Hugo & The Muppets Bringing It With The Family Fun

I frequently have my buddies walk up to me and say "Yo, TPG, they don't make good movies for kids anymore,  kids these days bro, they don't have any flicks like "Short Circuit" or "Rookie of the Year"!" My response is usually something along the lines of, don't worry mon, I'm sure those movies are about to get remade/remade/reformatted/ruined soon. However, I recently saw two great movies while typically labeled "kidz" movies are suitably enjoyable for all ages.

Hugo
This one comes from cinematic legend Martin Scorsese and it's nothing short of pure cinematic magic! Based off the book by Brian Selznick, the film focuses on a young orphan who resides in a clock tower at the central train station in Paris. He's trying to solve the mystery of his late father's Automaton, which may or may not be linked to the history of cinema itself. All the actors including Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Chloe Moretz give great performances and the world Scorsese creates is magical. Yet the strength of the film lies in it's heart, which is wickedly sentimental, but never cheesy. I highly recommend.

The Muppets
Now let's talk about The Muppets. I grew up without a television, so I didn't know there was Muppet TV show until about two weeks ago when the press blitz started for the film. However, I did know that Rainbow Connection and Movin' Right Along are amazing tracks, so when I heard that the film was going to have music from Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords fame I was pumped. So, yeah, there's singing and dancing, and there's Muppet's getting into, and there is a very bare bones plot involved getting the old gang back together to save their old theater. It's a great little bundle of a flick with some really endearing and memorable songs, including this one below which is easily the standout. There's also some really funny parts and some cool "meta" parts where the characters talk to the audience and acknowledge that they are in a movie. So if you're not seeing this movie with your family or kids, I'm going to wager that these parts are particularly mind blowing.

So yes, there are still great movies for kids. And while I'm confident today that kids these days are going to turn out slightly messed up from playing to much Modern Warfare 3 or seeing Optimus Prime shoot people's heads off. , at least they are going to have some awesome movies to look back on.