tf-galHello everyone! I am introducing a new series on the blog called Solo Summer Movie Reviews! For this passion project of mine, I am reviewing some movies that were previously kept in their original DVD/Blu-Ray cases for a really long time!
Since we are now in the digital media age, I am definitely reviewing some movies that are only on physical media. Like many people who are physical media collectors, they usually review old movies that they keep. I am mostly doing reviews of underrated movies that were released on DVD/Blu-Ray combo packs, and some other nostalgic treasures that I had owned as a child. I will randomly do a supplemental DVD movie review based on any loose DVDs that I have.
First of all, I will try to summarize the whole film within the runtime, while providing my honest opinion. Each movie will either be reviewed on a Friday or Saturday night, and I will post my final thoughts on the movie a week after.
The first movie I will be reviewing is Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer, which is based on the book series of the same name. Similar to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies, Judy looks very similar to her original art style, but is translated very well into a live-action/partly animated movie.
The summary of this movie was previously written on Saturday, May 18.
The first 5 minutes in a nutshell: Breaks the dress code by wearing flip flops to school; the kids are being so rowdy in the classroom since it’s the last day of school until Mr. Todd gives them all a random pop quiz.
It’s totally messing up my train of thought at the start of the movie, but I had to continue on. (the producers just wanted to get that out of the wavy to focus on the plot)
Judy and her friends are already booked for the summer, yet she challenges herself to do these dares to earn “thrill points” which play a huge role in the movie. Rocky goes off to circus camp, leaving Judy behind for some weird reason. The next few minutes is Judy literally suffering from an unbearable ennui until Aunt Opal comes over.
I guess the whole Bigfoot cult-thing is also supposed to be one of the side stories intertwined with Judy’s (let by this guy named Zeke), and Aunt Opal decides to join in, only for her to be competing with her friends to get the most thrill points. Judy’s friends send her emails when she finds a picture of Rocky on a tightrope in circus camp; she immediately does her first only to fail getting the point because of some mosquito bothering Frank.
The next dare is to ride the Scream monster at the amusement park, but Frank makes another dumb mistake by indulging in too much carnival food. Judy dares Aunt Opal to have a picninc in a so-called scary place and totally messes up with getting there is the first place because of her bad driving. The sandwiches were messed up for a poop picnic. <3
Then comes a whole montage of messed up dares due to Frank and Judy being idiots while they still try to find Mr. Todd, following yet another montage of them dancing as a After this whole montage was over, she still has zero points. Hope is not lost, though. Judy literally breaks up with Frank after watching a 50s – style horror movie and is the most savage breakup scene i have ever seen in book-to movie adaptation, and this scene in particular is way more iconic in my opinion compared to the one in Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010).
I guess their absolute last chance to get Thrill Points is to find the REAL Bigfoot, so Judy, Stink, and two other club members prepare to get in survival mode. Now, Frank decides to join them after Judy just broke up with him; they start looking for Bigfoot that night. The gang decides to borrow Jessica’s bike as they realize that Bigfoot inside of an ice cream truck, sabotage the bike and get in the club’s car, which has a lot of high-tech stuff. During the scene, the ice cream truck, the club’s car and the news van are all following each other until Mr. Todd was indeed the driver of the ice cream truck, and Bigfoot was actually Zeke in disguise.
Judy and Frank get front-row tickets to see the circus, and Judy fullfills her dream of participating in a circus act with Rocky as said by the ringmaster. Aunt Opal decides to intervene and finally, they put their hats on the lion statues. Every little mistake that they made in the movie was actually a considered a success according to Aunt Opal, but Judy ends up having the absolute BEST summer!
According to me, I thought this movie was one of the first summer movies that I actually watched and liked accordingly, despite the mediocre to terrible reviews at the box office. The animation segments were pretty cool to watch, and the acting was decent enough.
As for the special features… they were good too. Not much to say here, other than I am working on re-evaluating some older workout DVD reviews under the new rating system.