Last night the family and I along with a couple of nephews went to watch Cars 2 at the Cherry Bowl Drive-In. We had a great time, the weather was perfect, and we sat under the stars to watch what turned out to be a very fun movie. There were a couple of moments that made me shake my head, but that's pretty normal while watching Rated G movies these days. The car chases were intense including some with bullets flying around and some ending in big explosions. For the most part the story did stay true to the G rating so that was nice.
My wife was sharing with me that she and her friends were talking recently about movie review sites, so I thought, hey, there's a blog post! I thought I would share the links I use to learn about a movie before my family or I watch. I don't have one favorite out of the sites below, in my opinion they all can be useful, as each delivers the content in a different way. Whether you want a true review of a film or a list of the specific content of a movie, these links should help.
In no particular order...
Decent Films Guide - The online home of Catholic Film Critic Steven D. Greydanus. He really goes into great detail in his reviews and gives great insight into plot points you may have missed. You can also find his reviews in the National Catholic Register. He's got a strong following so I also find great comments from others who have seen the films.
Plugged In Online - Great reviews and also a nice breakdown of what's in the movie by various sections. Sometimes I skip right to the conclusion as they do a great job of summing up the movies.
kids in mind - Easily the most descriptive of the questionable content in any movie, they go to great lengths to list and share what they find. The mouseover ads on their site are very annoying and sometimes feature movies I wouldn't want my kids to see, so be careful when visiting this site.
Movieguide - Direct to the point with a nice rating scale and very specific listing of questionable content. One of their taglines is "Christian Movie Review".
Catholic News Service Movie Reviews - Movie reviews by Catholic News Service (as well as from the former Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops). Generally gives a nice summary of the film but not very detailed on questionable content. Just a note that the USCCB Office ran into some trouble on a couple of occasions.
Do you have any sites you use to research movies for your family? Share them in the comments below.
Photo above by MLive.com
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