I was lucky enough to score some free tickets for the family to see a new release from Disney called “Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”, based on the best selling book by Judith Viorst. 

As my children have grown older, I’m enjoying the fact they are starting to be more interested in films with real people in them, not animated films. Sure, I can’t go past the classics like “Cinderella”, “Snow White” or even “Cars” but I enjoy the ‘real people’ movies a lot more. This movie had something in it for both young and old.

The story is based around Alexander (played by up and coming Australian actor Ed Oxenbould) who is turning 12 and like all teenagers, thinks life is dealing him a cruel blow. (I know my 10 year old daughter thinks that every day is a bad day for her.) Everything seems to be going from bad to worse with Alexander on the eve of his twelfth birthday but his family try to tell him life isn’t that bad.

Things start to turn really bad for all the family members, just as it does in real life and I could relate to so many days like that myself. It’s a comedy of errors from the start to the finish with Steve Carrell playing the Dad and Jennifer Garner playing Mum. Ed Oxenbould is fascinated with Australia and the film has a great Aussie theme running through it. The supporting cast is just as convincing when things go wrong for them.

My 10 year old daughter and my 8 year old son thoroughly enjoyed it as did my partner and I. It was a short film, lighthearted and a good lesson for teenagers to hopefully realise that the world doesn’t revolve around them, life does get hard sometimes but it can and does have it’s good points.

The film screens in Australia cinemas on December 4, 2014.