Directed by: James McTeigue Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Stephen Rea Rated: R for strong violence and some language. Parental Notes: This is not a film for youngsters. There is a fair dose of violence and the glorification of rebellion against authority. Parents will want to consider whether their children are ready for this sort of grown-up movie.
…this is just a test.
Directed by: Michel Gondry Starring: Dave Chapelle, Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Fred Hampton Jr, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Dead Prez, Jill Scott, Kanye West Rated: R for language. Parental Notes: There’s plenty of foul language and both racial and sexual humor, but visually the film is fairly innocuous. Parents who don’t mind their kids watching “Chapelle’s Show” or listening to rap music probably won’t mind their kids seeing this film.
Written and Directed by: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer Starring: Alyson Hannigan, Adam Campbell, Sophie Monk, Eddie Griffin, Tony Cox, Fred Willard, Jennifer Coolidge Rated: PG-13 for continuous crude and sexual humor, including language. Parental Notes: This is a very crude film, and while it’s rated PG-13 some parents may not be comforatble with their children seeing it.
Directed by: Richard Loncraine Starring: Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen, Paul Bettany, Jimmy Bennett, Carly Schroeder Rated: PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence. Parental Notes: The violence in the film is sporadic but sufficiently graphic to be too intense for most youngsters. The children-in-peril situation and the home invasion scenes may also be too intense for young children. Mature preteens and teenagers will probably be fine.
Written and Directed by: Roger Donaldson Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Annie Whittle, Diane Ladd, Chris Williams. Rated: PG-13 for brief language, drug use and a sexual reference. Parental Notes: This film ought to be fine for preteens and older. There are a handful of sexual references – Burt was an attractive old fellow, after all – but nothing graphic is shown. The drug references and language are likewise mild. There are some scary sequences involving motorcycle racing, so it may be too intense for younger children.
Directed by: Richard Shepard Starring: Hope Davis, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear Rated: R for strong sexual content and language. Parental Notes: This is not a film for kids. It’s aimed squarely at adults, and if the explicit sexual content and language didn’t keep youngsters away, the adult, sophisticated nature of the film would. This probably isn’t a movie youngsters who love James Bond will enjoy.
Written and Directed by: Albert Brooks Starring: Albert Brooks, Sheetal Sheth, Jon Tenney, John Carroll Lynch Rated: PG-13 for drug content and brief strong language. Parental Notes: This film will go straight over all but the most politically astute teens’ heads. It’s not inappropriate for younger kids – there’s almost no violence and only a little drug and language content – but youngsters probably just won’t find it interesting.
One of the advantages of reviewing movies is that I wind up seeing a lot of films I probably wouldn’t manage to see otherwise. I watch at least one film a week, and when covering Cinequest, San Jose’s film festival, I see more like three or four films a day for a week and a half. In 2005 I sat through over 100 movies, ranging from delightful to horrible, from short (only a few minutes) to long (over three hours). Because I get to pick which movies I see most of the time, I only saw a handful I didn’t care for, but I did get to see a lot of films I greatly enjoyed.
Directed by: Susan Stroman Starring: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Farrell Rated:PG-13 for sexual humor and references Parental Notes: There’s plenty of vulgar humor here, which makes it somewhat inappropriate for youngsters. However, it’s still Mel Brooks: it’s sweet, funny, and lighthearted. Like “Spaceballs” and his other films, kids 12 and up will probably enjoy it, but unlike his other works, they’ll like it more if they’ve seen a few old musicals.