We might still be six weeks away from Christmas, but the Christmas spirit (& frenzy) is starting to take hold of me. Gift buying, decorating idea, travel plans & outfit choices have been occupying my thoughts for a couple of weeks now. It doesn’t take much to have it all be very overwhelming.
Which is why I was thrilled to have a night out with a few of my favorite fellow “bad moms” to go see the new film, A Bad Moms Christmas recently.
Have you seen it yet?! I laughed til I cried.
We meet the same three moms we fell in love & saw ourselves in the original Bad Moms (played delightfully by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, & Kathryn Hahn) but this time as they’re in the middle of the holiday hustle. Adding to their holiday craziness is their three mothers. & we as the audience got to experience the mother/daughter dynamic of the ladies with their moms (played by Cheryl Hines, with Christine Baranski, and Susan Sarandon).
My friends & I looked the mall scene. & we loved Justin Hartley I’m sure you know from This Is Us, but you see a whole new side of this guy in Bad Moms Christmas. So much fun!
A Bad Moms Christmas is a great reminder that sometimes less is more. Kids are what matters most at the holidays. & that keeping your sanity as a mom is important too!
If you loved Bad Moms, feeling like you might be a slightly crazy, “bad mom” & in need of a laugh, grab some friends (or even your mom!) & go see A Bad Moms Christmas! I’m so glad I started off my holiday season doing just that!
I was invited by STXfilms to see a pre-screening of the film but their generosity didnt sway my views.
We were able to go see Leap! back in August & yes, I’m just now writing about it. Not because we didn’t love it (Lucy sat at the very edge of her seat the whole time), not because it didn’t change her mind on dance (she’s since decided to be a dancer). But because the last two months have blown by. Today is Oct 11th & I just typed September for the date. Yes, I’m that behind.
But back to Leap! This film tells the story of two orphans, Felicie (voiced by Elle Fanning) & Victor (voiced by Nat Wolff) who take off to Paris to make their dreams come true.
Sadly for Zach, there wasn’t enough about Victor, the wanna be inventor to hold his attention for long. But the story of Felicie trying to become a ballerina at the Opera Ballet School without formal dance training, captured Lucy’s heart & imagination.
Lucy is obsessed with Felicie’s leap! This was by far her favorite part & that leap has had Lucy practicing the splits for months now!
We left the film with Lucy twirling & she hasn’t really stopped. Hope you & your dancer & watch this one soon. Loved it as a former dancer with my little dancer-to-be!
While we did get to watch the film for free, my thoughts & (late) review are entirely my own.
Cars 3 for my family has been probably the most anticipated film of the year.
While Z isn’t *quite* as Cars obsessed as he used to be (he now shares the Cars/trains/Planes obsession with Batman & TMNT, sigh), Cars & Cars 2 are always movies they welcome watching on a Saturday morning as we ease into the day. We showed them the first trailer & sneaks as soon as we found them & since then, both Zach & Lucy have been asking when do we see it?!
I was thrilled to tell them last weekend & we would be able to see Cars 3 THIS WEEK! I snuck off at lunch to the Disney Store & bought Cars 3 tees (Buy one get one half off FTW!), so as I shared on IG, we were all set & so excited!
In a completely out of our usual behavior, we happened to be early to the screening & I’m glad we were. Lucy & Zach munched on popcorn & settled in for the film. Be sure to be there early because Disney Pixar has as short story animated treat to watch first.
Lou was great! It’s the story of a playground bully & the LOst & foUnd box that stands in his way.
The old gang was back together & I could not have been happier to see the faces of Lucy & Zach smiling over ole Mater & friends cheering on Lighting McQueen racing!
New class of rookies with more technology throws a wrench in Lightning’s winning streak & also in the friendly atmosphere Lightning & his long-standing racers had created.
Lightning goes to his new training facility. It’s shiny & fancy & filled with new Cars racers & a new trainer named Cruz. Hilarity ensues & Lightning decides to try training his way. First on his list: Daytona beach like the old days!
Like Thomasville, NC (home of Cars NASCAR legions & my Pawpaw) ole school where Lightning & Cruz enlist the help of some older cars (including Smokey & Louise, who was inspired by the first female NASCAR driver). I LOVED this section of the film where the directors really paid homage to the history & heart behind the sport.
Will Lightning be ready to take on the young guns in the final race of the season?! You’ll have to go to the movies this weekend to find out!
I hope you & your family love this one as much as we did! Cars 3 is rated G & I really believe it’s family friendly for all ages.
Zach loved all the races; he could not even pick a favorite scene. Lucy liked Cruz. Jason was still talking about how much he loved it to his coworkers later on this week & we’ve already decided we’ll have to own it as soon as it comes out. & I loved that Cars 3 introduced strong female cars who helped save the day. Y’all know I’m all about that girl power vibe & instilling in Lucy & Zach that historical gender roles should not define who or what you want to be when you grow up!
While Disney Pixar did provide us with passes (as well as tattoos that Lucy & Zach have been super excited over), their generosity did not play a role in my honest review of the film.
I don’t know about y’all but a certain 5 year old boy (& his sister, & his Dad & his Mom) are getting very excited for June 16th. Because that’s the release date for Cars 3!
We’ve been re-watching Cars & Cars 2 these last couple weekends gearing up. & also Zach’s been pulling out all (what feels like 100+) of his Cars cars all over the den floor rolling & racing them around.
I got an email with a few “Nat’s Stats” about the upcoming film & the new characters that I thought I’d share with y’all.
NAT STATS Natalie Certain: By the Numbers Volume 1.0
Natalie Certain is a highly respected statistical analyst who knows her numbers. Book-smart and mathematically gifted, Certain is a fresh voice in the racing world. While she may earn top marks in her ability to evaluate a racer’s stats, she could be underestimating the importance of determination.
4 Filmmakers added four characters to the film that were inspired by real NASCAR legends, Junior Johnson, Louise Smith, Wendell Scott, and Henry “Smokey” Yunick.
5 Five key areas in the southeast U.S. were visited to research the history of stock-car racing as well as the look and feel of racing in the area. Among these areas are Charlotte, North Carolina, where filmmakers spent time at the NASCAR museum, the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Hendrick Motorsport facility, consultant Ray Evernham’s garage and voice talent Humpy Wheeler’s house; North Wilkesboro Speedway; Occoneechee State Park and Speedway; Daytona, where they saw the Daytona Superspeedway, Daytona Beach (where early races took place), Daytona 500 Museum; and the Sonoma Speedway, where filmmakers were invited to ride along with professional racecar drivers.
16 “Cars 3” opens in U.S. theaters on June 16, 2017. 25 More than two dozen characters take part in the Crazy 8 demolition derby sequence, including Tbone, a car whose condition improves— temporarily—when he gets hit; SuperFly, who catches air; FareGame, the taxi who doesn’t get any fares; and Jimbo the pickup truck.
50 Junior Johnson, NASCAR driver from the 1950s-60s who inspired “Cars 3” character Junior “Midnight” Moon, won 50 NASCAR races before retiring in 1966.
95 Lightning McQueen still sports the dynamic #95 with his signature lightning-bolt graphics. The design of those graphics is a hybrid of his look from 2006’s “Cars” and his look in 2011’s “Cars 2.”
616 “Cars 3” gets dirty, really dirty. And it turns out, dirt—particularly mud—isn’t easy to get right in an animated feature. Artists and technicians teamed up to get the look just right—not too thick, not too thin—which was important because mud, splatters, dust, sand and sacred dirt appear in 616 shots.
656 Cruz Ramirez is a key character with a compelling and emotional story. In order to give her a dynamic range of motion and expressions, character riggers gave Cruz a total of 656 controls, including 360 for her body and 296 for her face—the mouth, lips, teeth and tongue have 216 controls alone.
1949 NASCAR legend Louise Smith entered her first race in 1949, where she rolled her family’s new Ford coupe. Smith inspired “Cars 3” character Louise Barnstormer Nash.
2015 NASCAR’s Wendell Scott, who inspired “Cars 3” character River Scott, was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.
60,000 The render farm being utilized to render “Cars 3” runs more than 60,000 cores. Memory has been upgraded recently, bringing the average per core to 10 gigabytes, compared to the 4 gigabytes per core recently used for “Inside Out”.
Looking for high seas adventure this Memorial day weekend?! The latest Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales comes out today.
It’s been a while since I saw the last ones but I believe this one takes off where the last ones left off. Dead Men Tell No Tales of course features the lovable mess of a pirate, Jack Sparrow played by Johnny Depp. This film features a couple new characters as well as brings back beloved ones from previous films.
The focus is on the trio of Jack, Henry (a young sailor from the Royal navy who has ties to Jack) played by Brenton Thwaites, & Carina Smyth (a astronomer in a world where people think women astronomers are witches!) played by Kaya Scodelario. They must form an alliance to find the Trident of Poseidon to save themselves & their families.
I love a strong, brilliant female main role in a film & Carina is just that!
I’ve always liked Capt Barbossa played by Geoffrey Rush in the other Pirates of the Caribbean films & was happy to see him & his monkey back in Dead Men Tell No Tales!
The scariest parts of the film (in 3D no less) for me was the ghost sailors lead by Capt Salazar played by Javier Barden. The made me jump out of my seat a few times!
I think the PG-13 rating of this film would be what I’d stick with in terms of deciding whether or not to bring your children. For this one, keep kids at home with grandma & you, spouse & teens go enjoy the action of Dead Men Tell No Tales.
Here are a few kid’s crafts inspired by the movie to keep them occupied at home or after the film!
You can check out Disney Pirates for more photos & behind the scenes videos too.
Thanks to Walt Disney Studios for inviting me to the media preview this past week. While I appreciate seeing the film as a solo couple hours to myself, as always, my review is solely based on my own honest thoughts.
