Mrs. Doubtfire ****4 stars

James: (age 6 1/2) ***** 5 stars I like it when the fire truck rolled on the mask.

Jupiter: (age 5) **** It was funny when Mrs. Doubtfire, when the kids were watching her across the street and when the mask fell out of the window and the truck rolled over it. There was a part when Mrs. Doubtfire had to go pee pee and the teenager boy went to the bathroom and looked at her as a boy.

Justice: (age 3 1/2) 13 stars.

Adam: It seemed like they developed this movie as a vehicle for Robin William's manic voices and personae--the talking dinosaurs and the opening sequence with the cartoon character, but actually once Pierce Brosnan came into the picture, Robin Williams began to act and you could see that there was a sad and bitter dad hiding under the surface of a doting congenial English matron, and that combination, which was acting, really worked. I think Robin Williams didn't trust himself, or the producers didn't trust him to carry a movie, but as long as he's not the lead, and he's acting, his career has gone well. He played the creepy film development guy in one movie and the killer in that Dinero movie, and did well with both of those. The result is that the first 45 minutes was a long Robin Williams set-up that didn't play well. The middle hour of the movie was Mrs. Doubtfire. She was great. Though the movie was done in '93 it looked like it was done in '83, with all the poufy hair, earth tones and bad sweaters. I have to add that Sally Field, as a real actress, carried the day. The moment she discovered the true identity of Mrs. Doubtfire was amazing. She must have said the same line five times--was it, "You're kidding me," and each time she said it, it was different. First shock, then disbelief, then it was anger, then it was violation when she realized she'd confided in him, and then the last one was hopeless resignation. I mean she carried it off. She really did it.

Grandma Pat:*** 3 1/2 stars. I like the way the dad was very caring. This is Robin Williams at his sweet best, playing a dad who loves his children. You don't see that often in the movies. Even Pierce Brosnan was a character you could care for. Everybody in this movie was sympathetic. There were no bad guys. You could have empathy for everybody.

Mama: **** 5 stars. I prepped the kids before the movie that the beginning might be sad, because a Mama and Popi "break up" (the term they know from all of the high school movies we watch) and get divorced, and did they think they could handle that to get to the Mrs. Doubtfire part? Yeah, sure, of course, James said. Well, it turns out I was the one who got all weepy, and Jupiter reached her hand up to block my eyes--just like I did for her when the leopard seal attacked Max in "Eight Below."

Dr. Doolittle 3 (.5 stars)

James: (age 6) 0 stars. It's not really Dr. Dolittle. It's really just a teenager that goes toa ranch and that's the end.
Adam: Zero stars. (No this isn't sweet hearted Amazon where even the worst dreck gets a single star. No. Zero.) This canned ham was a shameless, greedy, ugly gremlin of a movie. Its prequel, Dr. Dolittle had been moderately entertaining, had star charisma and writers who knew how to push kids buttons--with farts and talking animals. This thing however did nothing to deserve the title Dolittle--this movie does bad trade on our desires to see a decent movie based on the previous one. It bore no relation to the original movie. It had none of the original characters. What we got instead of a Eddie Murphy movie was --it was just a tired shameless retread of an already cliche genre of the summer camp movie. Worse than an after-school-special and more obvious than a knock-knock joke and less exciting than a narcoleptic. Oh God, that fucking movie.

Mama: 1 star. This movie felt like a rip-off the entire time. Even the sets of the family home were different. Eddie Murphy obviously wanted nothing to do with it. His character, the Dr. Dolittle of the film titles, was always off stage, or on the other end of the telephone call we the audience can't hear. They traded out the actress playing the daughter from the first two Dolittle movies as well. Only the mother character remained the same (I can't blame her for signing on to this--pickings are slim for 40 year old bi-racial actresses of Hollywood. Halle Berry owns that territory and even she's not getting work.) The scenes in a San Francisco high school had no sense of place, as if the committee of L.A. execs writing this movie had no idea that the public schools of San Francisco might not be populated with snotty queen bees in white tank tops. I believe the black hoodie is the accessory of choice in San Francisco. The actress they came up with for this was cute at least, maybe a pop star I've never heard of, because she gets to sing a song--I guess it's not enough to have a super power for talking to animals, you have to be a singer as well. My most delighted moment was when she showed up at cowboy camp wearing red cowgirl boots and a bright red cowgirl shirt. "Mama would look foxy in that outfit," I announced to everyone. Most disappointing of all was the lack of sexual tension. Why else watch a teen movie? I'm one of those twilight moms--why else watch a teen movie? Give me some vampires and werewolves at this cowboy camp, please.

Eight Below, 5 stars!

James: (age 6) ***** I liked it when the leopard seal was chasing Max. Remember when there was the reflection of that beautiful stuff in the sky (northern lights) and they were chasing it on the ground?

Jupiter: (age 5)***** Eight below was 7 stars. I liked the dogs. I liked it when the owner got the dogs back.

Justice (age 3) *****I gave it 7. I think I liked the guy who got bitten. Mama you know what I liked about it? I liked it when the orca bit the dog. A orca came up and James spilled his candy.

Mama: *****This was a five star family movie. I loved the icescapes, and seeing how a dog team works. The human stories and the dog stories were both engaging, and though they could have edited out 15 minutes or so (it was a full two hours) I felt the pacing was good. There was lots of genuine tension as so many of the situations were life and death. I don't tend to be too interested in man-against-nature things, but dog-against-nature, now that's gripping stuff. The leopard seal scene--wow, we all jumped at that one. James even dropped his gummy bears all over himself. Justice let me cover her eyes. Usually they fight that kind of thing. Of course I had some complaints about how the female character was scripted. At least she wasn't a generic girlfriend back at the base, waiting on her man to grow up--she was a cool, sexy pilot and not waiting around for anyone. But still, I just wanted more in the dialogue of what was hinted at--that she was attracted to Jerry, but until he matured, it was just a flirtation. I guess I wanted her to be a truth-teller a little bit, not just supportive. These are petty complaints though. It was an awesome action movie with great relationships, breathtaking scenery, a good story and even a cool tough, Native American actress, thank you very much! All in all a five star family movie.

Adam: *****Very tight script. No wasted details--everything returns to matter, from the fissures in the ice, to the mention of the leopard seal to the photograph of the Italian girlfriend. For an animal movie the human central character was done pretty well. It could have been really one dimensional: a guy really loves dogs. But everyone in the movie was right--human life is more important than dog life, and they were right to leave the dogs behind, and our character's problem was that he was angry at everyone for allowing that to happen, but he needed to come to see that his exceptional love for dogs was unique and that other people didn't share it. He had to come to terms with that on his own. Once he did, he decided on his own to go rescue the dogs because he would be ill at ease until he knew their fates and had done honor to their service to him. Then everyone joins him on his quest for the right reason, which is they go for him, their friend, not the dogs. It could have lost fifteen minutes of fat in the soul-searching middle. And even though I knew something really scary was about to happen I still had a gummy-bear dropping jolt.

The Pink Panther 2

Spoilers ahead.
James: (age 6 1/2) *****
I think the funniest part was when Inspect Clouseau's gaurd told Inspector Clouseau not to beat up children and call them piglets.
Jupiter: (age 5) *****Pink Panther stars. The funniest part was the man in the tutu.
Justice: (age 3) "Mommy you know how many stars I give it?" She ticks of four fingers. ****

Mama: 5 stars*****
Okay, so this was the funniest comedy I've seen in a while. I was instantly laughing hysterically at Steve Martin's slapstick, as Inspector Clouseau tried to give a parking ticket to a man who proceeds to put his windshield wipers on. Jupiter may have been infected by my hilarity, but she was laughing almost as hard. The plot is the most basic of heist plots, and it only needed a little bit of explaining to the kids at the end of the movie. "Mama, was the girl in the red dress the Tornado?" Jupiter asked.
"No honey, she was pretending to be the Tornado, stealing the diamond, then making it look like the Tornado did it."
"Ohhhh! I get it," James said.
Anyway, who really needs much of a plot in a movie like this--so long as it's full of Steve Martin's sight gags. The supporting cast was delightful. The whole movie was a romp. On Netflix everyone gave it fewer stars than the original The Pink Panther. I give it more.

Adam: *****I haven't heard my old lady laugh that hard in a long time. Not since a Jackie Chan movie when we lived in Mountain View. It was more nimble than the first one and they let John Cleese and Steve Martin off the hook. I loved the moment when James was sure he solved it. He was like "I figured it out!" It's such a great premise, really that the biggest bumbling detective in the world is also a great detective. A little bit of hubris and arrogance, when he acts like he's better than other people Clouseau's really sweet. The bad accents were so funny. Clouseau was a little less puritanical, and you could tell he did have a libido. He's way more funny that way, if he actually does have desires. That opening sight gag, with about giving a ticket to the guy who turns his windsheild wipers on was really good.