Grandparents Magazine™

This movie is great from start to finish and if you have grandchildren in the older bracket it will be fine. However, this was rated PG-13 for a reason. There is violence, and plenty of it -- and it’s pretty realistic and war themed, since Tony Stark, a.k.a Iron Man is a manufacturer of weapons. The story is about Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) the CEO of Stark Enterprises. Despite the genius that his is he is quite a playboy, until he is kidnapped and forced to create for terrorists one of his own weapons of mass destruction for them. Without giving too much of the story away – it is in captivity that Tony creates and becomes “Iron Man.” This is a good example of taking a comic book character and developing it into a great movie. Robert Downey Jr. is great as Tony Stark and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper (his assistant) is funny and smart, oh and the special effects, well they were great too. The story is fast paced, thoroughly entertaining and visually exciting. This movie has everyone counting the days until Iron Man 2 – and yes, this DVD is definitely worth adding to your collection.

Speed Racer, Warner Home Video, Rated PG, $15.99

Described as a “visual masterpiece” by some, our kid testers found this a bit more on the overload scale. The colors were bright, everything moves quickly and the story was slow. That being said, there is still a story and the kids did watch it in its entirety. The story revolves around Speed Racer, played by Emile Hirsch. He is the younger brother of deceased racing legend, Rex who seems to feel a need to always live up to his brother’s standards. His father, Pops (John Goodman) was the inventor of Speed's Mach 5. Speed and his father are wooed by a conglomerate that would supposedly give them every opportunity to succeed, but in return are locked into their exclusive racing services. Speed opts out and stays with his family. Speed of course has a girlfriend Trixie played by Christina Ricci and with her support he hopes to fulfill his destiny and become another historic racer. The cast includes Susan Sarandon as Speed's mom, Matthew Fox as Racer X, and a chimpanzee named Chim-Chim. Grandparents would do best to take a few Advil before viewing!

This DVD is really only for kids that can’t seem to get enough of Alvin and the Chipmunks. There seems to be a never ending flow of these DVD’s and maybe now they should ease up. This DVD features three episodes including: "Daytona Jones and the Pearl of Wisdom," “Batmunk” and “Robomunk” The first has hints of Indiana Jones, the second Simon as the “caped crusader” and finally there is Robomunk which is a parody on “Robocop.” In every case the original is better than these cartoon versions. Kids who like the Chipmunks will probably find this entertaining, but we suggest renting it before committing yourself to hours of squeaky voices!