A Joe By Any Other Name, well, Just Wouldn't be Joe

 Today (March 27th) is National Joe Day.  It is a day to celebrate all the Joes in your life.  I have a couple.  One I would like to celebrate and one not so much.  But if you have a Joe in your life today is the day to buy him (or her) lunch.  

As my own personal celebration of National Joe Day (my name not being Joe) I watched a couple of Joe centric movies.

Little Joe starring Emily Beecham, Kit Connor and Ben Whishaw

A plant breeder has produced a plant that if properly taken care of will make it's owner happy.  But when she takes one home to her son she starts to suspect that not everything went according to plan.

The preview made this seem like a horror movie.  I would not say that this is scary though.  There is a quiet tension through the movie and a understated menace but nothing scary actually happens.  The threat that the plant poses is hard to be scared of.  And I feel like it kind of stalled in the middle.  The plot got to a certain point and never developed further even though the movie wasn't over.  And the sound track was unpleasant.  There was this high pitched whine - it was menacing but it went on for a long time and was almost painful at times.  And the dogs barking was just confusing.  The first time I heard it I thought it was supposed to be real dogs but it was just the background sound.  I didn't understand it and found it off putting.  I thought the idea was good but after the initial concept was introduced it just kind of ambled along and got nowhere.  And no closed captioning.  Which is becoming a pet peeve of mine.

Mighty Joe Young staring Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton

Jill Young has raised the gorilla, Joe, since he was a baby.  Now he is fifteen feet tall legend.  When Jill feels that Joe is in danger if he stays in the wild she brings him to an animal sanctuary to try and save him.

So, it is a little corny.  And the bad guys were over the top evil villains that really had no character depth.  But it is a fun family film.  Although be warned the beginning is rather dark and small children might find it scary.  There are not a lot of surprises here.  You can probably guess most of the plot right from the beginning.  So if you are looking for twists and turns look elsewhere, but if you are looking for a heartwarming, if predictable, story to watch with your family I think this is a good bet.  And the effects were good, Joe was done really well and looked like a living breathing ape even when he was interacting with real actors.