movies | At Home with Tech

March 3, 2024

Stream these Funny PG-13 Action Movies with your Family

If you’re looking to expand your movie choices beyond the MCU, here are some fun options with punch to consider streaming.

For years, I’ve been curating a list of movies for my family to stream. And let me tell you, it’s not been easy to find consensus on what we all want to watch. Most every weekend, I scrub through the movie options available on our various streaming services and look for a new title or two that might appeal to everyone.

I enjoy mind-bending science fiction, but my wife and I are both mindful to serve up appropriate content for our thirteen-year-old son, who gravitates today towards the fun/action recipe of MCU-style filmmaking.

Four-Letter Words
Of course, we need to follow obvious guardrails when choosing appropriate content for our eighth grader. Even though he’s close to graduating to more mature content, PG-13 has been an uncrossable line for years. (The only exception so far has been the first “Matrix” movie.)

I’m sure you know there’s no way to avoid bad language in the PG-13 universe. It spans across the multiverse. I’ve stopped worrying. Plus, he hears it every day in school. That’s life.

It’s been at least a year since I stopped counting four-letter words in movies.

Slim Pickings
Everyone talks about the avalanche of streaming content available today. But I’ve still found it especially difficult to find fresh movie options. (Last year’s writers’ strike didn’t help.)

I also think my challenge is partially due to the reality that not many films are perfect for the early teen audience.

Sure, there are plenty of movies for kids… and loads of adult movies. But this in-between segment is relatively narrow.

What did They Say?!
Another limiting factor is many classic flicks haven’t aged well. Either the pacing is too slow (in comparison to today’s fast-cutting storytelling norms) or the characters feel like caricatures from a by-gone era of inappropriateness.

I like to think of myself as a movie buff, and there are still plenty of older movies out there that hold up just fine. But just the idea of a classic movie that may look a bit dated can often be a non-starter in my household.

Still, I am undeterred by these challenges. I want our son to have an appreciation for rich cinematic storytelling. So, I will continue looking for great movies for Cinema Lester on the weekends.

The MCU is the Gold Standard
All this said, I also need to meet the need today. And like it or not, Marvel movies hit that sweet spot.

I’ve enjoyed most of the MCU movies. And there certainly are a lot of them. But we’ve seen them all… some many times. So, I’ve had to look elsewhere to build up my list.

And it’s been hard to find other choices that follow the successful MCU formula of humor, decent character development and pounding action with great special effects.

I know Marvel has had trouble lately with their movies, but that doesn’t take away from the reality that their MCU-storytelling formula entirely cracked the code.

Fortunately, we’ve found other films that follow a similar storytelling style.

Two Tough Guys who are Fun
Action with jokes. Tough, but not too serious. Fast paced but grounded in a good story. PG-13.

Two actors today have successfully integrated that formula into some of their movies- Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson.

Movies with Ryan Reynolds

“The Adam Project” (2022)
This time-travel flick has surprising heart. Also stars Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana.
“Free Guy” (2021)
Between all the action, it still takes the time to focus on the power of friendship.
“Spirited” (2022)
It’s a musical, but the Reynolds’ factor still carried it for my son. Also stars the great Will Ferrell.
“R.I.P.D.” (2013)
This one’s a failed “Men in Black” copycat. But’s it’s fun to stream. Also stars Jeff Bridges.

Reynolds’ edgy Deadpool is a real question for me, as I feel “Deadpool and Wolverine” will land a little early for our son. But who knows how Disney and Reynolds will handle the obvious challenge of introducing the highly inappropriate Deadpool to a broader audience. We’ll see later this summer.

Movies with Dwyane Johnson

“Jungle Cruise” (2021)
Also stars Emily Blunt.
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (2017)
Also stars Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan.
“Jumanji: The Next Level” (2019)
This sequel is even better.
“Central Intelligence” (2016)
Also stars Kevin Hart.

Movies with both Reynolds and Johnson

“Red Notice” (2021)
Two for the price of one. Also stars Gal Gadot.
“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” (2019)
This over-the-top flick wasn’t a successful spinoff from the long running “Fast and the Furious” franchise, but we liked it anyway. Also stars Jason Statham and Idris Elba.

Movies with Mark Wahlberg
A few Mark Wahlberg movies are well suited for the early teen segment.

“The Family Plan” (2023)
Silly but satisfying.
“Uncharted” (2022)
Also stars Tom Holland.
“The Other Guys” (2010)
Also stars Dwyane Johnson and Will Ferrell.

Yesterday’s Winners
Here are some older movies that fit into this action/fun niche (and still hold up to today’s current movie-making standards).

“Men in Black” movies (1997, 2002, 2012, 2019)
“The Fifth Element” (1997)
“The Pirates of the Caribbean” movies (2003, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2017)
“Ready Player One” (2018)

Movies that Should Make the List
The films below don’t make my official list. But that’s not because I don’t like them. They simply didn’t pass muster in my focus group of one. (They didn’t appeal to our son after he watched the trailer or part of the movie.)

“Ghosted” (2023)
Sure, it’s got Chris Evans, but the trailer didn’t do it for our son.
“Green Lantern” with Ryan Reynolds (2011)
Even Reynolds makes fun of this failure. Still, I liked it.
“Hellboy” (2004)
I loved this movie. Directed by the great Guillermo del Toro.
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (2008)
The sequel is visually stunning.
“Shazam!” (2019)
Our son lost interest halfway through.

This Movie is Not on Anyone Else’s List

“The Flash” (2023)
Starring Ezra Miller, this DC multiverse film entirely bombed at the box office. Plus, it tried to marry humor with the debilitating darkness that most every DC movie has been saddled with. (One can begin to understand why an entire DCU reboot is underway.) “The Flash” doesn’t work on many levels. But it is funny. And it has a lot of heart too. Plus, it uses the multiverse to bring back the great Michael Keaton as Batman. My son and I really enjoyed it.

The Force, Impossible Missions and Bad Feelings
Of course, we also enjoy pure action/sci-fi movies without the comedy. Obvious examples are the “Star Wars,” “Mission Impossible” and “Indiana Jones” ecosystems. (Sure, there are some light moments, but comedy is not central.)

So, I won’t include these movies, as they don’t fit into the narrow focus of today’s exercise to find more easy-breezy content that still has enough rough and tumble.

Limited List
As you can see, my list is not terribly long. And that’s why I’m always hunting for new choices for Lester Movie Night.

I’m sure I’ve missed some good options. Do you have any movies to recommend?

Danger
Thank goodness that in a pinch, we can always default to an episode or two of Netflix’s “Lost in Space” series (2018-2021.) That cinematic show remains absolutely perfect for our whole family to rewatch.

Fun. Exhilarating. Danger. Sometimes scary (but not too scary). Heartwarming. Clever. Family-focused. It’s everything you could possibly want.

Dear Hollywood: More of this please.

July 2, 2023

I Time Traveled to 1979 and into the Film Set of The Crowded Room at Rockefeller Center

I accidentally ended up walking through a scene from “The Crowded Room” on Apple TV+ right before filming began. Here’s what happened.

I walked quickly to work in New York City last summer. The day was July 5th, and I experienced something of a spatial anomaly. Before I knew it, I was suddenly transported in time back to 1979.

I knew the year was really 2022, but reality started to warp around me pretty quickly as I crossed through Rockefeller Center.

I Entered a Time Bubble
To the right, I noticed a film crew and a group of actors hanging out between takes next to the famous ice-skating rink landmark. The extras were all dressed in hideous outfits from the 1970s. I didn’t immediately think much about it. (I grew up in New York.)

I turned my gaze forward and approached a woman in black wearing a headset and clutching a clipboard. She seemed very 2022.

As I passed her and took an immediate left to walk west on 50th street towards Radio City Music Hall, I sensed a small commotion behind me and vaguely heard something about the street now being closed to pedestrians. I kept walking.

I looked ahead and was stunned by what I saw. The entire street had been reversed four decades. It was as if I had walked through a time bubble and popped out in the 1970s.

The cars…the signs…the people. All transformed.
Even Radio City Music Hall had signage promoting an upcoming Frank Sinatra performance.

Had my mind been somehow captured, and I was relocated into another season of “WandaVision?”

I Crashed a Scene from “The Crowded Room”
Not exactly. In fact, I was walking through a scene of “The Crowded Room,” starring Tom Holland on Apple TV+.
I had inadvertently slipped through right before a street scene was to be filmed. All of the extras were in place, and it was as if I were an extra too.

For the next two minutes, I walked through 1979, appreciating all of the design work that had been done to bring this famous street back to another era. And then there were the dozens of extras, all seemingly transported here from the ‘70s. That actually felt really weird and slightly destabilizing.

It’s interesting how easily it is to disrupt your sense of normal, even if you know what’s going on.

Return to Reality
As I approached Sixth Avenue, I saw another crew person in black holding back other versions of me wanting to take the same trip back in time. They were too late.

I popped out of the time bubble and reentered 2022. I heard people yelling behind me to ‘stand by’ and ‘take your places.’

I didn’t look back. I had my moment back in 1979, and I was satisfied.

And no, I didn’t brush past Tom Holland or any other movie stars. (That might have actually ruined my immersion into the past.)

It was just another New York moment:
July 5, 2022 at 8:40am.

You never know what you’ll see on the streets of New York City.

March 5, 2023

Why Does it Take 40 Minutes for the Movie to Start?

Are you also puzzled why you have to sit in your movie theater seat for so long before your flick actually begins? Is it to give you time to eat more popcorn?

Watching movie previews used to be a really fun part of going out to the films. Remember when there was even a surprise factor? Of course, today you can find all movie trailers online. So you’ve probably already seen every preview the movie theater is going to throw at you.

But these days, that’s not the half of it. There’s all of that bland Noovie programming with Maria Menounos that runs before the film is scheduled to begin. (It also drifts 5-7 minutes into what used to be the ‘coming soon’ zone.) And then, there are promos for TV shows. And for the final insult, there are all of the commercials.

Commercials!

Limiting my Exposure
I intentionally avoid most commercials, now that I can pay more for a commercial-less streaming experience at home. (The major exception is the commercial line up for the Super Bowl. It’s always fun grading the most expensive 30-second spots on TV.)

Yes, I pay more for our streaming subscriptions to minimize my family’s commercial exposure. I think it’s really worth it. Our twelve-year-old son has grown up consuming his media mostly without commercial interruption.

Sure, I still carry about a fair amount of parental guilt regarding how much screen time he consumes (a much more complex equation than when the debate was just over ‘TV’ time). But at least I can say that commercials don’t bathe his being nearly as much as my own experience growing up.

With this accomplishment, I am especially displeased that movie theaters have become a new Wild West for commercials.

I simply don’t want us to watch commercials before a movie.

I feel inundated, and it’s painful.

By the time we get to Nicole Kidman telling us what a great experience it’s going to be at the movie theater, I want to run away.

Talk about a terrible warm-up act.

A 3-Hour Tour?
No, the preshow isn’t all commercial content, but it bloats the entire block to an unwatchable length. Getting through it all feels like an endurance test.

When I went to see “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” with my son, I lost literally forty minutes of my life squirming in my movie theater seat waiting for the MCU to start.

That creates an almost 3-hour viewing experience. Who’s got 3 hours anymore? It’s too much time. Way too much.

Post-Pandemic Reality
I know this is not a new phenomenon, but it feels like it’s getting worse. That’s probably because I haven’t returned to an actual movie theater that many times since Covid closed them all down.

If movie theater owners want all of their customers back, punishing them with content they don’t want to watch is not an especially great plan.

I understand that the business model of movie distribution needs to work, but this is out of control.

How Long Will You Wait for your Entertainment?
Consuming commercials used to be the way people watched television for free. Then we were taught that we could pay for premium movie channels on cable. And that evolved to paying for commercial-free streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix. Sometimes, you can play less per month with ‘limited’ commercials. But for me…that pure experience without any commercial interruption is worth the extra few bucks a month.

So I pay for the programming I watch on TV, and it’s usually commercial free.

And that’s always been the business model for movies theaters. When movie ticket prices go up, you can grumble, but that’s how it works.

But then when you throw in obligatory commercials at the movie theater on top of that, it’s crossing the line.

Today, it’s hard enough to wait 5 seconds to click out of a YouTube spot before you get to watch your video. Waiting 40 minutes for your movie is ludicrous.

Times have changed. When we are offered the option to ‘skip the open’ on our favorite streaming shows, today’s movie-going experience feels entirely out of sync with reality.

Add Back 38 Minutes into your Life
Clearly, the solution is to show up at your movie theater seat about 38 minutes late (as long as you’ve got reserved seats.)

This just takes a little reset in how you schedule your time. Trying to miss the movie previews has now evolved to how to avoid the preshow entirely.

Movie theater owners need to redesign their customer experience and offer something more worthwhile during the preshow.

Or just simply play the movie. That would be quite the innovation.

New Movie Theater Business Model
Okay, here’s a scary question: Would I pay even more for my movie ticket to ensure I don’t have to watch any commercials?
(pause)

I would.

If cinema 1 is playing the movie with commercials and a 40-minute preshow, and cinema 2 right next to it has the same movie that simply starts at the posted time, yes I would pay more for a ticket to cinema 2.

And if that’s been the plan all along, then I have to tip my hat to some really smart marketers who are playing the long game.

For now, I’ll just try to be that guy who shows up a half-hour late.

Category: movies

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: