Movie Madness

The movie choices lately just stink.

My son and I love to go to the movies. As he's gotten older it's become one of our greatest pleasures, especially since he doesn't want to do a whole lot of other things at present. Last year we spent at least three of every four weeks at the theatre starting in May thru the first of August. We saw "Transformers" three or four times (for me, mostly for Steve Jablonsky's orchestral soundtrack, which we bought as soon as it became available).

The moment the music starts, we begin guessing who wrote the orchestral pieces (among Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, James Horner, or our favorite, Hans Zimmer). Most of the time I get it right, but he's really developed an ear for music and can now pinpoint styles and artists fairly quickly, unless the credits appear at the beginning of the movie and mess us up. Of course, the audience probably appreciates the fact that we aren't whispering back and forth anymore if the mystery has already been broken.

This time of the year is really a bore when it comes to movies. There's a huge assortment of R-rated or PG-13 that have little to be desired. When it comes to movies I'll take my son to, I whole-heartedly and happily admit - I'm a prude.

At fifteen his sexual identity is just beginning to develop. Attitudes toward women, himself, and life in general are really exploding as reality and hormones creep over him. As a parent I have always felt that it is my duty to ensure that he receives a healthy dose of reality commiserate with his age. Hollywood is definitely NOT reality, in my humble opinion. Even a decent message contained within a movie sometimes gets swallowed up in swear words, blood and gore, and sex, sex, sex.

Therefore, I am very careful to watch the content of movies before even considering taking him to be exposed. I realize there will come a point in time when he will be able to make decisions of what to see, so we discuss movies quite a bit after we've seen them. Occasionally we still get surprised by a scene, but that just gives us more fodder for discussion later on. My hope is that he'll develop a healthy sense of what is good to allow into his brain and make wise choices for content as an adult.

Many of my family and friends give me grief for being so controlling when it comes to movies I allow my son to see. Usually I'll just tell them, "uh, it's rated R for a reason" or something about being accountable for my son's well-being. Plus nowadays there's a really good crop of movies at different times of the year that I actually can enjoy with my son without experiencing remorse. We can have a great time at those kinds of movies.

That is until February rolls around. By then we have to figure out something else to do, but my pocketbook thanks Hollywood for saving me money for a few months.