There’s no summer break from homework here. Each and every week without a pay per view from one of the big two wrestling companies, the hosts of the At Odds with Wrestling podcast alternate homework assignments for each other. I tag along for the ride. This week we watched the Rock starring sequel, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. 

This is a fun, dumb, safe, adventure movie for kids. Like many kids movies, there are plenty of problems if one thinks too long about any second of the movie. Tons of scientific information when necessary so kids can follow what’s happening but otherwise the movie runs right over the top of logic in sight of a good time. 

The Rock’s step son receives a coded message that he believes is from his grandfather who is on a fool’s quest. The kid believes in his grandpa though and he’s determined to figure this out. Turns out the Rock was a 3 time award winning code breaker in the military and now the two of them are off on an adventure. Mom, thanks for being in the first 5 minutes of the movie to prove you exist, we won’t see you again until the last 5 minutes of the movie. They meet up with our island native comic relief with a rickety helicopter and a not rickety at all daughter. All four crash land on, wouldn’t you know it, a mysterious island! They have to survive the island, they meet up with the grandfather, and it’s Michael Caine cashing a Jaws 4 – esque paycheck. Everyone knows way too much about codes and classic literature. There’s a gold spewing volcano, the Nautilus is real, too much dick measuring between father figures, I’m not entirely sure if Luis Guzman’s character is supposed to be gay and hitting on the Rock but they couldn’t push that angle too much in a PG movie. They did however push Vanessa Hudgens camera angels right up to that PG-13 line though. Seriously, the underneath angle was gratuitous. And I’m saying that. Everyone bonds and ends up okay in the end. 

I could poke holes in the movie and make fun of it all day long. But the moment I let my mind accept that this movie is for kids, I had fun with it. I know previous generations, including my own father, want kids to still read the adventure novels. Not only the ones from Jules Verne mentioned in this movie but also Treasure Island and Swiss Family Robinson, and more. I read A Christmas Carol with my son because Damian Wayne was reading Charles Dickens’s books. If the Rock can be the catalyst to get a kid curious about old fun books, then why not make a silly movie? 

I’m really trying to be less negative and not spend time mocking things for being bad (although the WCW homework assignments really push that). I loved The Chipmunk Adventure when I was a kid. I rewatched it a couple of years ago and the plot of that movie falls apart under two seconds of thought. But I loved it, still like it, and some of those songs are great. 

So what if Journey has a thin plot, too much green screen, and on and on. It did very well in theaters and I bet a lot of kids that aren’t yet jaded to the world had a blast. 

I bought something yesterday and immediately felt like I wasted my money. I was asking a friend about how much money is acceptable to waste. A meal is bad, a movie in the theater isn’t good, a terrible date – whatever the situation may be. He said it’s not about the money, it’s about the experience. Did I learn something, did I gain knowledge, does any aspect of this register in my brain for a moment? If so, then one can’t really put a price on that. 

As I started this movie I thought at least it’s only an hour and a half. But for that 90 minutes I wasn’t worried about wars, elections, social media, money, any of that. I was watching a silly adventure. While I didn’t have my own journey, for a little while I was able to escape. No matter what the movie is ranked or scored, any movie that allows a person to have that distraction is a winner.