Captain Philips

Like for so many other families, supper time means movie time. But with a boy aged 7 and a girl aged 13, more often than not is hard to find a movie that the whole family can watch and enjoy together.

Plus there's so many movies that parents have in their list of favorites, but to our dismay we see that no sooner the beginning title and credits start rolling, the damn kids start turning to their legos, their ipods, the stupid homework and what not.

Well, they are after all the so-called generation Y (for Youtube), and their attention spans are simply not up to the task of sitting still for a whole 90 mins to find out what happens at the end of the movie.

So I've decided to keep a record of what movies manage to keep the kids attention, while hopefully providing family friendly entertainment for all. And by family friendly I mean a movie with not a lot of "strong language", mild "adult content" and tolerable "violence" and "frightening scenes"... after all the prime directive for a good dinner movie is "not too boring" for most.

Tonight's movie is Captain Philips (source: library DVD)

Staying power (i.e. watching whole movie in one sitting = 10 points)
Chuck (age 7): watched until he finished his supper, then started playing with Lego. 4 points.
Lily (age 13): sat through the whole movie. 10 points.
Mom: went to another room for pilates. 1 point
Dad: watched half until getting involved in conversation with Chuck. 5 points.
Total: 16 out of 40.