Now Streaming – August 2022

IN MEN IN BLACK 3, the intrepid Agent J must go back in time to save the younger version of his partner, Agent K, from an evil super-alien named Boris the Animal. Though still rated PG-13 for foul language and action violence, MEN IN BLACK 3 has fewer lewd elements and less gross-out sequences, with a stronger, more moral worldview containing surprising, even heartwarming new twists.

SPACE JAM is a mix of live action and animation featuring the Looney Tune characters and basketball great Michael Jordan. When Bugs Bunny challenges a group of little aliens who have come to make slaves of the toons to a basketball game, only Michael Jordan can help the toons get out of a jam. Fast-paced, well-executed and moral, it has prayers and a church scene, but is marred by an all-too-believable seance scene.

SPIDER-MAN is a live-action version of the famous comic book hero Peter Parker, who becomes a crime-fighting hero with super powers when he’s bitten by a genetically engineered spider. SPIDER-MAN is an exciting, high octane comic book adventure with an excellent performance by Tobey Maguire and many positive moral, biblical and redemptive elements, but the action violence is too intense for younger children.

In SPIDER-MAN 2, Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, confronts new personal problems as he battles a new awesome villain, a scientist with evil mechanical arms attached to his back, named Doctor Octopus. SPIDER-MAN 2 is terrifically entertaining, with lots of action, amazing special effects, a few unexpected plot twists, and a redemptive Christian worldview with very strong moral values and a provocative theme on the nature of, and need for, sacrificial heroism.

WOMAN IN GOLD is about a woman who fights to win back her family’s stolen art treasures, including a famous painting of her aunt, from the Austrian government, which retained them after Germany was defeated in World War II. WOMAN IN GOLD is a Pro-American, pro-capitalist movie with a strong moral worldview, but it’s a bit slow, and there’s brief foul language requiring some caution.

THE LION KING returns to the big screen in a live-action remake of the popular 1994 cartoon, as Simba the lion has to learn to grow up and save the ones he loves. THE LION KING is well made and has a strong moral, redemptive worldview extolling sacrifice and acting honorably, but it does have some pagan mysticism and scary scenes of lions fighting each other that merit caution for younger children.

OLD DOGS stars Robin Williams and John Travolta in a funny but uneven story about a middle-aged man who suddenly discovers he had fathered a set of 7-year-old twins. The movie has a strong moral worldview extolling family and personal relationships, but it contains some light bathroom humor and slapstick comedy.

Returning from architectural study in Rome, 22-year-old Annie Banks announces her engagement to a youth she met abroad. The news wreaks havoc on soon-to-be FATHER OF THE BRIDE in this updated modernization of Vincente Minnelli's 1950 MGM classic. Refreshingly, FATHER OF THE BRIDE affirms old-fashioned family values, though there is one exclamatory profanity and sexual innuendo. Aside from these flaws, FATHER OF THE BRIDE is a heart-warming father-daughter story that reflects family life in the 1990's.

FATHER OF THE BRIDE PART II is a funny, entertaining, positive portrait of a traditional family produced with exquisite love and compassion. When Annie, the now-married daughter of George Banks, announces she is pregnant, George comically tries to turn back the aging process and ends up with his wife Nina expecting another baby herself which delights his wife but scares him. Every element of FATHER OF THE BRIDE PART II has been crafted to perfection. It lifts up the family and the father in a positive, entertaining way that has never been done in film before.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST follows the fantastic adventures of Belle, a beautiful, but bored French girl whose life takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself imprisoned by a brooding Beast with a mysterious secret that holds the key to their future. With its newly enhanced format and the addition of a great new scene and song, this movie is a must-see for all except the very young or easily frightened.

TANGLED is Disney’s comical animated version of the Rapunzel fairy tale, wherein a thief gives Rapunzel a chance to escape the old hag who stole her from her parents, the king and queen. Despite an unresolved moral conflict, comical action violence and some Romanticism, TANGLED is beautiful, funny, exciting, delightful, and touching – with a redemptive, sacramental quality that lifts the movie, and its magical themes, into a more sublime entertainment.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 is a terrific sequel to the hit 2020 action comedy, where Sonic and his adopted human parents must overcome a returned Dr. Robotnik, who’s teamed up with an alien warrior looking for an emerald imbued with great power. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 is a cute, funny movie with lots of lively, exciting jeopardy, heartfelt family moments, plenty of humor, and a fun wedding scene, but it does have some light foul language and strong cartoon violence with punching, hitting and explosions, both of which warrant caution for children.