Shark and Lava make for good mix

“The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl” is a movie all about

friends and how believing in dreams can become reality.

Max, a 10-year-old boy and an outcast at school, lives on his

dreams.

When everyone tells him that his dreams aren’t real, he must prove

them wrong and show them that dreams can come true if you believe

hard enough.

Shark Boy and Lava Girl are the two main characters in Max’s

“Dream Journal” who become real and ask Max for his help to save

Planet Drool and Earth.

Together they go on an adventure riding on the Train of Thought,

sailing across the River of Consciousness, and visiting the delicious

Land of Cookies.

Along the way, they must look out for the evil Mr. Electric and

his threats to do away with dreams forever.

“Shark Boy and Lava Girl” is an appropriate movie for children and

adults who are young at heart.

Taylor Lautner (Shark Boy), Taylor Dooley (Lava Girl), and Cayden

Boyd (Max) did a great job playing their characters “kid-like,” and

the movie was very kid-friendly (no bad language or violence).

Young children will especially enjoy the 3-D effects and wearing

the special boy/girl glasses which they get to take home.

All in all, this is a good movie for the whole family.

* KAITLYN IRELAND of La Crescenta is a sixth-grader at Valley View

Elementary.

‘Dogtown’ lacks bite

Catherine Hardwicke’s “Lords of Dogtown” runs on pure adrenaline.

Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to conceal its dirty secret: it’s a

film about nothing.

Sure, the movie periodically strives for depth, but they’re

contrived moments built on a flimsy foundation of cheap, unearned

emotion that don’t quite distract you from the fact you’re actually

watching an extended music video.

“Dogtown” follows the rise and fall of the original “Z-Boys” of

Venice, Calif., Stacy Peralta (John Robinson), Tony Alva (Victor

Rasuk) and Jay Adams (Emile Hirsch).

They were the original cultural pioneers of the 1970s

skateboarding movement that swept the country -- whom, emboldened by

the advent of adhesive polyurethane wheels, pushed the limits of

defying gravity with their fearless embrace of speed, style and

attitude.

Visually, the film gives you a sense of the unadulterated blissful

joy of motion, and director Hardwicke (“Thirteen”) deserves to be

commended for capturing the visceral thrill of the sport by attaching

cameras to skateboards and letting the audience vicariously

experience the air acrobats themselves.

Written by the real Stacy Peralta, “Dogtown” portrays how three

friends allow fame-fueled greed to lead them down three very

different paths, but what is fails to do is provide a convincing

explanation for their actions.

Jay Adams is drawn into gang life, ostensibly because he needs to

care for his hippie mother (Rebecca DeMornay), but why didn’t he

pursue endorsements that would’ve offered financial liberation?

Peralta’s script is nostalgic, and not surprisingly, he’s the easiest

on his own alter ego, painting himself as the innocent who was

victimized by his friends and survived by listening to his moral

compass.

I’m not sure if this is truth, ego or revisionist history, but it

doesn’t make for a compelling film.

* ALLEN MACDONALD works in the television industry and resides in

Toluca Lake.