Top 10 Family Movies Released on DVD, January 2008

According to figures released by the Digital Entertainment Group at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, American consumers spent 23.7 billion dollars on DVD sales last year. The selections are endless, as proved by the video rental stores that seem to be popping up on every street corner. Even McDonald's has gotten into the action, by placing video rental boxes outside their fast food restaurants! Simply stick in your credit card, it charges you $1 and you take home the movie for a night of family viewing. Grab an order of fries and a chocolate milk shake and you're ready to go.

Since many have a hard time choosing between the Big Mac and the Quarter Pounder with cheese. This guide is to help make your movie selection a little easier. It's a Top 10 list of family-friendly movies, all new releases and all safe for the entire family to watch.

10. Saving Sarah Cain: From producer Michael Landon, Jr. comes the story of love, sacrifice and redemption based on the best selling novel "The Redemption of Sarah Cain by award winning novelist Beverly Lewis. Sarah (played by newcomer Lisa Pepper) is a self-absorbed, yet well meaning newspaper columnist, who finds herself struggling to regain her creative edge. Her career seems to be crashing down around her, as her once edgy storylines have become, in the words of her editor: (veteran actor Elliot Gould) "cheesy articles". Just as boyfriend Bryan is about to propose, she gets a phone call that her only sister Ivy has passed away. It is then that Sarah's life changes forever.

Returning to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the Amish life that she left behind, Sarah finds that she has been named legal guardian to her five orphaned nieces and nephews. Although the children would prefer to stay in Lancaster County, Sarah packs them up and moves them back to Oregon where they try to adjust to the modern world they've been thrust into. Sarah in the meantime is exploiting the children in her newspaper column each day. When a jealous fellow journalist shows up at her nephew's wrestling match with a news team, the children are hurt and angry to find out that their aunt has sold their privacy...to boost newspaper sales. They demand to be taken back to Pennsylvania.

Through a series of events and a secret letter from her departed sister, Sarah learns the truth and realizes that she must sacrifice what she knows in order to save herself.

The children will wind their way into your heart as you find yourself wanting them to become a family. Just a word of caution....if you are one who cries at happy endings...get the kleenex first.

9. Robin B Hood: If you can't beat em...hire them? Jackie Chan has done it again. Your family will be charmed by his antics as Slippers, a compulsive gambler who has gotten himself into hot water, because well...he never wins. So to help pay off his gambling debts, he gets together with two cat-burgler friends to relieve the wealthy of their jewels and money. When his buddies kidnap "BB", a wealthy infant that they plan to hand over to the triad for ransom. The first evening, the baby can't stop crying so Thongs and Octopus have to charm him with their questionable singing skills and games of peek-a-boo.

But when they find out the triad plans to kill the baby, plans change and laughter begins as the merry men work to put BB back into his cradle. And in the same idea as the ever popular "Three Men and a Baby" Chan and his comrades possess a very common formula: a bunch of selfish masculine types who get softened by the goo-goo eyes of an adorable little kid. Matthew Medvedev will delight every one in his film debut as Baby BB. Look for some surprise cameo's by some well-known Hollywood stars.

Jackie once again choreographed all of his own stunts and Chan fans won't be disappointed in his high flying action scenes.

8. Surf's Up: Surfing was created by penguins? Of course! Just ask Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf).

Cody is an up and coming surfer who enters his first professional competition. The teenaged Rockhopper penguin, heads from his home in Shiverpool, Antarctica to tracel to PenGu Island for the Big Z Memorial Surf Off. Along the way he makes some new friends. Sheboygan surfer Chicken Joe (Jon Heder), famous surf promoter reggie Belafonte (James Woods), Surf talent scout Mikey Abromowitz (Mario Cantone) and lifeguard Lani Aliikai (Zooey Deschanel). they all see that Cody has talent and has a passion that most of the contenders don't.

Cody believes that winning the competition will give him the respect that he wants and the admiration of his family. But when he meets a washed up old surfer (Voice of Jeff Bridges), Cody soon discovers that a true winner.. doesn't always come in first.

7. Bratz The Movie: It's all about diversity. Sasha, (Logan Browning) Jade, (Janel Parrish) Cloe (Skyler Shaye) and Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos) are four teens who come from different racial and social backgrounds. But they are best friends and determined that nothing can come between them. They're excited about starting high school and feel confident that they're about to excel into worlds unknown.

Then they meet Meredith Dimly. (Meredith Dimly) The principal's daughter and Student body President, Meredith wants everyone to belong to a group. She doesn't like the girls independent spirits and begns to plot to destroy their friendship. She engineers several instances to pit the girls against each other and force them into her rigid clique system.

Jump ahead two years, and the girls are no longer speaking or hanging out with each other. The girls end up in detention together, and after a few tense moments, they begin to compare notes and figure out what really happened. They reunite to show the Meredith and the school a thing or two about friendship and that it's o.k. to be different.

6. Evan Almighty: From the producers of the popular Bruce Almighty comes the story of Evan Baxter. He's a television newscaster buys a new house and moves his family to Northern Virginia after being elected to Congress. When Evan prays for guidance, things begin to change....and strange things begin to happen. Then God appears.

He wants Evan to build an ark because a devastating flood is going to hit the DC area. The animals begin to appear two by two, Evan's beard won't quit growing and everyone thinks he's gone crazy. Evan soon discovers that having faith and doing the right thing isn't always the most popular thing to do.

5. Bring it on-In it to Win: Cheerleaders are athletes. And the high flying cartwheels, roundoffs and dance moves prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. It also proves that competition doesn't always bring out the best in someone. When Southern California high school senor Carson arrives at "Cheer Camp Nationals" she is determined to lead her squad to victory and bring home the top prize. But New Yorker Brooke and her team...the East High Jets have other plans. Both girls want the spirit stick to take back to their respective schools and tensions mount as Carson falls for Brooke's teammate Penn...without realizing that he's a Jet.

When Brooke finds out, she challenges Carson to a cheer off. What ensues is a cheer fighting scene that ends up in an all out fight, and gets girls from both squads suspended from the competition. The teams have to combine and take drastic measures to stay in the game.

This movie is great if you have older kids.

4. Shrek the Third: Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Mike Myers and Antonio Banderas are back for the third chapter in the lives of Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Puss n Boots. Fiona's father, the King of Far, Far Away has died and the clumsy Shrek becomes the successor to the throne. But Shrek decides to try and find Artie, the true heir to the kingdom. Artie (voice of Justin Timberlake) is a medieval high school slacker and really doesn't want to be found.

But while Shrek and the crew are gone, Prince Charming becomes not so charming and brings all the evil fairy tale creatures together so he can take over the throne. But what he doesn't count on is a pregnant and very irritated Fiona!

She rounds up the "Fighting Princesses": Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella and Repunzel to help her barricade the castle and they women manage to fend off the villianous army until Shrek rides in to save the day.

3. Meet the Robinson's: Lewis is a brilliant 12 year old boy with a new invention called the Memory Scanner. He created it in the hopes of retrieving the early memories of his real mother and find out why she put him up for adoption. But before he can use it, the invention is stolen.

Lewis has given up ever finding out anything about his past when Wilbur Robinson shows up and the boys take off through a time machine and head into the future....and animation. They spend the day with Wilbur's family, and uncover secrets about the Robinson family which make even the craziest families..seem normal! But Lewis will discover that dreams really can come true and will learn a lesson in what can happen when you believe in your family...and in yourself.

2. Garfield Gets Real: There were many that didn't like this movie, but I thought it was really cute. Kind of a "Grass is always greener" kind of movie. Garfield, the cartoon decides that life in the comics is not all it is cracked up to be. So when Odie gives him a way to get out. by dropping a bone into a hole and causing a gap between his comic strip and the real world ..he jumps for it. Literally.

Now, he's out in the real world and finding out that he had a great life in the comic strips after all.

Living the life of a low-key family cat, Garfield finds that the real world is cold and lonely and none of the other cats that he meets really believe that he's the Garfield of the newspapers. He misses his lasagna...he misses Jon and he actually misses Odie!

Then Garfield hears that unless he can find a way to get back into the comic strip...that his comic strip is going to be cancelled for good. He has to get back to Jon and Odie before the newspaper goes to print.

1. The Game Plan: Joe Kingman (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is a professional quarterback who powerful muscles are outweighed only by his powerful ego. His life is built around money, endorsements and thousands of fans, and that's just the way his agent Stella Peck (Kyra Sedgewick) likes it. His Boston Rebels are on the way to becoming conference champions and Kingman is determined that this is going to be HIS year. But then life throws him a pass and he's sacked for a loss when 8 year old Peyton Kelly shows up on his door step claiming to be his daughter from a brief marriage that ended 8 years and well...9 months ago. Her mother, she tells him, is on some humanitarian mission to Africa, so Joe let's Peyton stay. With a huge endorsement deal on the line, Stella suggests to Joe that he be the supportive father in front of the cameras, because it will be good for his image. But Peyton has plans of her own.

She insists that Joe enroll her in Ballet lessons. There father and daughter meet Monique Vasquez (Without a Trace's Roselyn Sanches). Peyton determines that she is the one for Joe and sets out to get the two together. Joe begins to realize that he has to handle ballet, bedtime stories and baby dolls...all without fumbling. And that life is really about the tough stuff: patience, love, teamwork and selflessness...by winning the heart of the one fan that counts the most.

There you have it. I'm sure there are more out there, but these were my favorite 10 family movies that have been released onto DVD in the last month or so.
I think I'll go pop some popcorn...with extra butter.