Red (2010 — 111 mins) Bruce Willis, J. Malkovich, H. Mirren, M. Freeman, M-L Parker 

Ahh how I love ridiculously implausible, actiony funny special ops ensemble films. If you have read my reviews with any regularity you will see that not only do I look forward to these mainstream blockbustery flicks, but typically I love them. RED is no difference here at all. It’s funny, well acted, well written and just plain ridiculous at times but it all WORKS , and real well.

The story is pretty simple. Frank Moses (Willis)  is a retired black-ops agent living a less then boring life.His highlights are relegated to the days he gets to call his gov’t caseworker Sarah Ross,(Parker) who is just as bored as he is and yet they get along great and seem to be each other’s only close friend. What comes as no surprise is someone out of the blue has decided that Moses needs to die. And this then puts himself and his dear friend Sarah in danger. Willis then puts the band back together!, to figure out who is trying to kill him and his whole team as well. The RED’s (Retired Extremely Dangerous) are all old but are a model of efficiency and extremely powerful killing machines each.

The movie flows well and all of their interactions with themselves and others almost always conclude with laughs. Sure as usual in these movies it’s not to be believed but as always WHO CARES. The movie is fun it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome and is a great story. The whole team is acted well by Willis, Mirren,  Malkovich, Freeman and Brian Cox. Chasing them is gov’t agent William Cooper (Karl Urban). He’s a stern gov’t first guy who always has that Urban glare. I don’t think I would put Urban into a “type cast” category, but every time I see him I can’t stop from thinking about Lord of the Rings. He just has that same Eomer look to him but then again he was a PERFECT Bones in Star Trek too so that glare must be working for him.

Verdict—> Yep I liked it, so if you are looking for an action comedy to grab at the box and it’s there get it. Hell, if you are just looking for a good movie to watch grab it too. All of the actors are those who everyone knows and loves so there’s nothing to worry about and it’s funny and will go by quick for you so take it as a good recommendation from me!

Cyrus (2010–91mins) John C. Reilly, M. Tomei, Jonah Hill

 Cyrus is an awkward comedy/drama from the Duplass brothers which lost my interest in about 20 mins. It’s got some potential in good comedic actors and a solid premise. John (Reilly) is a man who can’t get back on the horse after a divorce 7 years ago, and it turns out his only two friends are his ex-wife and her new husband. They try to get him out of the house and convince him to come to a cocktail party where we find out he is truly an awkward mess at the social scene. Yet, he does manage to find a pretty single woman to talk to in Molly (Tomei). They both have the same odd sense of humor and manage to hit it off well and even go home together.  It’s up to this part where things seem to be going well and we even get a few decent chuckles out of the movie. Yet from here on the directors infuse us with the premise that Molly’s achilles heel is her overly attached 21 year old son who lives at home with her (Hill). I could live with this whole premise if it was a comedy of errors and hi jinks that leaves one pitted against the other. However it takes the real awkward turn to the point that you feel completely uncomfortable and almost don’t want to watch. It’s here I started to lose interest. It’s not the embarrassment you feel when watching The Office, rather take that and multiply it by 50 and you get the discomfort that Cyrus gives us.

The whole movie is a mess. The characters never fully get fleshed out and they try to spin little stories or ideas in the characters but never go anywhere with it. They throw awkward situation after awkward situation just to ramp it all up the whole time. Chasing that one climax and break down of the story. Sorry guys I’m not buying it. And I am also not going to recommend this movie to anyone to waste their time on.

I will take a few mins to discuss the actors in this film. Reilly does his normal thing. He’s a good schlub and he shows it again here. He’s only doing what is asked of him and it’s not to be the awkward one it’s the reacting to it all. Yet, Tomei and Hill don’t give us a whole lot in the means of power in their take on the mother son relationship. They try and evoke the stronger relationship where they are more then that, they are supposed to be best friends and he is extremely over protective, but they don’t succeed at convincing me more then they are trying. Sorry guys you fail slightly less then the writers/directors. (Which sucks to say b/c I am a huge fan of M. Tomei)

Verdict—> Another bad choice by the GeekJock for Redbox night. Sorry work peeps I thought it would be better. And I won’t try and subject other people to waste their dollar on this one. Skip it, you will thank me. If you want to see it wait for it to be on Starz at 2am. At least then the beer will be cold and chips fresh.

The Social Network (2010 — 120 mins) J. Eisenberg, A. Garfield, J. Timberlake

The Social Network A.K.A “that facebook movie” is among the front runners for many awards and has been touted as an amazing movie by many people. I’ll do now what I normally do at the end and say it’s decent but it’s not all that. Most people will want to see it b/c “OHHH that movie is supposed to be SOOOO good!” I am not sure if it’s b/c everyone and their great great grandmother are on Facebook, or if it’s b/c Jesse Eisenberg really IS that good as the supremely annoying Mark Zuckerberg (doesn’t hurt that we ALL hate him for being so GD rich as well as a dick), but it seems everyone is on that bandwagon.

The story is a fairly interesting one. In the last 20 years the information age has brought about so many people on the internet that the whole idea of social networking has taken off thousandfold. In the late 90’s the world got Myspace and Freindster but they were both so clunky, limited and not nooby friendly. One day a hacking geek and some buddies put together the king of the world to be, Facebook and made it what everyone wanted the others to be. Of course when you have a great idea and internet hit magnet you are bound to get a few things from it. You end up with tons of people trying to get their hands in your pocket like leech Sean Parker, he of Napster fame, and played masterfully by Justin Timberlake. Timeberlake is great b/c he has this quality that he can either be the funniest guy in the world who everyone loves, girl or guy a like, or he can manage to come across as the biggest A-hole around who you just want to slap the shit out of (Like Parker here). Then you get the groups of people who want to stake claim to the billion dollar idea to say it was their own and get some money out of it. This film has both of those.

The premise and “story” of it all is interesting and often pulled off with some decent humor. This is a combo that is pulled off partly from the script but mostly b/c we have grown to love Eisenberg’s geeky deadpan delievery from awesome performances in movies like ZombieLand and Adventureland. The thing that I didn’t like about the movie was the use of back and forth of seeing the parties fighting in litigation and the flashbacks to the origin story. It’s not so much confusing tho, as it is annoying. The whole thing I think they are trying to convey (IMO) is that no one is innocent here. Everyone is a leech and Zuckerberg while having a good idea is a socially inept A-hole himself, and not above screwing people just b/c he feels screwed himself. I think alot of this could have been conveyed in a story and delve into the litigation thing a different way. Again don’t let me deterr you TOO much from the movie b/c it is pretty good it’s just not the best movie I have ever seen by a longshot.

The whole thing does make you curious to try and find out how much is true and how much is fabricated by one side or another. But if you are like me you will think about that for a min or two then remember every one of thes ebastards are multi-multi-multi millionaire and I suddenly don’t care who is telling the truth they are all spoiled A_holes to me!

Verdict—> Like me most of you out there are prolly curious to see if this is as good as they say it is. Well it’s not THAT good, but it is good enough to warrant a viewing so you can make your own judgements on it. I would say a high second tier recommendation but if there are other things you want to see in the box get them first but def see it at some point.

I wanted to take a few seconds to send out my utmost prayers and condolences to Tom Vasal (from The Dice Tower) and his family on the loss of his newborn son Jack. He was born prematurely and had complications from then on. I simply cannot imagine what you are going through as a family and I can only hope and pray you find a way to mend your heart.

From myself and the Mrs Our heartfelt condolences.

The NHL All Star game will be in town here in Raleigh, this weekend and I am severely stoked. I will be at both events and likely lurking around the convention center on Friday and Saturday afternoon as well. The hope is to score a wristband to get in and watch the fantasy draft for the teams on friday and possibly score some pics with a player or two. I consider myself a huge hockey fan as a whole, but even I don’t watch the whole All Star game each year. Instead like most I tend to look forward to the skills competition on Saturday night like everyone else. Each of the big four sports have all star games and every one of them suck. No one cares one bit. Sure, the MLB AS game has home field attached to it for the winners side in the World Series, but still no one really cares out there. I think they want to be named MVP for prizes or win the game for the bonus money a bit more. The skills competition however, is the real deal. It’s the most fun to watch of all the all star weekends of all the sports. MLB has the home run derby which I rank a close second but it’s a one trick pony. Have these guys hit a HR then try and have some accuracy throwing to home plate from CF then we will talk. The NBA has some skills competition which has digressed down more to just showing the slam dunk competition. This thing has become a huge joke. Back when Jordan, Spud Webb, or even Dominique were doing their thing it was new and exciting. Now it’s apparent that there is no creativity left in the world as everyone has to resort to props to try and get some high marks. Sorry this isn’t going to make the casual or non-fan care one bit.

The NHL skill competition has everything. Fastest skater,  hardest shot, stick-handling  relays, shootouts, one year they even had goalies compete at shooting the puck down the ice (I am not sure if that’s in this years competition but a full report after it occurs). Hockey players are also easily the most approachable of all sports athletes, and typically on the night of the skills competition they have a bunch of guys miked up. To hear how they banter and just have a great time amongst themselves is just old time fun.

Sure, I will enjoy the game and my home town Canes, along with the NHL, will be trying each and every minute of the weekend to prove that Raleigh was a perfect place for the All Star game, and to show we should get it again in a regular rotation. But I truely cannot wait to sit in my seats ( about 5 rows behind one of the benches ) and see the stars show what makes them stars the perfection of the fundamentals of hockey.

The Guardian Project (Thanks to Yahoo’s Puck daddy, and the Guardian project from facbook for the images) 

That brings me to the next NHL inspired gimmick of the weekend. The Guardian Project 30. From the mind of one of the greatest comic book writers of all time, Stan Lee, comes 30 super heroes. One unique hero from each NHL team. The reveal of these characters has been coming around one a day throughout this month on facebook, and naturally the artwork is superb. And naturally people, including those so-called “hockey purists” of the world, are bitching as always. I happen to like the idea. It would be fun to see my 4 year old son watching a cartoon with these heroes and getting into it rather then Spongebob for the 10000000th time.

Granted this DOES have a chance to be real bad and could end up being shitty. If we get people running around during the 2nd intermission on Sunday in tights with a smoke and light show that would make even Stormy (The Canes normal Mascot) sigh, then it’s going to be epic fail. But not a whole lot is known about how this event will go. The big reveal is supposed to include a hologram and on ice projections show, where the heroes save the RBC center crowd from a dastardly villain who has taken over the arena. I can see them having the on ice show basically being a cartoon or CG movie, and holograms like you get in some amusement park rides being projected around the arena. That, I would be all for. Sure it’s got it’s own little bit of cheese but hey it beats sitting on your ass for 15 mins watching the Zamboni’s drive in circles. It has also been hinted that this could lead to a bunch of marketing opportunities for the NHL. We could get things like a graphic novel or a comic book series, both would have to be a bit long to have back stories of all 30 heros in it as well as making them all relevant in a story. Also hinted at is having this extend to in arena entertainment on jumbo trons in the league. I can definitely see the heroes doing battle on the screens during the game and depending on the flow of the game and scoring/momentum seeing some animations which makes the fight come to life on the screen. It’s not too likely that it will detract at all from the game. It would get a tad repetitive after a few games between the same teams or if the animations are all the same cept for plug in hero X or Y into it, but it could have a fun effect in the end. After all how many times can we REALLLLYYY watch Rick Flair or some of the corney animations they already use? I don’t care if Guitar Hero is popular, Gene Simmons’ representation telling me to get loud and cheer for the Canes just seems idiotic. Now give me a super hero on the screen and not only will I cheer like always but hey, maybe my 4 year old son gets up and screams, and all other boys and girls in that 4-15 year old range will be interested as well. Now take that 3 days later when we are trying to get people excited about going to the next game, remind them of the heros on the big screen and they might see a new one, and I bet they get excited.

Supposedly all of the heros have been derived from going to each and every NHL city and taking in the games, talking to fans, and talking to front office brass. Finding out what makes their city “SUPER” and seeing what their team and it’s history means to them. Then they came up with back stories and powers for each one. Sure the heros look a bit like they took all the known powers and looks from comics in the past 50 years, threw them in a hat and pulled them out at random. Look at the Penguin. He is a cross between Cyclops and Ice Man. The Canadian, a cross between Iron Man and something out of GI Joe. My take? Well, besides being cautiously optimistic, I am kinda excited to see how they do it. See what comes after the game. They are so tight lipped about everything that there HAS TO be a ton more after the game. If the game was it we would have been bombarded with a ton of info already. Ok Stan, make us GeekJocks of the world happy with a good presentation and then a series of comic books, graphic novels or TV shows so we can see something new out there and get more new hockey fans in the buildings. Hockey is the greatest sport in the world, let’s get more people in the buildings to show them it’s true.

The A-Team (2010–117 mins) L. Neeson, Br. Cooper, S. Copley, Rampage Jackson 

   I usually like to complain about how all the critics all love or hate a movie or if the buzz out there is positive or negative on a movie. This usually makes me want to see a movie more or less. Here however, we have The A-Team. A movie I was so looking forward to that I don’t really care what people or critics say b/c I want to see it and I knew between the actors and director, that I was going to like it. And I was right, this is a great action flick that I hope they can manage to make more. They manage to capture the humor of the original TV series and four stars work brilliantly together. Great choices for all 4 of these characters for sure.

If you are familiar with the TV show then the story is what you would expect the origin to be. The elite team from the military is framed over in Iraq and have been arrested by the government. They are tasked by the CIA to finish the job they were framed for screwing up. They must then break out of prison one by one to get it on. From there it’s basic action flick/ A-team story faire. They gotta figure out who framed them and stole the mcguffin they are searching for, all this while they are running away from the govt agents (including J. Biel)  who are trying to re-capture them since they are, after all, fugitives. The whole setting up of the team goes a lot smoother then “The Losers” and surly gets resolved a whole hell of a lot better then it as well.

I don’t have very many things to complain about this movie other then I want more of it. It’s a good length for sure, but I would love to see these guys do more together, they just have great chemistry. If anything I think that sometimes Rampage Jackson as BA Baracus seems forced. He is overall good but there are some scenes that leave you going eh no great. It might just be that Mr. T is just that iconic as the character that it’s hard to do some things as well as he did, but as usual for movies I really enjoy it’s a minor gripe and shouldn’t take away from the fact you should watch this movie.

Verdict—> It’s a great, fun action movie. Put it at the top of your list to watch next time you are at the Red Box. If I had to guess right now I would say that there is a good chance A-Team ends up on my top 10 Red Box movies from this year.

The Town (2010— 125 mins) B. Affleck, J. Renner, J. Hamm

Just like Inception, The Town is a movie the whole world is raving about as the greatest thing since sliced bread. After all the hits he has taken here and there in the press, I have always been a bit of an Affleck fan. Him and Damon have this sort of innate cool about them, and have a very good sense of humor about themselves. They don’t take themselves orHollywood to serious and thus I think they are better actors/directors etc b/c of it. So despite not automatically buy into the hype I will give it some benefit due to Affleck.

The plot is pretty simple crime crew schtick. The Town reffers to Charlestown in Boston, a neighborhood which churns out bank robbers like some towns churn out high school graduates. Affleck is part of a fairly successful 4 man crew who we first meet in the middle of a elaborate bank job. Things go mostly as planned until James (Renner) gets a little out of hand with the bank manager slowing down the heist and the crew is forced to take a hostage. Once they realize later that the hostage is actually from the same area of Boston, they task Affleck to monitor her to make sure she cannot give the FBI any info on the heist. While monitoring and thus meeting her Doug (Affleck), dates and then falls in love with her. This helps to convince him even further to try and leave the crime life, which will prove to be a bit harder then he thought.

There is a bunch more that goes into the movie but that is the gist of it. The guys in the crew are good. They seem authentic and you get the sense that these guys are truely brothers and rely/lean on each other often. I want to also point out Jeremy Renner. He is real good as Affleck’s best friend. He’s not so much bad as he has given up on anything other then being what he is, a thief. He has a complete knack of playing this type of character. He brings that same ambiguous likability to the role as he does in “The Hurt Locker”. That certain we aren’t 100% sure if we like him or not. On the surface his character is a crass A-hole trying to keep Doug in the rat race, but there is a lot more to him. A certain loyalty to his town and his extended “family”. 

As the love interest Claire, Rebecca Hall is subtly strong. I think a bigger actress bringing more gusto to the part would have taken too much away from the movie and strength of the other characters. She is meant to be vital to the story but not quite as main as the eothers, and I think that’s where Hall succeeds the best. Excellent job by here.

Verdict—> Just like Inception, it’s a good movie and I think a lot of people will enjoy it. It’s not the best movie in the world like some people will have you believe but it’s still an enjoyable watch for sure. Pick it up it’s worth the rental and a top level recommendation.

Inception (2010—148 mins) DiCaprio, Gordon-Levitt, E. Page

Well, yep, the GeekJock has finally gotten to one of the most hyped loved and talked about movie of 2010. Inception has been the chatter of the world about how great it is, or how bad it is depending on who you are. Naturally being me, I am itrigued by any and all movies which have polarizing views one way or another. So what’s it about? DICaprio is Cobb, a man who specializes in going into peoples head via their dreams and stealing information (extraction) which is secret and more importantly valuable to someone. It’s how he makes his living and if he’s lucky it’s how he will clear his name in the US and find his way home. The man who can do this Saito (Ken Wantanabe) wants Cobb to do something extremely unheard of in the business, Inception. Inception is the idea of implanting ideas vs stealing information. That’s the short story, for the long story rent it and find out.

Ok some thoughts now from me. First the director Nolan, he of Batman fame, does a great job. The movie the soundtrack and overal quality is excellently made. Sure if you are renting it my usual volume warning exits, the damn movie gets loud as hell one second and soft as hell speaking the next and boy do I F’n hate that. Next, the thing that most everyone says is true, this movie is complex as hell. The jumping into some one’s dreams, and the rules in those dreams, and other peoples dreams in side of dreams. It’s enough to make your head spin with complexity. You kinda don’t mind this part as much, but it does make you say “I prolly need to see that again” to pick up on some minor things and also to unravel the ending and meanings of it all. I am going to contradict myself a bit here tho so listen up… I like this movie, it’s not the best of the year like some people might say but it is good. A great rental for sure. However, one thing that I HATE HATE HATE is a movie that makes you think you have to watch it again to pick up certain nuances and understand it more. It’s cheap tricks and tricky for the sake of being tricky that I hate about things like that. But, like I said I did like this movie so I won’t knock it down too much. It’s a bit long so I prolly won’t go out of my way to see it again tho.

All these twists and turns were still a TON better then Leo’s last movie we watched “Shutter Island”. What a complete load of crap that was.

Verdict—> Put it on your see list. If it’s in there and you have almost 3 hours to spare to watch a movie then go ahead and grab it. But remember it will make your head spin a bit and if you have that significant other who gets frustrated easy with movies or doesn’t like trickery/confusion then you can pass it.

Case 39 (2009– 109 mins) R. Zellweger, I. McShane, Bradley Cooper

Case 39 is a little known creepy  horror/thriller centering around Zellwigger’s child services worker who finds a child whom she is trying to rescue from her obviously abusive parents. She soon finds that the abuse is not exactly what it seems and chaos soon follows. I actually got this movie real quick knowing Zellweger is in it and didn’t realize it was a horror movie (yeah I didn’t read the description). At about the 15 min point you get to a point where you think a major point has been solved but then the twist sets in. The point hits so suddent that you kinda know exactly what the big twist is right away. As far as horror movies go it’s pretty straight forward and not too bad. I can’t say too much to this effect b/c I am not a big horror watcher as they tend to go, so it’s hard to critique too much. I will say that there just isn’t too much special about it. A pretty garden variety horror movie in this vein. A few good suspense moments but nothing new here. Zellweger is pretty good in it she gives her usual scream here and there and tends to play the clueless wonder for most of the movie until she too thinks she knows what’s going on. What’s odd is having 2 good actors in McShane and Cooper, playing such bit parts that they both almost seem a bit wasted in the movie.  The little girl,Jodelle Ferland, in the movie might be the breakout star being able to grab us more then the other actors manage to.

Verdict—> As you can tell above I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. It’s a horror/thriller movie, and a pretty vanilla one at that. If you live for those then sure grab it at the box. I don’t even think if you are big fans of the actors you will l it much.  No one other then Ferland is a stand out, and it’s just pretty blah.

Sorry I have been awol this week all but for my son’s 4th birthday Mrs. GeekJock and I took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord NC (Just outside of Charlotte). There is a whole lot to do there and everything is quite a bit expensive, even for some packages they give you so you have to pick your spots andfind what you want to do for the best deal. More on the package part later tho as I want to cover a bunch of other things in this review.

Employees

This might be the 2nd happiest place on earth behind Disney b/c everyone is happy, smiling and very helpful. If you had any questions concerning the room, where something is, what the kids can do at each age or where they can go in the water park, everyone is more then happy to help you and extremely polite. I was happy that they seemed to go out of their way to help find a resolution for anything and everything that could go wrong. We only had one or two minor snafu’s but they didn’t take away from any of the experience and the staff more then made up for it in my opinion.

Facilities

The grounds are supremely spotless. From the room areas, to the grounds, to the water park, to the lobby, everything looks great. You hardly noticed people constantlywalking around to pick up any stray trash but they were there and worked quickly and quietly andall with a smile. We ate at the buffet the first night and it was clean and clutter free. There is only a small bar area in the buffet/grill which was a bit of a surprise as I would have expected the area to be bigger and more of a restaurant atmosphere. Which brings me to….

Restaurant/food choices

This is pretty much a two parter. Mainly b/c there are a few areas most of which good but one of which was a HUGE disappointment. I’ll hit the bad first. The Loose Moose Cottage/Camp critter bar and grille is a confusing part here, as it’s two names for the same place. It’s the buffet area where you can also eat off the menu. I wouldn’t poo poo this place so much cept it was 20$ for the buffet. The buffet isn’t “bad” it’s just not a 20$ buffet. If the buffet was 9.99 I would prob be raving about it instead of saying it’s highway robbery. It’s simply not big enough and not refilled enough to warrant 20 bucks a head. Shame Shame! The kids meals however were just fine and came out very quick, andthe staff was great. The Bar area was a bit small in my opinion too. For a place that the whole idea is to not make anyone leave for any reason you would think it would be a tad bigger of an area to relax in for the adult crowd to wind down. The other areas to eat are the in house Dunkin Donuts. It’s the usual DND’s and they make some good coffee as always. The only down point for it is supply. They know that every morning (especially Sat and Sun) they are going to be mobbed, they should have tons and tons of donuts ready to go for the waking patrons. There was entirely too many holes in the stock when I went to get a dozen Sunday morning. They have a smaller Dunkin station in the lobby which is great for quick coffee and some donuts but they only keep the bare minimum for variety of donuts here so it’s not much of an advantage if you want a dozen. A good coffee and one donut place tho to skip the big line.

Next big place near the water park (on level 1) is Bear Paw Sweets andeats paired with a Pizza hut to go. There is fudge galore, a veritable Bakery of sugery treats and candy apples, Ice Cream for the sweets side, and it’s allllll goood. The Pizza hut is quick and perfectly located and convenient. A much better option for snacks or dinner then the buffet. Inside the water park there is another eatery, Spirit Island Snack Shack. If you get hungry while swimming you can grab a burger and a dog and some drinks, including some frozen spirits drinks, and some draft beer. We actually ate dinner here the last night and it was real good, again, much better then the bar and grille.

Water Park

So the main attraction at any Great Wolf Lodge is the water park. It’s got five main areas to the park. The first is the wave pool which is a good size and shape. Off to th side of that is  4 or 5 bigger slides for the bigger kids. This also includes the big bopper The Howling Tornado. It’s the big one you see on all the commercials and is a 4 man tube that goes from a dark slide into a huge funnel looking slide andis a ton of fun. Then there is fort Mackenzie. It’s a big play fort with all sorts of water shooting here and there as you walk thru andyou can shoot some of the walkers below with water. Once you get to the top you then can go on one of two open slides which any size young andold can go on. My son who was just under the 42 inches to go with me on some of the bigger slides loved these 2 slides and we went on them a ton. On top of the fort is a huge 1000 gallon bucket that fills up every few mins and splashes down on everyone below. A complete blast to be below there when this goes off. It also has a very cool bell that starts to ring giving you a good warning when it;s about to tio over below. There is another side pool which is 4 feet deep in all areas which has a combo of basketball hoops and some floating items kids can sit on and play. The other side of this area is a pair of lillypad like floating things which have rope ladders hanging above them like monkey bars where you can hold on and try andwalk from one side to the other. They are set up nicely for 2 kids to race each other as well. The final area is the kiddie pool which is also big enough for a bunch of tots to enjoy themselves with a ton of things to do and a small set of two slides as well.

Rooms

Before I get into the rooms, let me tell you about one of the coolest things I have experienced in quite some time. When you check into Great Wolf you get wrist bands for the whole family. These serve as not only entrance into the water park but for the adults (and I would assume older children/teenagers) they serve as both your room keys and a way to charge for everything on their grounds. It’s a real weird feeling when you leave your room to go to the water park or for a stroll, and you have absolutely nothing on you. You completely feel like you are forgetting something and yet all you need is yourself and these wrist bands, VERY COOL. They have a bunch of different types of rooms you can stay in. They range from the garden variety family room with two beds but the real fun is when you stay in one of their theme rooms. These include the Wolf Den, KidCabin, and KidKamp. Basically theyall have a small alcove with bunk beds and a 20″ tv for the kids decorated like a sleep away camp. They are good but I honestly expected this area to be a little bit bigger but the kids def enjoyed it none the less. If you are really feeling froggy you can get one of a ton of huge suites with multiple rooms for up to 8 people (if you don’t mind the neighborhood of 400$ per night). It’s a bit hard to say whether it’s all worth it but considering you can check in as early as 1pm and can also use the water park the day you check out all day, it all seems to even out and the price is reasonable. That being said I still will continue to look for lats minute deals on stays at the one in Concord or the one up in Va. to get better deals.

Magic Quest

MQ is an interactive game where you use a magic wand (that you purchase) to go around the play area (roughly the halls of 3 of the floors) and solve riddles and gain points and “runes” to complete quests. It’s a decent time waster and has you going all around. They charge by time but if you get one of the paw-passes  you can get 1 wand and the whole weekends worth of play in the game. It’s a fun time for parents and children of about 5-13 but much older then that and they will be bored by the repetition and the fact it’s more busy work then a game per-se.

Thoughts on Paw-Passes

The Paw-Pass has you paying a discounted price and getting a bundle of things. For 60$ we got 1 wand and all weekend play in Magic Quest, 5$ (20) tokens in the game room, 1 mini golf pass, 1 entrance to the teen club, 1 custom made stuffed animal (think of smaller build a bear). Since it’s the dead of winter and 30 degrees outside they were real nice and let us trade that in for more tokens in the game room, as well as let us trade in the 1 admission to the teen club since my kids are 4 and 7. So kudos for the flexibility. However, a MUCH better way to do this is to have some sort of way to build your own paw pass to add X number of things together at a discounted rate, rather then slam it packed with things some families won’t want to use. That way they can pick out 5 items and receive a discount for paying up front for these things and be happy with it all.

Final analysis

I absolutely recommend Great Wolf Lodge as a destination for a long weekend or for a fri-Sunday trip. It can be costly but if done right you can have a great time and not really feel the crunch on your wallet. One thing to remember is there are microwaves and refrigerators in each of the rooms. We planned ahead and brought a 12 pack of diet pepsi, some water, some adult beverages as well as a couple of bags of snacks to keep in the room. If you live close enough you could even pack some pre-made meals and have one meal or some lunches re-heated via microwave and save yourselves that much more money on the trip. Think ahead and you can def help yourself a ton. And like I mentioned above keep an eye on their web site. If you are fairly flexible and are the type of family who could take a spontaneous weekend trip a few hours away they will often have those last minute deals for you right on the site and you could save a ton on the rooms themselves.

I wanted to add that I think that the park itself is a ton better if your kids are over the height of 42″, and obviously the best if they are over 48″ tall. At 42″ they can get on most of the the other slides and at 48″ they can ride anything. If you are on the fence I would check how tall your kids are. If they can at least ride some things with you (at 42″) then go for it. That being said, I cannot say that my son (40″) didn’t have fun b/c he definitely did, but I know 100% that he would have had a TON more fun if he was able to ride a few of the other slides with me as well.