We saw the film Ramona and Beezus on Sunday, July 25, 2010 at the Rave movie theatres at the Town Square shopping destination in Las Vegas. This was the second film we saw in theatres in two days after seeing Inception at the Brenden theatres the day before (see earlier review). We went to Las Vegas to see a Keane concert on the preceding Friday, eat at some restaurants, and take a vacation (see later reviews). My wife had read the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary as a child and also saw and enjoyed the 1980s Ramona TV series starring Sarah Polley as Ramona. I hadn't read the books but had heard of them. I guess I thought they were for girls. I did read at least one book by Beverly Cleary, though. In the fifth grade I participated in the Battle of the Books competition where teams of three answer questions about books from a book list. One book on the list was Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Much later, at the L.A. Times Festival of Books in 2007, my wife, her sister, and I saw Sarah Polley discuss her new film Away From Her. My wife's sister got to say some words to Sarah Polley, complimenting her much earlier performance as Ramona. Polley said she was a fan of the Ramona books and gave our sister her autograph.
I had looked up theatres showing Ramona and Beezus and the locations and times were more limited than other major motion pictures. This surprised me because the move came out for wide release on July 23. We had originally planned to see the film at the same place we saw Inception, the Brenden Theatres at the Palms. But for variety we decided to go to the Rave Theatres. They are located at the Las Vegas Town Square, a shopping destination similar to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and The Shoppes at Chino Hills. After going to mass at Guardian Angel Cathedral, we drove to the 15 freeway, took it south and exited at Russell Avenue. We then turned right onto Las Vegas Boulevard. We passed where the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is located in the median. There's a place for cars to pull over and people to take photos in front of the sign. The Town Square was located on the west (right) side of the road just past the airport grounds on the left and between Sunset Road and Loop Road. It has three parking garages and parking lots in front and back. We turned right from Las Vegas Boulevard onto Town Square Blvd., drove through the interior streets and ended up parking at the back south lot fairly close to the Rave Theatres building.
We walked around the Town Square looking for a place to eat lunch. There were several bars, most of them on the second floor of buildings, and a Churrascaria called Texas de Brazil that only offered a Prix Fixe menu. We ended up eating at Tommy Bahamas (see later review). In the middle of the Town Square they have a small park with a footbridge over a clear pond.
After lunch we found the Rave Theatres that are in the second level of the building farthest west. We had never been to the Rave brand of theatres before since they didn't have any in L.A. that we knew of. The Rave Theaters building is fairly prominent with a festive blue, red, and green color scheme. The main sign actually says "Rave Motion Pictures". We climbed the stairs to the second level, bought our $8 matinee tickets for the 1:50 showing at the outdoor counter, and entered. Like Brenden the day before, Rave charges matinee prices for all showings before 6 PM. The theatre showing Ramona and Beezus seemed very small. It had stadium seating and a sign just inside the door said it had a capacity of 105. The theatre filled up nearly completely, mostly with young girls and their parents. I did notice a group of older women in one of the closer rows. Perhaps they read the original editions of Cleary's books that came out in the 1950s and 1960s. The screen and motion ads they played were similar to the ones we saw at the Terra 6 theatre when we saw Toy Story 3 on June 28. They were put on by the same company, Screenvision. We again saw the ad for the mobile phone preview of Inception. There was also one for K12.com, an online public school.
At 1:50 the previews began. The first was for the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, the first of three previews to show a rodent. The next was for another animated film, Rango, with Johnny Depp providing the voice of the title chameleon and this time the film had a talking rodent character. Next was Nanny McPhee Returns with Emma Thompson in the title role and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a supporting role. The next preview was a modern day retelling of Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black. The last preview, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader featured another talking rodent character.
After the previews, the feature presentation began. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it but I ended up liking it very much. It stars newcomer Joey King as 9-year-old Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus. The supporting cast includes John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sandra Oh, and Josh Duhamel. This makes the second time Sandra Oh has been cast with an actress who played Ramona. She was in the 1999 film Guinevere that starred Sarah Polley. Josh Duhamel also starred in the TV show Las Vegas. Selena Gomez also sings. She and her band, the Scene released a song for the movie, "Live Like there's no Tomorrow", that my wife downloaded after we saw the movie. The actors all do a great job, especially King and Gomez. They seem like real sisters.
The film takes place on the real Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon, the same setting as the Ramona books. It also seems to take place during the time period of the books since there are no references to modern popular technologies such as smart phones, e-mail, social networks, the Internet, and texting. It's actually hard to pinpoint the exact time period, though music from the 1980s is referenced as the period when some of the adults were in high school. But the time period really doesn't matter since the situations are timeless. Many are also hilarious, and, at times, heartwarming. My wife cried at parts and I nearly did. The characters are all very likeable, though imperfect and there are no real villains. The plot is told in small vignettes some of which are connected and all are settled by the end. There's much we could relate to including job instability and a character mentioning Alaska. I've also lived in Oregon and have heard of Grant High School that Beezus attends.
I actually liked this film better than Inception, the film we had seen the day before. Ramona and Beezus was rated G rather than PG-13 but still had many complex elements. It easily could have but did not get cheesy or have too many cliches. Everything seemed fresh and real rather than recycled plots from Cleary's books. My wife was reminded of many things such as the cat's name and Ramona's baby sister Roberta.
The audience enjoyed the movie and all the little children were fairly well behaved. Only once did one of them sneak up behind me and tap me on the head. Ramona and Beezus is a film about and for both adults and children.
I had looked up theatres showing Ramona and Beezus and the locations and times were more limited than other major motion pictures. This surprised me because the move came out for wide release on July 23. We had originally planned to see the film at the same place we saw Inception, the Brenden Theatres at the Palms. But for variety we decided to go to the Rave Theatres. They are located at the Las Vegas Town Square, a shopping destination similar to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga and The Shoppes at Chino Hills. After going to mass at Guardian Angel Cathedral, we drove to the 15 freeway, took it south and exited at Russell Avenue. We then turned right onto Las Vegas Boulevard. We passed where the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is located in the median. There's a place for cars to pull over and people to take photos in front of the sign. The Town Square was located on the west (right) side of the road just past the airport grounds on the left and between Sunset Road and Loop Road. It has three parking garages and parking lots in front and back. We turned right from Las Vegas Boulevard onto Town Square Blvd., drove through the interior streets and ended up parking at the back south lot fairly close to the Rave Theatres building.
We walked around the Town Square looking for a place to eat lunch. There were several bars, most of them on the second floor of buildings, and a Churrascaria called Texas de Brazil that only offered a Prix Fixe menu. We ended up eating at Tommy Bahamas (see later review). In the middle of the Town Square they have a small park with a footbridge over a clear pond.
After lunch we found the Rave Theatres that are in the second level of the building farthest west. We had never been to the Rave brand of theatres before since they didn't have any in L.A. that we knew of. The Rave Theaters building is fairly prominent with a festive blue, red, and green color scheme. The main sign actually says "Rave Motion Pictures". We climbed the stairs to the second level, bought our $8 matinee tickets for the 1:50 showing at the outdoor counter, and entered. Like Brenden the day before, Rave charges matinee prices for all showings before 6 PM. The theatre showing Ramona and Beezus seemed very small. It had stadium seating and a sign just inside the door said it had a capacity of 105. The theatre filled up nearly completely, mostly with young girls and their parents. I did notice a group of older women in one of the closer rows. Perhaps they read the original editions of Cleary's books that came out in the 1950s and 1960s. The screen and motion ads they played were similar to the ones we saw at the Terra 6 theatre when we saw Toy Story 3 on June 28. They were put on by the same company, Screenvision. We again saw the ad for the mobile phone preview of Inception. There was also one for K12.com, an online public school.
At 1:50 the previews began. The first was for the animated film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, the first of three previews to show a rodent. The next was for another animated film, Rango, with Johnny Depp providing the voice of the title chameleon and this time the film had a talking rodent character. Next was Nanny McPhee Returns with Emma Thompson in the title role and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a supporting role. The next preview was a modern day retelling of Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black. The last preview, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader featured another talking rodent character.
After the previews, the feature presentation began. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy it but I ended up liking it very much. It stars newcomer Joey King as 9-year-old Ramona and Selena Gomez as Beezus. The supporting cast includes John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Sandra Oh, and Josh Duhamel. This makes the second time Sandra Oh has been cast with an actress who played Ramona. She was in the 1999 film Guinevere that starred Sarah Polley. Josh Duhamel also starred in the TV show Las Vegas. Selena Gomez also sings. She and her band, the Scene released a song for the movie, "Live Like there's no Tomorrow", that my wife downloaded after we saw the movie. The actors all do a great job, especially King and Gomez. They seem like real sisters.
The film takes place on the real Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon, the same setting as the Ramona books. It also seems to take place during the time period of the books since there are no references to modern popular technologies such as smart phones, e-mail, social networks, the Internet, and texting. It's actually hard to pinpoint the exact time period, though music from the 1980s is referenced as the period when some of the adults were in high school. But the time period really doesn't matter since the situations are timeless. Many are also hilarious, and, at times, heartwarming. My wife cried at parts and I nearly did. The characters are all very likeable, though imperfect and there are no real villains. The plot is told in small vignettes some of which are connected and all are settled by the end. There's much we could relate to including job instability and a character mentioning Alaska. I've also lived in Oregon and have heard of Grant High School that Beezus attends.
I actually liked this film better than Inception, the film we had seen the day before. Ramona and Beezus was rated G rather than PG-13 but still had many complex elements. It easily could have but did not get cheesy or have too many cliches. Everything seemed fresh and real rather than recycled plots from Cleary's books. My wife was reminded of many things such as the cat's name and Ramona's baby sister Roberta.
The audience enjoyed the movie and all the little children were fairly well behaved. Only once did one of them sneak up behind me and tap me on the head. Ramona and Beezus is a film about and for both adults and children.
RSS Feed