, while on the way home to her husband in Minneapolis. She quickly dies off, leaving Matt Damon, genetically immune to the virus, to take care of and protect his teenage daughter. As the Day 5, Day 10 and Day 181 tick by, they await the discovery of a vaccine that will save the world.
While real scientists (the CDC is the big hero here) go about trying to save mankind, Jude Law plays an internet journalist cashing in on his early discovery of the virus and hyping a wonder cure. Laurence Fishburne is excellent as a key administrator of the CDC. Viewers will be forgiven for thinking he is a second dad represented in the movie. He spends a fair amount of time on the phone with beautiful Sanaa Lathan who I thought was young enough to be his daughter.
Contagion also stars Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslett, Sanjay Gupta, and Elliot Gould.
Reading the Yahoo and IMDB reviews, it’s clear that most people were very disappointed with this movie. It is clearly not a zombie thriller in the 28 Days genre. But as an intelligent depiction of how things unwind, I found it to be a very scary, and likely under-played version of the horror of this type of epidemic. Some kids might be traumatized by the subject matter, since Contagion does portray a world full of random events that could bring on destruction at any moment. However, most kids will simply be bored, while dads sit trembling in their seats wondering how to protect their kids from the world around us.
I found it gripping and give it an 8 out of 10.
Popularity: 1%
Who is Simon Miller? family movie on Saturday night
“Who is Simon Miller,” the newest of the “Family Movie Night” series created by P&G, premieres Saturday night (8/6/11) on NBC at 8/7PM Central. We had a chance to see a screener and watched it the other night as a family.
I”ve written several times about this effort. (Full disclosure: P&G invite me on set for the filming of “Change of Plans.”) I like P&G’s mission, which is to create family programming the whole family can watch together and enjoy. It’s a tall order though. What is interesting to my 7 year old is not what interests my wife. What my wife and daughter like doesn’t do it for me. P&G Studios, along with co-sponsor, Walmart, is trying to thread this needle. As I think I’ve joked before, it’s a bit like a singing dog; it’s not that he sings well, but that he sings at all. That’s what can be said, for all of the movies to date, which have gotten better since the first ones: they are not horrible and the whole family can watch, if you have a little patience.
Sadly, I fear, a lot of parents and siblings won’t have the patience for common denominator entertainment, even if the parents can be secure that their will be no profanity, no sex beyond a hug or short kiss, and rarely a fight that ends in anything more than a few bumps and bruises. We now live in a world with too much stimuli for us to want to sacrifice a precious moment on non-optimal entertainment, deadening us sadly to common experience.
But I digress, my kids and I sat down to watch “Who is Simon Miller,” a spy “thriller” after weeks of anticipation. My daughter had been away at Girl Scout camp and had asked us to hold off watching it until she got home. At 11, she had thoroughly enjoyed other movies in the series, though like any media savvy child, she picked them apart ruthlessly for predictability, character development and believability. My son, aged 7, was also intrigued by the spy theme.
While I felt I had seen this theme before — family suddenly becomes aware that father is a spy — you have to love the way that P&G makes it a family crisis. A bit like “The Incredibles,” “Who is Simon Miller?” quickly becomes how the family’s different special skills, working together, save the day. One thing P&G Studios has done well in all of these movies is made the family relationships pretty real. There is no snarky sarcasm or tempestuous teenager. The families, while maybe a bit overly sentimental, are about as unfunny and day-to-day as most of us are. That’s not necessarily a negative. It’s a relief to see people interact in a sane and mostly respectful fashion, which is likely a P&G guideline. I particularly liked the role of the son, Kevin, who is a little sarcastic without being mean.
The story itself, stuffed into 90 minutes, is a international adventure that includes visits to Paris, Geneva and Prague. It moves around enough to be interesting to jaded adults, but don’t expect to feel like you’re watching Matt Damon or 007. Some adult viewers will be distracted by location shots that are any place but Paris (despite a looming Eiffel Tower in many shots) and Geneva and Prague might just be Prague or Quebec City, as far I could tell. In this case, it was better not to think too much about it.
All in all, not a bad evening of entertainment. While I was tempted to peek at my smartphone more than a few times, I enjoyed watching the kids react and hearing their comments.
Parents should be warned that despite a G rating, this film has some moments of bloodless violence and some foreboding tension with threatening villains. My 11 year old daughter thought it was scary and not the best thing to watch right before bed. My 7 year old boy was unphased however. As I mentioned, though, there is no profanity.
Popularity: 2%
Movie Review: Change of Plans, new family movie, airs January 8, 2011
P&G Productions will release their new film, “Change of Plans” on Saturday, January 8, 2011 on FOX at 8 PM and 7 PM Central. As we’ve reported, P&G and Walmart have teamed together to create new family-friendly movies that tell positive stories the entire family can watch together. The first three aired on NBC. Change of Plans will air on Fox. In creating movies that meet this objective, P&G is trying to walk a tightrope between films that are so insipid that adults will squirm, and tales that a small child can get caught up in, without resorting to inappropriate language and violence. This is not an easy task, especially given other alternatives, as well as a modern tendency for every member of the family to retreat to their own corner to enjoy entertainment made especially for them. Leave it to P&G to invest heavily in this type of venture, as they did with the creation of the Soap Opera, to claim turf that is especially vital to their commercial interests. Previous films have been Secrets of the Mountain, The Jensen Project, and A Walk in My Shoes.
The other films I’ve seen in this project have failed, but we have found each one better than the last, with progressively better scripts, acting and production values. Change of Plans is another step forward in the right direction.
Change of Plans tells the story of a dynamic young couple who have a life-changing experience. Jason is a jet pilot and engineer and his wife, Sally, is an aspiring singer/musician on the verge of huge musical career. They have an action-packed life, symbolized in the credits by hot cars, an in-house recording studio, scuba gear, and vacation plans in progress. Just as the happy couple are about to get away from it all, they get a phone call with life-changing news: an old friend has died in a car crash leaving four kids behind with nowhere to go. The couple then makes a quick decision to cancel their vacation plans to take the kids in, until a suitable foster family can be found. The additional plot twist is that the four kids come from the four corners of the globe, including South America, China, Africa and North America.
Most viewers, at this point, can imagine what happens next, with the expected clash between the busy lives of Jason and Sally and the emotional needs of multicultural kids adjusting to a new life after being suddenly orphaned. The director, John Kent Harrison, does a good job with a script that packs way too many stories into a 88-minute film. Competing for attention are the emotional complexities of no fewer than eight characters, on top of a back story of why the deceased parents had collected one child from each country they visited while in the Peace Corps. While both my daughter and I were teary-eyed during the expected happy ending, it was more a programmed response than because we had enough time to truly be invested in the characters.
Contemporary viewers may feel slightly manipulated by the full representation of almost every ethnic group, as well as a nod to the military, race car driving, and country music. P&G even managed to squeeze in a dinner prayer at one point, which felt more than a little gratuitous. While you have to applaud a large corporation’s devotion to presenting a cross-section of the real America rather than a vision of 1950s America, I can safely say that I’ve never seen a more blatantly politically correct mixture of symbols. The only thing missing was a gay character, but maybe that is still a little too much inclusiveness for P&G and Walmart in 2011.
Joe Flanigan (“Stargate Atlantis”) as Jason and Brooke White (“American Idol”) as Sally are well-cast in these roles. Both have movie star looks but also have everyday folks charm. For the most part, the child actors also do well, especially Clarissa Suwoko as the six-year-old Sung Lee, who is irresistibly cute in the film.
Despite our criticisms, you can do worse for modern entertainment the whole family can watch. And certainly, this is a better option than most chick-flicks out there which only seem to emphasize dating as the major behavior to emulate. Here, the family can discuss what makes a family, how families stay together, and maybe even the sacrifices parents make of their own dreams, for the good of their kids. I am optimistic that Brian Wells, the Executive Producer of all four films in the project, learns more with each film, and that the studio will find a formula that will work for family night, if not as a movie theatre feature film.
Note to readers: P&G invited me to the set of to the set of “A Change of Plans” in late 2010. While they paid for transportation and lodging, no payment was made for this review, and my opinions are my own and not those of P&G or Walmart.
Related articles
- Review: “A Walk In My Shoes” new family movie (greatdad.com)
- Brooke White, “American Idol” Alum, Makes Acting Debut In TV Movie (popcrunch.com)
Popularity: 9%
Review: “A Walk In My Shoes” new family movie
Due to a late release of the preview, I didn’t get a chance to review before the showing, but did want to mention again that this is the third in a joint venture between P&G and Walmart to make Friday night family TV night. They are trying to create real movies that are good for both adults and kids to watch together, which focus on positive values for kids to experience in an engaging film.
We were less excited about the second film in this experiment, The Jensen Project, which appealed to our little kids, but which just didn’t have the production values of a real movie. I enjoyed “A Walk in My Shoes” more. The subject matter, while incorporating some fantasy, was more adult than in “Jensen,” which was more of a high technology spy film made for kids. I also found the acting to be more subtle and easier to watch, largely due to Nancy Travis, who plays the lead role.
“A Walk in My Shoes” tells the story of a teacher magically put into the shoes of another person, the mother of one of her students. She gets to experience firsthand the other woman’s life and viewpoint and ends up judging her less harshly than she did in real life. While this plot device is a little contrived, and a shopworn in 2010, I found it oddly compelling, perhaps because I liked the main characters. Not all dads might agree, and it might be hard to find a family that would all watch this movie together, but it wasn’t an improved attempt by the P&G team and bodes well for their next film “A Change of Plans” which is due out in early 2011.
I want to support this project because there is such a huge delta between soporific kids shows that dads really don’t want to watch, and all the PG-rated shows that aren’t appropriate for kids under 13. I’m hoping P&G continues to get better as they develop more experience in this arena. So far, they are making good progress.
“A Walk in My Shoes” is available on DVD and we have one copy of the DVD plus Soundtrack available for readers who answer the following question in the comments section below: What is your favorite movie the whole family can watch and enjoy without being exposed to material that is inappropriate for some ages?
A Walk in My Shoes plot synopsis
“A Walk in My Shoes” makes viewers stop and think, “What would I learn if I stepped into someone else’s life?” Stressed-out high school teacher Trish Fahey (Nancy Travis, “Three Men and a Baby,” “Becker”) can’t understand her students’ lack of effort in the classroom and why their parents don’t seem to care. This is especially true of Justin Kremer (Cameron Deane Stewart), a popular, skateboard-loving, basketball star who is underperforming in her class. Trish has him suspended from the basketball team and quickly chalks up the situation as a case of bad parenting.
But this perspective dramatically changes when Trish meets Molly (Yara Martinez, My Own Worst Enemy), a mysterious stranger intent on helping her see things differently. When Trish wrecks her car, Molly is there as Trish wakes to find herself living the life of Cindy Kremer, the woman she has personally judged and criticized. Trish discovers that there is often more to the story and learns a powerful lesson that affects everyone she interacts with. Her husband, her daughter, the Marine next door… No one is left unchanged.
Note to readers: P&G invited me to the set of the feature film “A Change of Plans” due out in early 2011.. While they paid for transportation and lodging, no payment was made for this review, and my opinions are my own and not those of P&G or Walmart.
Popularity: 4%
The Jensen Project fair attempt at family entertainment
P&G Studios, in conjunction with Walmart, is trying to take back family movie night. Years after the takeover of family entertainment by PG-rated kids cartoons, both companies see consumer value in producing new movies that are made to be entertaining for both kids and adults, without being punctuated by sex, swear words, and too much violence. Additionally, themes of the movies are meant to play to what is best in the human condition rather than showing the worst in us.
Together, P&G and Walmart have produced three feature movies, and are working on their fourth. I was invited by P&G to the location shooting of the new “Change in Plans,” and also saw the just finished “Walk in My Shoes,” due to air this Fall.
I truly believe in this mission and so want their effort to work. As a dad with two small kids, I’m all too aware that everything we want to watch as a family is bad for someone. Either the movie is Curious George-clean, or risks exposing the kids to romantic concepts way beyond their years. Our family has found the solution in watching 1960′s and 1970′s TV shows and movies. But we do miss watching new shows with contemporary themes.
So as a family, we watched the second movie of their endeavor, “The Jensen Project” which aired first in July 2010, and is on sale now as a DVD.
While my kids, six and ten, found the movie compelling, I regret to say that the film wasn’t up to adult standards. It’s not that it’s too “clean” or too family-friendly, it just isn’t up to high quality standards of top-rated shows we like as adults: “The Good Wife” or “House” or even something completely fantastical, and similar, like “The Event.” I quickly tuned out, grabbed my laptop, and worked away while I “shared” time with my kids, which was not the family moment I was hoping for.
While in Toronto with P&G, I also saw an early screening of “Walk in My Shoes,” the third movie made by this corporate studio. While still not a movie that can compete with highly rated TV shows for adults’ attention, the show was more compelling and I did want to actively watch it.
Now I want to see their new film, Change of Plans since I met the cast, director and producer. I have no way of knowing whether it will again be a step closer to the objective of the mission of this family-friendly quality movie ideal, but I am hoping so. All the people involved, while clearly motivated by a corporate objective, were obviously motivated by a personal goal that most parents share. We all want to see our kids consuming entertainment whether books, movies, TV, or online that is good and developmental for them. And after a long day at work, we also would love it if we could share it with them, like in the old days when the family would all watch Ed Sullivan or the World of Disney, but this time, not just because it’s the only thing on.
See my interview with the executive producer Brian Wells in an upcoming post.
On the other hand, here is a mom reviewer who loved it: Moms, Check Out The Jensen Project Tonight! (bettyconfidential.com)
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