james-szabo Reviews

Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009)

A Shockingly Good Family Movie

[9/10 · 10 April 2009]

My wife and I, both in our 30s, were shocked at how satisfying this movie was. My daughters are big Hannah Montana fans, and my wife and I occasionally watch the show with them, so we were not expecting too much. As expected, there is a light, fluff storyline. However, it's intermingled with another, more mature storyline that could break a Daddy's heart. The acting is pretty good, too.

Beyond that, this musical is packed with great songs. The girls liked the Hannah Montana songs, but I really appreciated the more mature, country songs that made up the other half of the soundtrack. Miley Cyrus is trying to make a career beyond her Hannah Montana image and I, for one, think she is going to succeed.

Sesame Street (1969– )

My daughters are the judge

[8/10 · 25 November 2007]

This was one of my favorite shows as a child in the 70s. (Though my sister always preferred "The Electric Company" - if anyone remembers that.) So, naturally, I thought my own two daughters would love it. Well, at age 2-3, my oldest loved Elmo, but at age 4, she's long over both Elmo and Sesame Street - and she won't enter Kindergarten for two more years! So, I give the current show a 6. It's too inane for my 4 year old. As for myself, I was much older when I stopped watching. This was one of my favorite shows. I give the old Sesame Street a 10/10. Thus we get 8 stars overall.

When I do occasionally watch the new show, I miss Kermit, am dismayed that Snuffy is visible to everyone (where's the fun in that?), think Big Bird acts like an imbecile (was he always such a baby? maybe so), wish Grover and Cookie Monster and the Count got more face time, suspect that the current production team is trying to make Ernie and Bert seem gay, and miss some of the old segments. I think they should just stop producing new shows and start re-running the old shows starting with season 1. The ratings would probably go way up and they'd save a lot of money.

"Oh waiter! There's a fly in this production!"