The Weekend Watch: Island of Lemurs And Draft Day

Like every weekend, we were able to catch 2 movies – one for the full family and one for the adults. This week we watched Island of Lemurs: Madagascar and Draft Day.

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar is a Warner Bros. documentary about, well, lemurs. Morgan Freeman narrates about the story of the different breeds of Lemurs on the island and the work of Patricia Wright, a scientist who has done extensive work with the endangered animals.

The movie was pretty short (41 minutes), but nothing stood out about it (other than Freeman’s voice…he could narrate my death and I’d probably enjoy it). There was a lot of information in the film, but I couldn’t tell you any of it.

I don’t think it kept the kids interest that well either. They enjoyed watching the lemurs climb trees, but they could care less about Dr. Wright and what’s she’s doing. The kids probably would have rather watch something like Meerkat Manor, where they play up the animals and how they live.

In the end, I’d give it a 1 star out of 5.

Draft Day was much better.

The story centers on fictional Cleveland Browns’ GM Sonny Weaver on day 1 of the NFL draft. Weaver has many different issues to deal with on one of the most important days of his career – problems with his mom, his relationship with a co-work, butting heads with his head coach and owner, let alone who he’s going to take.

The movie is realistic and offers a pretty good glimpse of the background of sports. Think Moneyball, just on a single day in Football; just don’t go in expecting a great film like Moneyball. There are issues with Draft Day, like the ill-fitting storyline between Sonny and his mother (no spoilers, but if you want to discuss in the comments, hit me up).

Costner was good in this role, which isn’t something I’ve said in much of his recent work. Jennifer Garner was a solid pick to play his girl-friend and didn’t overshadow Costner. My favorite actor in the film was Dennis Leary, who played the role of the Browns’ coach brilliantly.

I’m giving this a 4 stars out of 5.