Taking the family to a movie for $30? Give me a break. We wait for flicks to clear first-run and show up at the Cinema (for less) or Movies 10 (for practically nothing). On Mondays, in fact, tickets at Movies 10 are $.50. Yep, you heard that right.

This week, there are three that qualify as family-friendly. Open Season is the oldest of the bunch, and was better than I'd expected. Lila (10) particularly liked the vain leader of the deer herd. Oscar (4) dug the part with flaming marshmallows launched from an underwear sling (but who wouldn't?).

Iris (7) says Open Season is good, but Flushed Away is great. The film, which marries the sensibilities of the creators of Wallace & Gromit with those of the Shrek folks, just works. It has a fabulous pace, and for a story set in a sewer, it's absolutely beautiful (the colorful, screen-filling detail reminded me of Robots). "I liked the idea of the little leeches," Lila says (singing leeches play the Greek chorus). Mom also found the musical humor most entertaining. I like Kate Winslet even when she's an animated rat.

Eragon takes a popular boy-and-his-dragon novel and moves it to the big screen. Unsure of whether my little guy could take it, I consulted the US Conference of Catholic Bishops' site (www.usccb.org/movies), which gives more useful content information about flicks than do the MPAA ratings. It's got some snazzy medieval action/violence --- Oscar was clutching his coat fairly tightly at times --- but nothing too bad. It's quite corny, raised up just slightly by scenery chewing by Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle, and John Malkovich. But for $1.75 or less, it's well worth it.