All Ages Approved

I don't want to have kids. But don't ya sometimes see a movie that makes you wish you did?

I don't mean a movie that has one of those "I never knew what my purpose was in life til this darling little fellow came along and parted the gray skies!" groan-worthy speeches. I mean a movie that you wish you had access to children so you could sit them down and say "Watch this, it will make you the kind of cool adult I'd appreciate more children turning out to be."

Anyway, I had that thought while watching Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen last night. First I'd wished that I'd gotten to see it as a child, and then I wanted to make copies of the DVD and send them to people I knew had children (well, if I knew anyone with kids - damned barren New Yorkers!). Cuz this is a movie I would've loved as a kid.

It also struck me while watching the movie that this was essentially a kid's movie that never shied away from putting its child heroine into all sorts of violent situations, and that there was a shot of Uma Thurman's bare boob stuck right in the middle. Can you imagine a kid's movie with a bared breast in it these days? Riots in the streets! Talking heads with steam coming out their "concerned" ears on FOX News.

Not that Baron Munchausen is just a flick kids can enjoy. I had a lot of fun with it, and am not quite sure how I'd made it this far in life without ever having seen it before (and I call myself a Gilliam fan!).

But mostly I just sat there wishing I was throwing an eight-year old's birthday party some time soon so I could make them all watch it. It's like a public service. You could weed out the worthwhile children by seeing the one's that got it and enjoyed it. Those are the winners.
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