I am getting a bit grumpy with listening to the phrase, “in these tough economic times…” we all know times are tough and I am not thinking that we need to be reminded 10 times a day!

But we do start looking at how we are spending our money as well as evaluating that once it is spent, how did we feel about spending it? No one loves to buy snow tires for their car or fix a water pipe that bursts, but in this post, we are talking about entertainment and that is a bit trickier. When you decide to part with a few bucks for a night out to see a movie with your kids, you want to make sure it is a great experience, right?

Finding the right movie is a trick. I am a bad one for this, because I usually talk to my girlfriends and then wait to rent it and watch it at home. But I have several friends that love a night or a rainy weekend afternoon out with the kids to be entertained. And often this is a last minute decision.

Using the local newspaper doesn’t seem to cut it anymore and neither do a lot of websites. Most highly ranking googled websites are run by movie companies. Do you think they will tell you about their movie not being as great as it looked in the commercial?

A friend of mine recently (over the holidays) he took his son to Marley and Me.

When he told me, I said, “Wow that looks like a cute movie.”
He said, “Did you know the dog died in the end?”
I said, “NO WAY!”

He said, “Neither did I – it certainly wasn’t the kind of movie I expected and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place when we left.”

Oh boy, what a bummer. If you are prepared for this type of ending (Old Yeller, for example), perhaps you may make a different choice, or at least you are … prepared!

My niece (9 y/o) loves Wall-E. In fact, we watched the DVD at our camp on Christmas Day. I thought it was silly, but very content appropriate for the people stretched out on couches in front of the woodstove watching it. NO TEARS!

But how do you know?

I remembered watching ABC Good Morning a few months back and they interviewed these two very sharp and amusing seniors that like movies and put together a YOU TUBE has a channel called “REEL GEEZERS.” (website) “Marcia and Lorenzo” banter away (here is a great article about them in the LA Times) they don’t always agree with each other, but they always cover how much violence or language is in a particular movie and lots of other things- ESPECIALLY if you are looking for something age appropriate and don’t want to be slumping down in your chair or explaining things to your kids all the way home!!

The Reel Geezers are very amusing and very smart- they have an extensive background in stage and screen. Most of their reviews are about 5-8 minutes long and they are well worth watching and listening to, it is YOU TUBE it is FREE. If you decide to create your own channel, you can always save the reviews as favorites so you have them for later. Reel Geezers also seem to keep up with the latest releases, but when you are in the “renting mode” and are entertaining children that aren’t your own it is really handy!