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Everyone who read Beowulf in high school raise their hands. O.K., now all of you who either enjoyed reading it or remembers what it’s about, keep your hands raised. I’m guessing there aren’t many hands up because most people thought reading Beowulf in English class was the height of drudgery. It was for me and I like mythology.

So when I received a review copy of the unrated director’s cut of Beowulf from Click Communications, I was hoping to have my faith restored in epic poetry and mythic hereos. Here’s the movie description:

In the age of heroes comes the mightiest warrior of them all, Beowulf. After destroying the overpowering demon Grendel, he incurs the undying wrath of the beast’s ruthlessly seductive mother who will use any means possible to ensure revenge. The ensuing epic battle throughout the ages, immortalizing the name Beowulf.

Academy Award® winner director Robert Zemeckis tells the oldest epic tale in the English language with the most modern technology, advancing the cinematic forum through the magic of digitally enhanced live action. A stellar cast is led by Ray Winstone (“The Departed,” “Sexy Beast”) in the title role. Joining him are Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins as the cursed King Hrothgar, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Alison Lohman and Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s mother.

Sounds cool right? Well, Beowulf ended up being an R-rated Shrek. I wouldn’t recommend showing it to even the most mature teenager since it’s violent, gory, and there’s too much sex and lust. First, Hrothgar, King of the Danes disrobes, and tells his people to make merry. (And boy do they ever.) I love Anthony Hopkins, but don’t want to see a nude cartoon version of him doing pelvic thrusts. Ick.

Then super hottie Beowulf shows up (Ray Winstone) to fight Grendel. And he must disrobe to do so. (Can you say beefcake?) It’s amusing - and distracting - to see how the director always placed something in front of Beowulf to hide his crotch. Of course, Grendel’s mom (Angelina Jolie) is naked too and she gets it on with Beowulf, his predecessor and his heir, which doesn’t exactly happen in the original tale. Oops.

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This week Miramax and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Becoming Jane, a modern romantic comedy that looks at how Jane Austen’s real life love affair - and her desire for an independent life - inspired her novels.

I was delighted to receive a review copy from the folks at Click-Comm.com since I think Anne Hathaway from The Devil Wears Prada (Widescreen Edition) and The Princess Diaries (Special Edition) is a fantastic actress that teens and young women can relate to. It also stars James McAvoy, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith, and Julie Walters.

A synopsis:

When 20-year-old Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway) meets up with the roguish Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), sparks begin to fly. Initially repelled by his arrogance, the emerging writer slowly realizes that she has finally found a man who appreciates her intellect as well as her beauty. As her parents (Julie Walters and James Cromwell) arrange a wealthy, aristocratic husband for her, Jane begins a clandestine romance with Lefroy. The young man proposes marriage, but his wealthy guardian, who holds his purse strings, disapproves of Jane’s outspoken manner and ambition to be a writer, and threatens to cut Tom off. In a world where marriage determines a woman’s fate, will they risk everything, including family and friends, for the sake of romance?

Becoming Jane is the true story of how a young Miss Austen dared to hope to marry for love and to support herself through her writing, two very unusual acts in her day. Not only would this movie be a great introduction to Austen’s books, but it would make for a wonderful discussion with your teenage daughter about how a young women’s place in society has changed since Austen’s time.

Becoming Jane is the best kind of chick flick - smart and thought provoking. It’s also funny, romantic, and full of wonderful dialog, gorgeous costuming and handsome men. (James McAvoy - oh my!) All in all, a perfect video rental for an evening of mother-daughter bonding.

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If you’re stuck for last minute ideas, hit your local bookstore for some books, videos and CDs. Online retailers like Amazon can help get gifts quickly to out-of-state friends and relatives. (Thank goodness for overnight shipping.) And videos - easily available at your local supermarket or video store - are great holiday gifts for the whole family. You could even download some music at Amazon or iTunes and burn a CD or pre-load it on an MP3 player.

I have a lot of items to recommend, so I’m breaking it up into three posts. This one will cover the whole family, and Christmas and Hanukkah books. My next posts will cover great gift books for middle schoolers and teens. The final holiday gift post will be book recommendations for young children.

For the Whole Family

Books - The Poets’ Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family - Compiled by John Lithgow, the wide variety of carefully selected poems in this book provides the perfect introduction to appeal to readers new to poetry, and for poetry lovers to experience beloved verses in a fresh, vivid way. The book comes with a bonus MP3 CD of revelatory poetry readings by John and the familiar voices of such notable performers such as Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Gary Sinise, and Sam Waterston. You’ll enjoy reciting or listening to these poems with the entire family.

Cookbooks - Cooking is a great way to get the whole family together and involved in something fun. I’ve updated my right sidebar with some of the best family cookbooks out there. The Usborne Books items may be difficult to get through Amazon. Instead, order directly through the company’s website. Bon appetit!

Music - For The Kids Three is a MP3 music download available on Amazon.com. From Nettwerk Music Group it’s a unique collection of contemporary and original children’s songs performed by everyone from the Barenaked Ladies to Moby. Wow, kids music that won’t drive you crazy! A portion of the proceeds will benefit the VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

Video - One family-friendly movie to rent or buy is Arctic Tale. Rated G and set in the vast snow kingdom at the top of the world, Arctic Tale is a real life adventure from the people who brought you March Of The Penguins. Join narrator Queen Latifah as she follows two very different arctic creatures, Nanu, the polar bear cub and Seela, the walrus pup, through their struggles for survival.

For teens and adults there’s My So-Called Life - The Complete Series (with book). This short lived, realistic mid-nineties teen drama series starred Claire Danes. The show took a look at a 15-year-old girl and her trials and tribulations with being a teenager and dealing with friends, guys, parents and school.

Need some other movie ideas? Check out the following reviews on my blog, A Mama’s Rant:

• High School Musical 2
• Mr. Bean’s Holiday
• Meet the Robinsons
• The Jungle Book
• Disney Princess Enchanted Tales

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According to the Jenkins Group:

• 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
• 42% of college graduates never read another book.
• 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
• 57% of new books are not read to completion.

So what are they doing? Watching TV! (Among other things.) So no matter if you’re for or against the writer’s strike, your television viewing habits could be affected. So why not pick up a good book instead?

Family Activities for the TV-less

There are lots of book suggestions here at A Readable Feast including YA (young adult) titles. You can look on the right sidebar for books I haven’t reviewed yet like Bobbie Dazzler or Little Skink’s Tail. Or check out November 2006’s posts for Thanksgiving and holiday book ideas.

Did you see the Target toy catalog in last Sunday’s paper? The kids and I were excited about all the new board games out, especially Monopoly Disney Pixar Edition. Why wait for Christmas?

How about cooking as a family? FamilyFun.com has a whole bunch of kid-friendly Thanksgiving cooking ideas like Tiny Turkey Dinner Cupcakes and Tom Turkey Nuggets.

Lots of good new movies out there to rent or buy like Meet the Robinsons, too.

But if you must watch TV (and I understand - we all want to relax and “jell” for awhile) how about introducing kids to classics like the Andy Griffith Show or the original Star Trek? Both are in reruns on various local and cable stations. There’s always educational TV like the Discovery Channel, PBS, and the History Channel.

How is your family going to handle the writer’s strike?

1. Watch reruns of our favorite TV shows.
2. Watch shows we don’t normally watch on TV.
3. Watch sports on TV.
4. Do family activities like play games, cook, go to the community pool, or make a craft.
5. Rent lots of movies.
6. Turn of the TV and READ.

I’m so excited! Ratatouille is coming out on DVD next week (November 6). The nice people at Click Communications sent me a preview copy. It was wonderful timing as my mother, who’s French, was in town. She hadn’t seen it, so it was a perfect movie to share with her grandkids.

We loved watching Ratatouille again even though we had seen it in the theater when it was first released. We enjoyed the short features, too. The foodie in me loved “Fine Food and Film: A Conversation with Brad Bird and Thomas Keller,” a behind the scenes look at how master chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller brought his real life expertise to the table. And the kids loved the new animated short film “Your Friend the Rat,” starring Remy and Emile from Ratatouille

So, What’s Cooking?

For the occasion, I made dinner using a recipe from the movie’s children’s cookbook, What’s Cooking? A cookbook based on a movie? Yes, and a good one at that. It has very authentic but kid-friendly recipes for classic French dishes like crepes, croque monsieur (a favorite of my nephews in Switzerland), and quiche lorraine. There’s a few fun dishes in What’s Cooking? too, like Easy Faux Escargot (roll ups) and Pizza Rats (cut up English muffin pizzas that look like rats’ faces).

(If you would like some more Ratatouille-based recipes, click here to download a four-page PDF from Disney and Family Fun magazine at AtoZKidsStuff.com. The recipes are based on ones in What’s Cooking?)

And of course there was this recipe for Gusteau’s Ratatouille, which my mother and I enjoyed and tried to pursuade the kids to eat

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My husband and I finally had a chance to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. Fantastic! I love a movie I can’t find one thing wrong with, but boy am I glad we didn’t take the kids along. The movie is way too intense and dark for them. Maybe in a few years we can’t rent it and show it to them at home. (For more on HP see Stephen King’s J.K. Rowling’s Ministry of Magic article in Entertainment Weekly.)

But I was excited about a preview of a movie I may be able to take the kids to this November - The Golden Compass - based on Phillip Pullman’s novel. This movie blows away Narnia and I’m just hoping they’ll keep it PG-enough to take Lucie and Nathan to (I’m keeping my fingers crossed - it’s a pretty dark book). I love His Dark Materials Trilogy and can’t wait to see this one with or without the kids.

If you want a sneak preview, check out the beautiful Gold Compass website. (The trailer I saw last night said the movie would be released November 21. However, the website and Entertainment Weekly state that it will be out December 7.)