New in Home Entertainment
March 7, 2017
Moana
Rated PG for peril, some scary images and brief theatrical elements
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%
Disney’s latest princess flick heads to the Pacific Islands as a chieftain’s young daughter wishes to save her dying island by leaving against her father’s will in order to try to force a missing demi-god (played by Dwayne Johnson) to aid her. The story itself is strong enough to carry the film, but when you throw in musical numbers from Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda and some of the prettiest animation ever to come out of the mouse house, you end up with a monster hit with a huge emotional punch. I really thought that this would be the Oscar winner for best animated film this year (Disney’s other hit Zootopia won) but with such competition, Moana had a bear of a time vying for the three awards that would have normally come easy for it: animated, song and score. But who cares? At my house this was the movie that won the year, and will no doubt be a favorite for years to come. A
Rules Don’t Apply
PG-13 for sexual material including brief strong language, thematic elements and drug references
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%
It’s been nearly twenty years since Warren Beatty has written, directed and starred in a movie (the last time was 1998’s Bulworth), and this time he’s back with a story about a young actress and her chauffeur (Lily Collins and Alden Ehrenreich) who work for the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes (played by Beatty). The film tries at time to be a comedy, a romance and a drama, but misses on all three fronts, and ultimately left me scratching my head at what I just saw. Not helping is the 126 minute running time that feels more like three hours. I’m not certain if this is the case – but the film felt rushed – like they were desperately trying to get this out to voters in time for their deadlines without stopping to think if it was ready enough to be a contender. Then again, I’m not sure if this project ever had the potential to hit that kind of chord. C