NEW THIS WEEK

-- A BEAUTIFUL AND THRILLING ANIMATED ADAPTATION OF THE BELOVED CHILDREN'S BOOK "THE BORROWERS":

"THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY" G -- Children 7 and older will delight in this charmer -- a stunning, artful adaptation of Mary Norton's popular children's book, "The Borrowers," a tale about tiny people who live below in floorboards and "borrow" everything they need from humans. It was made at the great Japanese animation house, Studio Ghibli, which has brought us "Ponyo" (G, released here in 2009) and "Spirited Away" (PG, released here in 2002), among other masterworks, and it has the same hand-drawn quality with even more delicious detail. American actors dubbed in the dialogue. Young Shawn (voice of David Henrie), an adolescent boy with a heart problem, comes to stay at a country cottage while he awaits surgery. He's shocked and thrilled to see tiny teenage Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) in a bush and later tries to make friends with the salt-shaker-sized girl. But her parents Pod (Will Arnett) and Homily (Amy Poehler) have told her never to trust humans. Eventually, Shawn earns that trust by helping retrieve supplies for her family's cozy home under the floorboards. When Haru (Carol Burnett), the eccentric housekeeper at the cottage, suspects Shawn has discovered those little people she's always heard about, she tries to capture them. Shawn and a woods-dwelling Borrower named Spiller (Moises Arias) help Arietty and her parents to safety.

THE BOTTOM LINE: There are moments of suspense when you fear that one or more of the Borrowers will fall in their climbing adventures or be caught by humans as they "borrow" supplies. Kids under 7 or so may be upset to see Arrietty's mother imprisoned in a jar. A recurring theme about the human boy Shawn having a possibly terminal heart ailment could worry some children. And the ending, while it is basically happy, has a slightly bittersweet tone not common to Hollywood animated features.

-- PROOF ONCE AGAIN THERE IS NOTHING QUITE LIKE BAD ROMANTIC COMEDY:

"THIS MEANS WAR" PG-13 -- Too crass in its sexual slang and innuendo for middle-schoolers, "This Means War" may amuse high-schoolers looking for a bit of mindless entertainment. In this movie, cutesy wins out over coherent every time, and the film is the ultimate loser. Even three good lead actors can't make a dumb script smart. Two hunky CIA agents in the Los Angeles branch fall in love with the same woman, unbeknownst to them or to her. They are working partners and best buds. When Tuck (Tom Hardy) and FDR (Chris Pine) discover they've both fallen for Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) in separate meet-cute encounters, they don't tell her. Instead, they compete ferociously to win her. They bug her home and trick each other. Lauren is clueless. She deals with her angst over dating two guys by talking to her foul-mouthed, envious married friend (Chelsea Handler) and decides she must sleep with each guy in order to make a final choice. Of course, the truth comes out eventually. The mix of labored rom-com antics and cliched spy-guy action (something about an angry rogue Russian) makes the movie feel like a cartoon -- an unfunny one.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The film is replete with sexual innuendo, some of it awfully crude. Sexual situations are not explicit, but occasionally steamy for a PG-13. The script includes frequent midrange profanity, including the F-word, and a drug reference. Characters also drink. The understated violence includes fighting, a car chase and gunplay.

-- TEENS WHO UNABASHEDLY LOVE SUDSY ROMANTIC SAGAS WILL BE IN HEAVEN WATCHING THIS CAUTIONARY TALE FOR OVERPROTECTIVE AND CONTROLLING PARENTS:

"THE VOW" PG-13 -- Teens can get out the Kleenex and have a good time at this soapy, but handsome and well-acted tale of love that's found, lost, and then found again. There's nothing in it, really, that should exclude middle-schoolers. A fictionalized version of a true story, "The Vow" traces the love of Chicago singles Paige (Rachel McAdams), an up-and-coming sculptor, and Leo (Channing Tatum), who has his own recording studio. They meet, fall in love and get married in an unconventional wedding. Their life is arty, urban and loving. Four years later, they're in a bad car accident and Paige is thrown through the windshield. She recovers, but has lost all memory of their relationship and marriage. She remembers being in law school, living with her parents, and being engaged to another guy from her upscale suburban background. Leo tries desperately to get Paige to remember. She tries living with him platonically in hopes her memory will kick in, but it doesn't. Her ultra-controlling parents (Jessica Lange and Sam Neill) urge her to come home, which she does. It seems to be up to Leo to make Paige fall in love with him all over again. Sniff. Sigh.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The car accident that triggers the story is shown in slow-motion and is disturbing, but not bloody. We see the start of a sexual situation, but it's nongraphic and the scene cuts to the next morning. There is brief nonsexual backview nudity. The script includes occasional midrange profanity and discussion of an extramarital affair. Characters drink wine and engage in a fist fight.

-- EVEN DIGITALLY REMASTERED IN 3-D, THIS PREQUEL TO THE ICONIC SCI-FI SERIES IS THE DULLEST OF THEM ALL:

"STAR WARS: EPISODE I -- THE PHANTOM MENACE" PG - Well, the verdict is in: Jar Jar Binks is still an obnoxious character 13 years later in 3-D, speaking in a bizarre, pigeon dialect that insults a range of ethnic and racial groups. And this is the most endless and dullest of the "Star Wars" episodes, though perfectly OK for kids 8 and older. The film looks good in 3-D -- not dark, and most enhanced during battle scenes and light-saber fights. This prequel introduces the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) as a young Jedi knight and his master, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). Qui-Gon meets a boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) on the planet of Tatooine. We know that Anakin becomes the father of Luke Skywalker and later goes to the Dark Side of the Force to become Darth Vader. But at this point, Gui-Gon sees only potential in the boy. The two Jedi try to rescue the planet Naboo and its queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) from an invasion by the evil Trade Federation. The Galactic Republic's senate may be infiltrated by an evil Sith agent. Jabba the Hutt, the droids C-3PO (voice of Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) are on hand, too, as is Samuel L. Jackson as Jedi knight Mace Windu.

The feature is preceded by "Scrat's Continental Crack-up Part 2," starring the manic prehistoric squirrel from the "Ice Age" animated films. He's still chasing that darn acorn. At one point, he sees a disturbingly dead, skeleton, member of his species.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The action sequences and some of the weirder looking intergalactic beings may disturb kids under 8 on a big screen in 3-D, but the battles and fights are all very stylized and non-gory.

-- ACTOR RALPH FIENNES DIRECTS AND TAKES TITLE ROLE IN STUNNING, VIOLENTLY CONTEMPORARY SHAKESPEARE ADAPTATION:

"CORIOLANUS" R, LIMITED RELEASE -- High-school seniors and college students may find this adaptation of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," set in what looks like Bosnia during the 1990s civil war, gripping and modern, even if some of the language is obscure to them. It is too realistically violent for under-17s. However, compressed into two hours, and directed by actor Ralph Fiennes, who also plays the lead, the story is crystal clear: A military hero of aristocratic lineage, Caius Martius (Fiennes) has no problem representing his country, "Rome," in war. But when he's named Consul and given the title Coriolanus, he is unable to humble himself before the common people and ask for their support. Even his ambitious mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave), cannot convince him to swallow his pride in pursuit of power. He so offends the people with his arrogance that he is stripped of his title and banished. Embittered, he joins forces with Rome's enemy, Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler). The camera work and action are frenetic, but the story and the abridged Shakespearean text, while not easy, are sharply to the point.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The street-by-street warfare scenes are violent and bloody, with bombings, gun battles and fighting with knives and fists. The bombed-out urban scenery and hollow-eyed inhabitants are highly reminiscent of the 1990s Bosnian war. Characters drink and occasionally smoke.

ALSO PLAYING

-- FINE FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND" -- Fast-moving, funny and imaginative, this movie is too colorful and silly to be very scary, even in 3-D. Most kids 8 and older, and even some a little younger, will have fun with it. It's actually better than its predecessor ("Journey to the Center of the Earth," PG, 2008). Teenager Sean (Josh Hutcherson) has become a devout "Vernian" since his trip to the Earth's core, believing all of Jules Verne's science-fiction fantasies to be provable fact. (Kids may want to read the books!) Sean has grown sullen since his widowed mom (Kristin Davis) married Hank (Dwayne Johnson). Yet it's Hank who gets Sean out of trouble, and Hank who helps Sean decode a radio message from his explorer granddad (Michael Caine) containing map coordinates for the Mysterious Island in Verne's 1874 novel. Hank and Sean head to the South Pacific to check it out. They hire an wacky helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman), whose pretty daughter (Vanessa Hudgens) renders Sean speechless. The chopper flies into a hurricane (a little scary) and crashes (not shown) onto an island paradise where elephants are tiny and hummingbirds are huge. Meeting up with Sean's grandfather, they have many adventures until they realize the island is sinking. The movie is preceded by an amusing but not hilarious Looney Tunes 3-D short, "Daffy's Rhapsody." Elmer Fudd sees Daffy Duck singing onstage and furiously tries and fails to shoot him dead.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Some of Elmer's gunshots are intense for a cartoon. In the film, kids 8 and younger may be scared when the heroes are chased by giant lizards and hummingbirds, and a volcano erupts. Underwater scenes are tense: Can they hold their breath long enough? Will the electric eel attack? There is mild toilet humor and sexual innuendo.

-- FINE FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"BIG MIRACLE" PG -- There's more than one miracle here. Based on real events, this movie could have been a mushy, unchallenging "family film." Instead -- this is the miracle not in the title -- it's a sharply defined, lightly comic slice of Americana for anyone 10 and older to enjoy. It's all about people who bridged their major differences and came together in 1988 to rescue three gray whales trapped under winter ice off the coast of Barrow, Alaska. The film drolly examines the political and philosophical fault lines of the Reagan era and also shines a sympathetic light on native Alaskans' relationship with whales. John Krasinski plays Adam, an ambitious Anchorage TV reporter whose whale story gets picked up by the network and is seen in the White House. The media descends on Barrow. Adam's ex-girlfriend Rachel (Drew Barrymore), an animal activist, makes a huge to-do. A TV reporter from Los Angeles (Kristen Bell) thinks the story is her ticket to the networks. An oil man (Ted Danson) in need of good PR pays for part of the rescue effort. Even a Soviet ship helps out.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The strongest element for kids under 10 will be the suspense: Will the whales survive and make it to the open sea? The script contains some salty language, and adults drink. SPOILER ALERT: Though it isn't shown, there is one whale death. We don't see it, but we do see mild hints that the creature is ill.

-- PG-13s:

"CHRONICLE" -- The violence and emotional torment in this ingeniously made teen-focused sci-fi drama pull it into R territory and make it too overwhelming for many middle-schoolers. On a whim, three high-school guys explore an unusual cave and develop telekinetic powers after exposure to an unearthly material there. This new ability leads them to hijinks first, then to tragedy. A strong cast and arresting visual effects created on a budget make "Chronicle" a fresh adventure. It unfolds as a shaky video recorded by Andrew (Dane DeHaan), a friendless, introverted kid whose unemployed dad (Michael Kelly) drinks and beats him, while his mother (Bo Petersen) lies in bed, terminally ill. After Andrew explores the cave with Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael B. Jordan), he starts using his telekinetic powers not to make Legos float, like his cohorts, but to express anger. Then the guys realize they can actually fly, and the action takes a dark turn.

THE BOTTOM LINE: When Andrew lashes out, bloody injuries, mayhem and death result. The violence -- people thrown to their deaths, explosions, buildings wrecked -- is not graphic, but loud, fast and disturbing. One incident involves an impalement. Characters use occasional profanity, and it's implied that teens drink beer at a party. Andrew's abusive dad is usually drunk. His mother looks very ill indeed.

"THE WOMAN IN BLACK" -- Many high-schoolers will revel in the rich atmospherics and shriek-inducing poltergeists in this handsome ghost story (based on a novel by Susan Hill) set in early 20th-century England. The film's overall spookiness may be too much for middle-schoolers. In a chilling prologue, we see three little girls jump to their deaths from their playroom, seemingly transfixed by the veiled, black-clad spirit of the title. Years later, mild-mannered attorney Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe, of "Harry Potter" fame), a grieving widower and father of a young son, comes to the village to sort through the papers of a deceased dowager. Working in her musty manor, he glimpses the Woman in Black. The townsfolk believe that whenever anyone sees her, a child dies. This time a little girl succumbs after drinking lye. The people blame Arthur, so he determines to get to the bottom of the ghostly mystery and is aided by a local gentleman (Ciaran Hinds) who thinks it's all bunk. Radcliffe does a nice job in the role.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The film depicts ghostly and occasionally skeletal spirits -- many of them children. In several scenes children are led to their deaths by the Woman in Black. A spirit re-enacts a hanging suicide and other flashbacks show a child drowned in a marsh. We see bloodied sheets where Arthur's wife died in childbirth. Characters drink.

"ONE FOR THE MONEY" -- Katherine Heigl stars as bumbling bounty hunter Stephanie Plum in this comedy/crime thriller based on the first book in Janet Evanovich's popular series about the blue-collar, New Jersey heroine. Though rated PG-13, the movie contains a lot of crudely implied sexual humor and rough gun violence nearing the R range, so it's not for middle-schoolers. High-schoolers may find "One for the Money" puzzling, as it never finds its tone. It starts in a sort of offbeat, Coen Brothers vein, then wanders to farce and back, along with the plot. Heigl is amusing, if not that believable as Stephanie, who's broke, jobless and dateless. With no training, she goes to work as a bail bondsman/bounty hunter. Her target is former vice cop Joe Morelli (Jason O'Mara), who's wanted for murder. Morelli and Stephanie have a history and Stephanie can't decide whether to nab him or kiss him. Had the film been directed with a surer hand, it could've been a hoot, brimming with colorful characters. Instead, it falls flat.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The script includes a lot of midrange profanity, some occasionally stronger stuff, and considerable playful sexual innuendo with briefly implied nudity. The gunplay gets intense in a couple of scenes. Characters drink, and handle a shipment of heroin.

"RED TAILS" -- Teens will absorb a slice of history, albeit highly fictionalized, about World War II and the pre-civil rights era in this involving tale. Clunky, preachy exposition overloads some of the dialogue, but a strong cast and thrilling aerial-dogfight sequences largely overcome that heavy-handedness. Though far from a docudrama, "Red Tails" is inspired by the fabled real-life Tuskegee Airmen -- African-American pilots recruited from the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama during World War II who flew fighters and protected American bomber squadrons on missions over Europe. The film follows the struggle of the pilots and their commanding officers (Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard) in a military stymied by racist attitudes. The leader of the fighter squadron, Marty "Easy" Julian (Nate Parker), is a by-the-book guy in the air who tamps down his anxieties on land with drink. His buddy Joe "Lightning" Little (David Oyelowo) is a risk-taking, hot-dogger pilot who falls for a girl (Daniela Ruah) in the Italian town near their base.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Injuries and crashes are not overly graphic, but there is blood. The script includes rare midrange profanity, racial slurs in a bar fight -- including the N-word -- and crude language. There is an implied overnight tryst between an airman and a local Italian girl.

-- R's:

"SAFE HOUSE" -- High-school-age movie fans 15 and older will be carried along by sheer adrenaline in this deliberately convoluted, nonstop spy saga. "Safe House" spits out bits of plot amid head-spinning mayhem. The story isn't all that original, once it's parsed out, but the presentation is fresh. And the film works on more than an action level because stars Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds bring much nuance to their characters. Matt (Reynolds), a young CIA operative, runs a "safe house" in Cape Town, South Africa. His girlfriend (Nora Arnezeder) thinks he runs a health research facility. Nothing ever happens there, and the idealistic Matt longs to prove himself to his superiors (Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga and Sam Shepard) back at CIA headquarters. His life changes forever when an "extraction team" brings in Tobin Frost (Washington), a notorious, embittered ex-agent who has been selling state secrets for cash. Frost has turned himself in for an unknown reason, and a cadre of unidentified assassins is on his tail. After a massacre at the safe house, Matt takes Frost on the run, never knowing whether Frost will try to kill him, betray him, or just infect him with disillusionment.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The near-constant violence includes thunderous gunplay, neck-snapping fights, property-wrecking chases, and the occasional stabbing. Agents use waterboarding on Frost. The level of gore is somewhat understated for the R rating, but there's still plenty of blood. The script also contains rare barnyard profanity. Early in the film we see Matt in the shower with his girlfriend, but there is no sexual situation or nudity. Characters drink wine.

"THE GREY" -- "The Grey" feels like a kind of Jack London adventure in which men test their mettle against whatever nature hurls at them. High-schoolers 15 and up with strong stomachs will find it gripping on two levels -- as a thriller and a dark night of the soul for a tough group of men. The film isn't for kids under high-school age, but it's a cool piece of work. Liam Neeson plays Ottway, a sharpshooter hired to protect crews at a remote oil drilling station in Alaska from packs of wolves. Ottway himself is a despondent and suicidal loner, obsessed, Capt. Ahab-like, with the wolves. When he and a group of the oil workers are flying south from the remote site, their plane crashes (a truly frightening sequence). Ottway is thrown clear and becomes the de facto leader of the survivors, though some of the criminally inclined among them push back at first. The wolves start to stalk the men and Ottway organizes them to defend themselves.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The wolf attacks are not highly graphic, but the foreboding leading up to them and the size of the animatronic and computer-generated creatures -- yellow eyes, huge teeth -- make the attacks feel graphic. And the views of the mutilated victims after the attacks are graphic, showing severed limbs and a lot of blood. Other action includes gunplay and fist fights. Characters drink and swear heavily. Themes of suicide, loss of faith and existential nothingness weave throughout the saga.

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING" -- High-schoolers who enjoy vampire sagas of a more violent strain than the mushy "Twlight Saga" films (all PG-13s) will have plenty to chomp onto in "Underworld: Awakening." The melding of live-action and special effects, subtly intensified in 3-D, works handsomely here, but the violence is too gory for middle-schoolers. In a prologue, the three previous "Underworld" films (all R's) are cryptically summarized, but the new film is still hard to follow. The vampire heroine Selene (Kate Beckinsale) recalls in voice-over how she was captured while trying to save her lover, a human/Lycan (werewolf) hybrid, from forces bent on killing all "non-human" species. She learns that she was held in suspended animation for 12 years and anonymously released from a lab run by a nefarious human doctor (Stephen Rea). Selene impales and chops her way to the truth of what occurred while she was away.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The 3-D heightened violence features beheadings, bone-splinterings, hands thrust into abdominal organs, as well as head-bashing and high-flying fights. An adolescent is exposed to and involved in much of this. The talk of genocidal "cleansing" of "non-humans" is an intentionally disturbing echo of recent human history. One scene has implied nudity, and the script includes very occasional profanity.