"Julie & Julia" (PG-13, 2 hrs., 3 min.)

Any parent who's taken kids to a fancy restaurant only to have them order a burger (or chicken fingers) and fries, knows that "Julie & Julia," with its focus on gourmet French cooking, will appeal to more grown-up tastes. Still, there must be a sizable minority of high-schoolers who can savor the movie's colorful characters and smart dialogue as well as its gorgeously (and messily) prepared French dishes. All the reality cooking shows on TV today offer high-schoolers background on the idea of high-end cooking that previous teen generations never had.

The movie tells two tales. It's based in part on Julie Powell's book of the same title and her 2002 blog about how she saved her self-esteem by making all 524 recipes in Julia Child's fabled cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in the course of a year. That makes for a likable romantic fable, with the wonderful Amy Adams as Julie and Chris Messina as her good-natured, food-loving husband Eric. But the film's main dish is the parallel saga that unfolds about Julia Child's life in Paris as a diplomat's wife after World War II and into the 1950s (from her book "My Life in France"). That's when the tall, gawky lady with the amusing voice became fascinated by French cooking and, with loving husband Paul's (Stanley Tucci) enthusiastic support, studied at the fabled Cordon Bleu school, published her book (with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck) to help "servantless" American women cook in the French style, and eventually, started her pioneering TV cooking show.

The film moves gracefully between Child's mid-20th century world and Julie's frenetic 21st-century life in Queens, with her self-esteem issues, crises of confidence and dreary job as a complaints operator for New York City in the wake of 9/11. Meryl Streep is wondrous as Julie Powell' s idealized version of Julia Child -- smart, cheerful, and gung-ho, with upper-class breeding but no snobbery. Crises of confidence don't apply to this Julia Child. In "Julie & Julia," writer/director Nora Ephron ("Sleepless in Seattle," PG, 1993; "You've Got Mail," PG, 1998; "When Harry Met Sally," R, 1989) celebrates female creativity and gumption, happy marriages, and the glories of good food as part of the glue that holds a good life together.

Not ideal for middle-schoolers, the movie includes several strongly implied (frisky, but never graphic) marital sexual situations and other mild sexual innuendo. Characters in the 1940s and '50s scenes smoke a lot. There is also much drinking and some tipsiness in both time periods. The script contains rare but occasionally strong profanity. There are references to suicide and to divorce.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

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-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" PG -- Twenty-first-century slang and ageless slapstick still work in this third "Ice Age" feature. It's funny, but not Pixar-transcendent. The 3-D visuals pop a bit more, so kids may jump when an angry T. rex chases the heroes, or when a flesh-eating plant briefly swallows two of them. The old friends are here -- Manny the mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), his pregnant mate Ellie (Queen Latifah), Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary). Sid finds three large eggs that hatch into bumptious dinosaur babies. (They swallow other baby animals, but spit them up alive.) The dinos' mom arrives, grabbing Sid along with her babies. Sid's pals follow them to a tropical glade full of dinosaurs. An even larger T. rex comes after all of them and Buck (Simon Pegg), a swashbuckling weasel, offers to help. Scampering in the wake of all this is Scrat, the wordless squirrel-rat, still chasing the perfect acorn. He tangles with a seductive female over the precious nut. There's a creepy skeleton graveyard, occasional semi-crude humor, and mild sexual jokes (a butterfly "coming out;" turning "a T. rex into a T. rachel").

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-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" PG -- The saga of boy wizard Harry Potter (now almost a man-wizard) remains as fascinating as ever in this handsome, if sunless film, based on the sixth book in J.K. Rowling's series. A kind of place-holder for the two-part finale, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," scheduled for 2010 and 2011, the movie has fewer action sequences, a lot of ruminative dialogue scenes, and assumes near-total knowledge of the books on the part of its audience. The PG rating, a downshift from the last two PG-13 Potter films, means the action sequences are less violent. Yet the movie remains iffy for children under 10. It has frightening images, as when the Death Eaters collapse a crowded London footbridge, and when skeletal beings swarm out of an underground lake to attack Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). One character is cursed and dangerously flung about. Another appears to die of poisoning, but revives. There are broken, bloody noses and other wounds. As Harry and his friends enter their later teens, there is romantic longing and more sexual innuendo. After the Death Eaters attack London, Professor Dumbledore takes Harry to meet Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who knows secrets about the early Hogwarts years of Tom Riddle, who grew up to be the Dark Lord Voldemort. Harry suspects the bully Draco Malfoy is a secret Death Eater and still wonders which side surly Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) is on. Meanwhile, Harry's sweet on Ron Weasley's (Rupert Grint) sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright), and Hermione (Emma Watson) loves Ron, who is too busy flirting with Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave).

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-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Julie & Julia" (NEW) -- With its focus on adults lives and French cooking, "Julie & Julia" will appeal more to older tastes. Still, a sizable minority of high-schoolers can savor the colorful characters, smart dialogue and, thanks to all the reality cooking shows on TV, its gorgeously prepared French dishes. Telling two parallel tales, the film is based on Julie Powell's book and blog about how she challenged herself in 2002 to make all 524 recipes in Julia Child's fabled cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year, and on Child's autobiographical "My Life in France." The modern tale is a likable fable, with wonderful Amy Adams as Julie and Chris Messina as her good-natured husband. But the main dish is the parallel saga of Child's life in Paris as a diplomat's wife after World War II, when she learned French cooking and, with husband Paul's (Stanley Tucci) enthusiastic support, published the cookbook (with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck) and eventually started her pioneering American TV show. Meryl Streep is wondrous as Julie Powell's idealized version of Julia Child -- smart, cheerful and gung-ho, with upper-class breeding but no snobbery. The film moves gracefully between Child's mid-20th century Europe and Julie's (Amy Adams) frenetic 21st-century Queens. Writer/director Nora Ephron celebrates female creativity and gumption and the glories of good food as part of the glue that holds together a good life. Not so much for middle-schoolers, the movie has a few strongly implied but nongraphic marital sexual situations and mild sexual innuendo. There is heavy smoking, drinking and tipsiness. The script has rare but occasionally strong profanity, and there is a reference to suicide.

"(500) Days of Summer" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- A genuinely fresh indie romantic comedy puts to shame all the cliche-ridden "rom-coms" that Hollywood grinds out. "(500) Days of Summer" ought to charm discerning high-schoolers. Aside from a hip, altie-rock soundtrack, the movie stays away from easy pop-culture references. It was shot in old Los Angeles, which gives it a timeless look, and during one inspired interlude, it portrays the hero's romantic anguish in parodies of classic European films. Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wants to be a writer, but toils at a greeting card company instead. His story unfolds in a mix of flashbacks, tracing the 500 days that elapse between his falling for the boss' new secretary, Summer (Zooey Deschanel), how she broke up with him, and how he eventually got over it. Tom confides his longing and pain to his friends (Geoffrey Arend and Matthew Gray Gubler), who become a kind of Greek chorus. The film has profanity, crude sexual slang and innuendo, verbal references to porn, several implied sexual situations, and drinking due to depression. Not for middle-schoolers.

"Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg" (LIMITED RELEASE) (Unrated) -- High-schoolers interested in American culture and the early days of television may be fascinated by documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner's loving profile of TV's earliest sitcom star, Gertrude Berg. Berg's show, "The Goldbergs," about Jewish housewife Molly Goldberg, living with her family in a New York City apartment, premiered on TV in 1949 and was a hit. Molly's trademark was her habit of leaning out a window to chat with neighbors (hence the "Yoo-Hoo" in the title). Berg also wrote and produced the show, which made her a triple-threat TV pioneer. Fans such as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and National Public Radio's Susan Stamberg, among others, praise Berg's contributions.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" -- In this endless, painful sequel, director Michael Bay lets actors play second fiddle to prolonged special-effects battles between giant, quick-morphing robotic warriors -- good Autobots and evil Decepticons. The plot is incomprehensible except to Transformers superfans and other sci-fi/action-loving high-schoolers. In addition to bloodless but intense 'bot battles, the movie contains human warfare and enough crude sexual innuendo to make it iffy for middle-schoolers. The hero, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), nearly has his skull cut open. There is some profanity, a gag about an adult getting high on marijuana brownies, and toilet humor. Sam, who discovered the ancient alien race of Transformers in the first film, starts college hoping free-spirited Mikaela (Megan Fox) won't forget him. Then the Decepticons attack Earth and Sam and the good 'bots must act.

"The Proposal" -- This trifling romantic comedy benefits from a first-rate cast and crackling repartee. Teens with a slightly older sensibility may find it fun. It includes a lot of sexual humor, however, which might concern parents of middle-schoolers, including a big guffaw scene in which Sandra Bullock and co-star Ryan Reynolds accidentally crash into each other, sort-of-but-not-really naked. The moment is digitally sanitized, but strongly implies nudity. There is midrange sexual slang and innuendo, a threat to castrate someone, a male exotic dancer in a G-string, moderate profanity and a nasty remark about immigrants. Bullock plays a hard-driving Canadian-born book editor in New York who bullies her horrified assistant (Reynolds) into becoming engaged to her so she can stay in the U.S. They go to his Alaska hometown to meet the folks, and it's amusing to watch her become human.

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-- AN R:

"Public Enemies" -- A handsome film with moments of shattering violence, "Public Enemies" explores how bank robber/folk hero John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) met his end at the hands (or triggers) of dogged FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) and his men. In director Michael Mann's sepia-toned crime tale, there's scant difference between untethered lawmen and criminals. The actors (including Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover) do vivid work. Depp plays Dillinger close to the vest, with flashes of charm and mayhem. Besides loud, darkly bloody shootouts, the film has a nongraphic sexual situation, verbal sexual innuendo, implied nudity, rare profanity, drinking and smoking. OK for high-schoolers.