Hit - Starring Dev Patel, Freida Pinto

Jamal Malik (Patel) is suspected of cheating when he starts to win a lot of money on the Hindi version of the game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

At the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire, I was confused about how the story was being told because of the awkward way that the director decided to introduce the audience to his storytelling style. The story tells of how Jamal knows the answers to the questions on the show Millionaire. Every answer leads the audience into a vignette that tells the story of Jamal’s life.

The story of Slumdog Millionaire is interesting and it also makes me wonder about real “slumdogs” in this world.

Bottom Line: Help out this Slumdog by seeing this movie.

Drama

Rated R for some violence, disturbing images and language.

Running Time: 2 hours

Miss - Starring Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston

According to IMDB this movie is about how a family learns important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic dog.

This “synopsis” could not be farther from the truth. This movie is not a family film. It is also not a movie about a dog. It is a movie about a husband and wife and how their lives change throughout the years. It just so happens that they have a dog that continues with them in their story.

When I think of movies about dogs I think of Benji, Air Bud, Bingo, Milo and Otis, Cujo, Homeward Bound - The Incredible Journey, Old Yeller, and My Dog Skip. These movies are movies that are about dogs and the dog is the binding source of the film. If you took Marley out of Marly & Me you would still have a movie, it just wouldn’t be very interesting, which is hard to say because the movie is not very interesting to begin with.

Bottom Line: If you want to see a family film about dogs, go see Hotel for Dogs.

Comedy

Rated PG for thematic material, some suggestive content and language.
* although I feel it should have been rated PG-13 because there was more than “some” suggestive content.
Running Time: 1 hour 55 minutes.