Movie Monday - and a Giveaway!

Welcome back to Movie Monday at Mom's Marbles! My kids and I love to review the latest dvd releases for you, so you know what your family might enjoy watching next.

This week we have 5 movies to review and 1 to give away! We'll be reviewing Morning Light, The Pink Panther 2, the animated Transformers: Season 1, The Princess Protection Program, and the Jonas Brothers Concert Experience. We have a copy of the Jonas Brothers Concert Experience: Extended Movie 2-Disc DVD with Digital Copy to give away, so keep reading to find out how you can win it!

Morning Light is a new Disney dvd, which presents a true-to-life, unscripted account of how a crew of teenagers and young adults are chosen and trained for the amazing experience of sailing in the Transpac Yacht Race from California to Hawaii. This grueling race (over 2,500 miles) is sometimes called the Indy 500 of yacht racing, and this dvd is a fascinating look into the sport of yacht racing. The documentary follows the young folks as they interview and apply for one of 15 positions on the crew and then gives an insider's look into training (including learning about navigating, how to fix the boat, and strength & cardio training to work up to the physical challenge of sailing for 10-plus days). Both the dvd and Blu-Ray versions of the movie include bonus features such as "Stories from the Sea" and "ESPN: Making the Cut." I found it quite interesting and my 7-year-old son enjoyed watching most of it too. His one complaint was that it was a little hard for him to follow, and he couldn't tell when they were training and when they were racing. So kids under 7 might be a little young for this disc, but I enjoyed it and I'm sure we'll watch it again over the years.

The Pink Panther 2 is the sequel to the recent remake of the classic Pink Panther movies, and this Fox movie stars Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau. The cast was full of funny actors that I was familiar with, including John Cleese, Lily Tomlin, and Andy Garcia. As the thief known as "The Tornado" goes after some of the world's greatest treasures, an international "dream team" of detectives comes together to hunt him down - and that "dream team" includes the bumbling Clouseau. The movie was funny in the physical comedy vein of many Steve Martin movies, but did include several moments of adult innuendo and had a romantic relationship as one of the main sub-plots (it is rated PG). When we'd seen the trailer for this movie in the theater, we thought the movie would contain the character from the cartoons and be more kid-friendly, so take this as a gentle warning! The retail version of The Pink Panther 2 has two discs - one with the film, probably more suited for adults, and a second disc with 27 of the classic Pink Panther cartoons. My 7-year-old son did enjoy the movie, especially the physical comedy bits, but I'm going to put it away with movies slanted for an older audience!

Can you believe the original Transformers cartoon is celebrating its 25th anniversary? There are several great releases from Shout! Factory this month, one of which is Transformers: The Complete First Season 25th Anniversary Set. This is a 3-disc set that includes all 16 original episodes from the first season as well as a disc of bonus features like some classic Hasbro toy commercials (so nostalgic!) and even a rare Public Service Announcement they made. My 7-year-old son had never seen Optimus Prime and Megatron before, but he has become a HUGE fan! It's a great set for a little father-son bonding, since my husband has his own fond memories of loving the Transformers as a kid. Just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, the show features giant robots that can change from vehicles (mostly good-guy cars and trucks and bad-guy jets and planes) into humanoid forms. They've come to Earth in search of a new energy source for their home planet, and apparently they managed to capture that little-boy magic too, because I haven't met a boy who doesn't love them!

The Princess Protection Program is a brand new movie from the Disney Channel - it premiered on television last Friday and it will be available in stores tomorrow. The movie features Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato as two girls from two different worlds who overcome their differences and become BFFs. It's a common plot but it seems to resonate with a lot of kids. Here, "Bait Girl" Carter Mason has a father who works for the Princess Protection Program, and one day he brings home a sixteen-year-old princess from a tiny country so he can protect her. Princess Rosalinda does her best to fit in at the Louisiana high school while teaching Carter about her "inner princess." It's a feel-good high school movie, and both my 7-year-old son and my 2-year-old daughter enjoyed watching it - there's plenty of slapstick along with the sappy moments. The dvd includes several exclusive bonus features that weren't shown on tv, including a behind-the-scenes look at production and the music video of the show's main song, "One and the Same," performed by the show's stars. Plenty of family fun!

Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience Deluxe Extended Movie in 3-D is an amazing Blu-Ray package! It includes a Blu-Ray disc with both the 3-D and 2-D versions of the wildly popular concert movie by the wildly popular teen boy band, a bonus dvd of the 2-D version, and a digital file copy so you can easily watch the movie on a portable device. The movie is mostly the Jonas Brothers performing their music (including some songs that had never been seen before) as well as lots of behind-the-scenes moments as they deal with their superstardom and travel around the world to perform. There are bonus features with even more behind-the-scenes shots as well as new bonus songs. My kids and I had never really seen the Jonas Brothers before (I know, I know! but we're not tween-age yet!) - my 7-year-old son wasn't excited about the movie, though he grudgingly admitted that "the music is okay." My 2-year-old daughter enjoyed bouncing and bopping to the music and laughing at the antics of the girls fawning over the band between sets. I think you know if you have a Jonas fan in your house, and if you do you're probably already planning to pick up a copy of this movie!

Now you have a chance to win the dvd version of Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience! It contains the 2-D version of the movie and the bonus features including Up Close and Personal, an extra behind-the-scenes look into the life of the band, as well as a Digital Copy of the movie so you can put it onto a portable device. You can enter this contest once or twice:

• first, leave a comment telling us who in your life loves the Jonas Brothers or what movie you've enjoyed with your kids recently
• second, if you like, either blog about this contest and leave us your link in a comment or Tweet about the contest on Twitter (be sure to include the hashtag #momsmarbles) and come back to leave a comment letting us know you tweeted

Next Monday we'll announce the winner! Good luck!

Don't forget to let us know if you've seen any of the movies reviewed today! We'd love to hear your opinions too.

These movies were provided by Click Communications for the purposes of this review.