Editor's Note: Earlier, we poked a little fun at My Sister's Keeper. So, in the interest of fair play, here's another take.

A few years ago I read one of those books. The kind you can't put down even though you recognize the flaws and know it can't end well. Maybe I picked it up because it was there -- I had received it as a Christmas gift -- maybe I kept reading it because it made me feel less bad about some of my own parenting decisions or maybe because it actually is a good, if heartbreaking, story. Whatever the reasons, Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper grabbed and kept my attention despite its subject matter and even after I (correctly) figured out how it would end.

I should not have been surprised to learn it was being made into a film. The book, a family drama, reads as if cinema were the medium the author had in mind to begin with. Doesn't this synopsis from the…

Sometimes, in the movies, differentiating between "good guys" and "bad guys" is easy; 101 Dalmatians' Cruella De Vil, Harry Potter's Voldemort and Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent fall unquestionably into the "bad" category. No moral gray area exists regarding these characters, only black-and-white…

If you are searching for a good, family-friendly movie, I recommend the latest DreamWorks/Nickelodeon feature, Hotel for Dogs, available on DVD April 28 (official movie site). Perfect for sleepovers and electronic babysitter material, Hotel for Dogs is lots of fun and features kids who are smart…

"Earth is very real, very beautiful and very much appropriate for children of all ages."

Before heading to the theater with our 13-, 11-, and 6-year-olds and a couple of their friends to watch Disneynature's new film, Earth, I had a little talk of the "this is a film about real…

There's nothing like a blow to the head to knock some sense into a girl. Monsters vs. Aliens' Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is saved -- despite all immediate appearances to the contrary -- by just such a blow in a close encounter with a meteor that not only effects her thinking but also her…

OK, moms and dads, think back, way back ... Think pre-VCRs, think Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights. Remember the '70s? Perhaps you even recall the first time you saw Escape to Witch Mountain Whether you can or cannot is, at this point, immaterial because now you can revisit those…