Trilogy Week #29 - Kid Adventures

Summer's just around the corner, and school is almost over, and this is around the time I would start to get antsy thinking about all the cool things I wanted to do that summer as a kid. Every kid fantasizes about going on an adventure. Even if it is something very small, like going into a abandoned house or, jumping over someones fence. Nothing big, but exciting for young adolescence. I would've given my left nut to go on an adventure like the ones in these movies, as dangerous as some of them are. 


Also, you might be thinking "hey, wait a minute! Why didn't you add the Goonies? don't worry, that will be coming out in a later post.

Title: The Sandlot

Year: 1993

Director: David M. Evans

Cast: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Denis Leary, Karen Allen, James Earl Jones, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Brandon Quintin Adams

Rated: PG

Running Time: 1hr. 41min.

My Review: I love this movie, every time I watch it I get a flood of memories of me and my friends playing outside. And as a kid finding out that this movie was filmed in Utah blew my mind, and I always fantasized about finding the sandlot. And being roughly the same age as the kids when the movie came out made it that much more real for me. I always imagined myself as the Benny character, but in reality I was probably more like Squints. 

The movie doesn't hold up perfectly, but is still enjoyable in multiple viewings. The acting is of course not very good, this was some of these kid's first movie role. But being that the acting isn't that good works for me, in a comedic campy sense. And the way the story changes from a kid just trying to make friends, to being shoved into a crazy situation is gold in my book. 8 out of 10 erector sets

Title: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Year: 1989

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer, Thomas Wilson Brown, Jared Rushton, Amy O'Neill, Robert Oliveri, Maria Strassman, Kristine Sutherland

Rated: PG

Running Time: 1hr. 33min.

My Review: Holy Crap! One of Disney's best ever life action movies. Another thing that I find incredibly fascinating is the playing with scale. Whether it's being shrunk or being a giant, I love the different ways this is portrayed in movies. Rick Moranis is great, the kids are great, and surprisingly the effects hold up really well, especially the bee scene.  If you like this movie, I highly recommend you watch The Secret World of Arriety. 8 out of 10 oatmeal cookies

Title: Monster Squad

Year: 1987

Director: Fred Dekker

Cast: Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, Stephen Macht, Brent Chalem, Ryan Lambert, Ashley Bank, Michael Faustino

Rated: PG-13

Running Time: 1hr. 22min.

My Review: Even though I never saw any of the Universal monster movies as a kid, I still knew about them, and was very excited about them. I didn't know about this film until my mid-20's, but it still blew me away. I love this movie, from the awesome one-liners, to the incredible make  up effects. One of the only criticisms that I have besides the bad child acting, is that I think the pacing was too fast, I really wanted to see more of the monsters. Wolfman's got Nards! 9 out of 10 creepy old german dudes