RSS Electronic Edition | Newsletters Subscribe | Customer Service/Contact Us | Community Buy Photos Modmomsclub

Life - Fun Stuff

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009

Family Film Guide

E-Mail Print reprint or license

CORALINE (PG)

What it's about: A child finds an alternate version of her life behind the walls of her new home. But is it a better version?

Kid attractor factor: Dark wit and 3-D stop-motion animation.

Violence: Threatened.

Language: Child mild.

Sex: "Suggestive humor," quite tame.

Drugs: None.

Parents advisory: If you've raised them on "The Nightmare Before Christmas," they're ready for this.

---

CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC (PG)

What it's about: A young journalist begins a column for a financial-planning magazine but secretly has a serious lack of planning in her own finances.

Kid attractor factor: Isla Fisher is the young woman who can't say no -- to playing dress-up, or charging things on her credit card.

Violence: None.

Language: A smattering of profanity.

Sex: Who has time?

Drugs: Tequila shots to forget all that shopping.

Parents advisory: A little more cautionary than perhaps was intended, still not suitable for 12-and-unders.

---

FRIDAY THE 13TH (R)

What it's about: Young people visit Crystal Lake, where Jason slashed people to death 29 years ago, and meet the same fate.

Kid attractor factor: It's this week's horror movie -- you know they're going to try to sneak into this.

Violence: "Slasher movie" should be on the poster.

Language: Profanity, and a lot of it.

Sex: Fairly graphic, too.

Drugs: Pot, alcohol of various vintages.

Parents advisory: If it's not the slashing, it's the sex. Keep your kids out of this.

---

HOTEL FOR DOGS (PG)

What it's about: Orphaned kids take in and take care of stray dogs in an abandoned big-city hotel.

Kid attractor factor: Oodles of poodles, bushels of boxers and dozens of dachshunds.

Violence: Slapstick, though dogs that go to the pound face death.

Language: Disney clean.

Sex: Teenagers have been known to sneak a smooch.

Drugs: None.

Parents advisory: Perfectly suitable for small children, say 10 and under.

---

INKHEART (PG)

What it's about: A girl and her dad flee literary villains because when Dad reads a story aloud, books come alive.

Kid attractor factor: Fantasy, monsters, adventure, special effects.

Violence: Threats, fisticuffs, guns are wielded with menace.

Language: A single d-word.

Sex: Nary a hint.

Drugs: None.

Parents advisory: Fine for 10 and up.

---

NEW IN TOWN (PG)

What it's about: A corporate hatchet woman travels from Miami to Minnesota to lay off plant workers and discovers the rough charm of the people, and romance.

Kid attractor factor: Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr., making goo-goo eyes in the snow.

Violence: Against wildlife. Off camera.

Language: Cleaned up, but still a little swearing.

Sex: Suggestions of vigorous wrestling, a thong joke.

Drugs: When it's 40 below, you'd hit a bar every now and then, too.

Parents advisory: There isn't enough slapstick for the very young, but if they're old enough to date, they're old enough for this.

---

THE PINK PANTHER 2 (PG)

What it's about: A thief is stealing the world's most precious objects, so Inspector Clouseau joins a "dream team" of detectives to try to solve the case.

Kid attractor factor: Slapstick comedy, and lots of it.

Violence: Rednecks assault the drama teacher.

Language: Quite clean.

Sex: Leering innuendo.

Drugs: Wine is spilled.

Parents advisory: A little more small-child friendly than the first Steve Martin Panther.

---

TAKEN (PG-13)

What it's about: Naive high school girls travel to Paris and are kidnapped, with ex-CIA agent dad of one their only hope of rescue.

Kid attractor factor: Action, and lots of it.

Violence: Lots and lots of it.

Language: Not much profanity.

Sex: "Sexual content" in this case means sex-slave trade.

Drugs: Girls are doped up to make them compliant.

Parents advisory: Pretty rough stuff for anybody under 15.