Zathura

Who: Amber & Jonathan
What: Zathura
Where: on cable
Why: I've never seen it

I really enjoyed Zathura. It's basically the movie Jumanji, but in space, but it was still good.

The movie features 2 brothers, a 6 year old and a 10 year old. Of course, the 6 year old wants to play with the 10 year old, but the 10 year way too cool for that. He's in 4th grade and has a girlfriend for crying out loud!

As the 6 year old goes in the basement (of an old house his divorced father just bought) he finds the board game of Zathura (nobody saw that coming huh?). The tin game is obviously from the '50s or something, but everything is automatic. He presses a button to "spin", and a card shoots out of the game. "Watch out for meteors". Since the 6 year old can't really read, he asks his brother for help reading the card. All of a sudden, meteors are crashing thru the roof and falling all over the living room. The boys hide in the fireplace, and after a couple minutes, the living room is totally trashed, but the shower is over.

Well, now the 10 year old has been "forced" into the game. He reads the instructions and realizes that if they finish the game, everything will go back to normal. Thank goodness, b/c the living room is totally trashed and their dad ran out for a moment!

Crazy thing after crazy thing happens as the boys keep playing. By now their house is floating in outer space, aliens are about to board their 'house', and their older sister (the girl from Twilight) is frozen in a cryogenic state.

Thankfully, an astronaut (Dax Sheppard) shows up at their floating house to help with the alien problem. Dax the astronaut also had an alternative motive for being there. I won't ruin the surprise for you, but it didn't make a whole lot of logical sense, but it was still kind-of sweet.

Of course, they manage to get out of the game and the brother learn to work together, but how they get to the end game is pretty cool. Neat space effects! I highly recommend it!