Family Movie Night Activity: Jack the Giant Slayer
Jack is a heroic giant slayer and saver of princesses. Now you can slay movie night with this Family Movie Night Activity with Jack the Giant Slayer.
Movie Snacks:
*Beans are the obvious choice here. Make it a Magic Bean night with baked beans, green bean casserole, jelly beans or vanilla bean ice cream.
*At one point Elmont is rolled up in pastry dough by a giant chef and set aside next to two pigs who are also in dough blankets. Serve Pigs in a Blanket as a delicious giant style appetizer.
*For this flick, anything that you can make giant sized or mini sized will fit. A giant cupcake or a bunch of mini ones would be delicious. Personal sized pizzas or spaghetti with baseball-sized meatballs would be grand. Bite sized brownies or pancake sized cookies would be splendid!
Must-Pause Moments:
*Elmont finds himself fighting off the evil Roderick with only a knife in his mouth. See what your family can do without the use of their hands and feet. Paint pictures with the paint brushes in your mouth. Have cotton ball races where each contestant has to blow through a straw to get their cotton ball (or a tissue) across the table. Or use uncooked spaghetti noodles between your lips and see who can string the most cheerios onto them without using their hands.
*At one point one of the giants is stuck with a bee hive in his helmet. Play a game of “Marco Polo” where the seeker is blindfolded and shouts out Marco while all the other hiders must shout Polo in response.
*A couple times in the movie Isabelle is told what a great opportunity it will be for her to be Queen one day because she will be able to make the world a better place. Have everyone in the family share their ideas on how they would make the world a better place if they were a Queen (or King).
Activities:
*The people of the kingdom are having a festival type party at the bottom of the bean stalk with all kinds of entertainment, including fire breathers. If you’re fresh out of fire breathing family members then have a good ‘ol fashioned belching contest (with rules restricting the game to this one night only of course as all your lessons in good manners may suffer). Make sure to have some Root Beer and Orange Soda available as ammunition.
*Towards the end of the movie the giants and the soldiers have a tug of war with the gate to the palace. After the movie is over have a family tug of war or just see how many kids it takes to pull Dad over.
*Jack has a mini sized book of fairy tales that his father used to read to him. Either before or after the movie make some mini story books of your own. Using small notebooks from the store and some craft paper cover up the outside of the notebook with whatever design or color of paper you want and then write your own stories in the book or some nice love notes to your kids.
Danielle’- ClearPlay Giant Movie Night Fan
Rated PG-13 for intense scenes of fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief language; 114 min; Directed by Bryan Singer
Jack the Giant Slayer
In Albion, a young farmhand named Jack finds himself in possession of some beans, magic beans. When one gets wet an enormous vine shoots into the sky, linking the land of giants floating in the clouds and the human world below. The nasty giants want revenge for past wrongs and descend the vine looking to unleash destruction. Jack and a beautiful princess find themselves front and center in a dangerous bid to stop the destruction of their kingdom and drive the giants away.
ClearPlay In Action!
There are only about ten instances of swearing to clear out, though a couple of those are of the more serious variety. The movie self edits some of the violence by having it occur off screen. What’s left ClearPlay skips, but you won’t have any trouble following along. With filters, Jack the Giant Slayer could be a family film, though younger kids might be a bit frightened in a couple of spots.
Is Jack a Giant Success?...
This reimagining and expansion of the Jack and the Beanstalk story has its fun moments but doesn’t rise above mediocrity far enough to make my A or even B+ list. Especially surprising were some spots with subpar CGI, which are unusual in this day and age. Still, if you’re in need of some traditional fantasy and romance, Jack the Giant Slayer is a functional enough film and may tide you over until something more worthy comes along.
Brian Fuller - ClearPlay Bean Planter
Rated PG-13 for intense scenes of fantasy action violence, some frightening images and brief language; 114 min; Directed by Bryan Singer