I'm late on the bus for this, just bought the DVD for the kids, but DAMN what a terrific, SMART movie. Wow. Great on all levels, but the real stand-outs are the kids (THESE kids are PERFECT) and the script. It feels like it was written by these kids (in the way they speak to each other)."Go get me a juice box, beeyotch." My six year old's favorite line. The movie is filled with great, real dialogue by these kids.
The F/X are good and all, and the story is neat, but the kids rock. The older sister is spot-on in her role, the middle kid certainly gets it right, and the youngest boy is also perfect (yeah, he's cute as a button and all, but not annoyingly so).
Dax Shepard is also terrific as The Astronaut, and Tim Robbins is fun as the Dad (a small, but well-written part for him). It's really cool that the movie rests on these five shoulders (no other cast) - and most of it is on the two brothers.
It's a shame when a movie like this gets practically ignored and stuff like Harry Potter & Chicken Little rule the box office. Not that they are bad, but Zathura is a real stand-out, and among my favorites of 2005.
8 comments:
My kid went to see this movie with his dad and came back and told me: "It's some kids in space. It was pretty crap."
Having read Zathura, I thought he'd have far more fun. But then, my son's favourite movies include Deep Rising and 28 Days Later so maybe he's a special case.
I think it depends on their age, but it's really a wonderful movie.
My kids (ages 6 & 3) have watched it countless times since last week.
It's not some dopey action/cartoon, I mean, it's actually got a STORY that you kinda need to somewhat pay attenion to.
I miss the days of movies like Dark Crystal and Neverending Story and Legend. Those were really inspiring movies for kids and had a real story. OK, they were always simplistic, but sometimes simple is best. And I loved the Ying/Yang theme of Dark Crystal and Legend, the notion of "nothingness" and creativity in NES. I rmbr being blown away by them as a kid, wanting to write stuff like that. I'm disappointed now that kids are so MTV these films are too slow for them.
You're 100% right. It's gotta be fast-paced or they're out the door.
Mine are like that too, but my kids do like some of the monster & robot guys in Zathura so they stick with it.
They'd be bored to tears with Legend, but I always loved it.
Oh, and The Iron Giant, too. notice how it's a well-crafted story, etc, and it bombed at the box office. Shame.
My oldest actually did like it a lot though.
Weirdly, my oldest is scared of IRON GIANT. Similarly, BATMAN BEGINS provoked three months of him being scared to go to bed as a result of Cillian Murphy's bag-on-his-head totally unscary mask. This is the same child who watched ALIEN VS PREDATOR rated 15 in the UK as well as the aforementioned movies in my first post (both "18's") and didn't bat an eyelid. Bizarre.
I agree that "Zathura" is a perfect movie for all kids (up to 12-13 years old). BUT.
For me - and believe me, I have seen a lot of movies - it was only an ok try to make a fast family movie. I know it's from the writer of "Jumanji", but it's NOTHING compared to it.
your six year old's favorite line shouldn't be beeyotch
Post a Comment