Horse Camp
Director: Joel Paul Reisig
Starring: Jordan Trovillion, Dean Cain
Studio: ARC Entertainment
Release Date: February 24, 2015
ASIN: B00QAE26MU
Running Time: 107 minutes
Rating: PG
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on DVD this Tuesday February 24, 2014 from ARC Entertainment is the teen/family drama Horse Camp. The film is co-written, directed & produced by Joel Paul Reisig and stars Jordan Trovillion (Jack Reacher) and Dean Cain (ABC's "Lois & Cark: The New Adventures of Superman"). There are no extras or special features on the disc.

Horse Camp centers on a shy teenager named Kathy (played by Jordan Trovillion), who has low self-esteem. Her father (played by Dean Cain) offers to send her to France for the summer. However, Kathy has other plans as she wants to attend the Black River Horse Camp for girls, but she is afraid to ask her parents' permission to go as her father was injured badly when he use to be in the rodeo. Eventually, she does get approval from her partents.

Upon arriving at the camp, she is instantly bullied by the camp's "mean girl" Stacy (played by Kristen Ryda, whom is also an associate producer of the film), which doesn't help her social problems at all. Luckily, she meets the kindhearted Lisa (played by Rahcel Sowers) and they begin a friendship that is until the popular girls take notice of Kathy's horse riding skills. Soon Kathy's attitude starts to change for the bad as she is determined to take the Camp Princess throne from Stacy.

National Velvet
Director: Clarence Brown
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisps, Ann Revere, Angela Lansbury, Jackie Jenkins, Arthur Treacher
Studio: Warner Home Video
ASIN: B00004RFHN
Release Date: July 11, 2000
Running Time: 124 minutes
Rating: G

National Velvet was released to theaters back on December 14, 1944 and is based on the novel of the same name by Helen Deutsch. The movie is mostly set in Sewels, Sussex, England and stars a young Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown who dreams of owning her own horse. On her way home from school, she meets a young drifter named Mi Taylor (played by Mickey Rooney) who looking for Velvet’s mother. He had found Mrs. Brown's name and address in his late father's possessions.

The Browns hire Mi to help out around their farm and at their store. They also allow him to sleep in the barn. Velvet and Mi become friends despite the fact that Mi hates horses as he use to be a jockey.

A local farmer is raffling his horse "Pirate", because the horse is wild. The horse likes to get jump the fence and create chaos throughout the small village, practically putting the owner in debt. Despite the Browns rejections, Mi buys several raffles and gives them to Velvet and her siblings. To her luck, she wins the horse that she renames Pie.

Velvet has great faith in Pie and wants to enter him into the Grand National. She talks Mi into helping her train Pie for the great race and her mother gives her 100 pounds to enter into the race.

I've never really cared for watching horse racing movies, or horse moves in general, but National Velvet was under five dollars and has a great cast (It even has the dog Daisy from the Blondie movies as the Browns' family dog.), so I decided to give it a try. Considering the age of the movie, the film looks great on DVD! Elizabeth Taylor gives a great performance as Velvet, the girl who loves horses, but my favorite character was Mi Taylor played by Mickey Rooney, as he is a flawed character. Several times he has a great amount of money in his hands, but he cares for the Browns and he doesn't want to disappoint them. The running time is a little over two hours, but I was so into the movie that it felt less than that. I recommend everyone to watch National Velvet.