"9" (PG-13, 1 hr., 19 min.)

Dazzling computer animation and art direction wedded to an intriguing idea don't save "9" from its own preachiness, which grows ever more ponderous, even at a short 79 minutes. Filmmaker Shane Acker's post-apocalyptic fable is geared to adults. It's OK for most teens, though it may bore many of them after a while. There are intense and scary giant machines that attack the little burlapy puppet-like protagonists and tear them apart or zap them into submission. The film's mood is fear-laden and dark.

"Our world is ending, but life must go on," a voice intones at the start. It is that of a scientist. After the machines he invented were used for war and killed off humanity, his last act was to create tiny electrically powered creatures made from bits and pieces of scrap, yet imbued with thought and conscience. Creature No. 9 (voice of Elijah Wood) comes to life and goes out exploring. In the ruined city he encounters kindly old No. 2 (Martin Landau) who shows him how to scavenge useful things such as car headlights. The pair are attacked by a huge mechanical "beast" that abducts poor No. 2. Determined to rescue him, No. 9 eventually meets up with a small group of beings like himself, led by the dictatorial, risk-averse No. 1 (Christopher Plummer). On the rescue mission, No. 9 inadvertently restarts the old horrible war machinery, which powers up and comes after all of them with sharp, clanging gears, a furnace-like power source and the ability to morph into different monster-like shapes. With the help of No. 7 (Jennifer Connelly), a brave guerrilla fighter good at beheading mechanical monsters, the tiny beings use their ingenuity to stop the war machine and free themselves from fear.

"9" is very well-meaning but sorely lacking in wit or any but the most obvious wisdom. The two little creatures who catalogue and play back human knowledge with their camera-lens eyes are whimsical and clever, but they don't get enough screen time to lighten the mood.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR MOST (BUT NOT ALL) KIDS 6 AND OLDER:

"Ponyo" G -- This ravishing, wildly imaginative fable by the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki ("Howl's Moving Castle," PG, 2005; "Spirited Away," PG, 2002) has English dialogue voiced by American actors and offers rare delights for most kids 6 and older. Miyazaki tells a complex story, though, and the film's 5-year-old hero faces dangers that could scare some kids under 8. Based loosely on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," it begins with a goldfish who swims away from her father, Fujimoto (voice of Liam Neeson), an undersea wizard. She is rescued by a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke (Frankie Jonas, the Jonas Brothers' 8-year-old sib). He names her Ponyo, feeds her, and is shocked when she starts to talk (voice of Noah Cyrus, Miley Cyrus' 9-year-old sis). Fujimoto sends an army of fish to snatch her back, but Ponyo uses magic to become a real girl and return to Sosuke. There are scary storms and dark images, but they all pass like a great watery dream with a happy ending. One angry phrase, "Bug off!" is used, and Sosuke's mom seems to grab a can of beer.

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Shorts" PG -- "Shorts" offers raucous, chaotic fun for kids 8 and older, though inspiration and energy weaken in its last act. It's told in out-of-order chapters and with comic-bookish special effects that show rampaging crocodiles, swooping pterodactyls, and, for grossness, a giant booger with an eyeball in it. There's bullying, but for comic effect, not anguish. Director Robert Rodriguez lets kids take the lead, as he did in his "Spy Kids" trilogy (all PGs). In a town called Black Falls, everyone works for mean Mr. Black (James Spader). His snarky daughter Helvetica (Jolie Vanier) torments Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett), nerdy son of Mom (Leslie Mann) and Dad (Jon Cryer) Thompson. Into their lives drops a multicolored "wishing rock." When Toe wishes for "friends," it produces tiny UFOs piloted by aliens who clean his room, but also wreck his science class. The rock creates more havoc than happiness. Some scenes could worry kids under 8. One kid is swallowed by a croc, then vomited back up, and bullies pelt Toe with rocks. The film ends kindly and tells us to be careful what we wish for.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"9" (NEW) -- Dazzling computer animation and art direction wedded to an intriguing story idea don't save "9" from its own preachiness, which grows ever more ponderous, even at 79 minutes. Filmmaker Shane Acker's post-apocalyptic fable is geared to adults. It's OK for most teens, but might bore them after a while. There are intense and scary giant machines that attack the film's little puppet-like protagonists, and tear them apart or zap them. The film's mood is fear-laden and dark. "Our world is ending, but life must go on," a voice intones at the start. It is a scientist who, as the machines he created kill off humanity, creates tiny electrically powered creatures made from bits and pieces of detritus, yet imbued with thought and conscience. Creature No. 9 (voice of Elijah Wood) comes to life and goes out exploring. In the ruined city he encounters kindly No. 2 (Martin Landau). A huge mechanical "beast" attacks them and abducts No. 2. No. 9 eventually finds a small group of beings like himself, led by the dictatorial, risk-averse No. 1 (Christopher Plummer). In trying to rescue No. 2, poor No. 9 inadvertently restarts the old horrible war machinery, and they're all in danger. The tiny creatures eventually save themselves and escape a life of fear. It's all very well-meaning but lacking in wit or any but the most obvious wisdom.

"All About Steve" -- One should applaud Sandra Bullock for taking risks. However, the risks don't pay off in "All About Steve," a laboriously "offbeat" character comedy that begins rather promisingly but soon goes KABLOOEY in plot, tone and characterization. It is painful to watch and unlikely to appeal to teens. The uneven satire aims at cultural issues adults discuss more. The movie has a semiexplicit comedic sexual situation that's truly not for middle-schoolers, and Bullock's character thanks a truck driver who gives her a lift for "not raping me." There is other understated innuendo, midrange profanity and gratuitous ethnic and racial stereotyping. There are exploitative cable TV-style stories about a hostage situation, storms, and deaf children falling into a mine, though no one is badly hurt. Bullock plays Mary Horowitz, an eccentric crossword puzzle designer who lives with her parents, wears bright red patent leather boots, can't stop talking, and becomes obsessed with dishy cable news cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper) after their disastrous blind date. He can't wait to escape her, but Mary thinks he wants her to follow him on the road. Steve's egotistical colleague (Thomas Haden Church) urges her to stalk him.

"My One and Only" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- Glamorous, self-absorbed Anne Deveraux (Renee Zellweger), fed up with her philandering Manhattan bandleader husband (Kevin Bacon), empties her safe deposit box, buys a Cadillac, takes her teenage sons out of school, and hits the road. It's the 1950s and her aim, as a 40ish Southern belle, is to find a rich man willing to marry her, but she has scant luck. Her younger son, George (Logan Lerman), wants to be a writer. The older boy, Robbie (Mark Rendall), has ambitions to act. Zellweger poses and pouts as Anne but doesn't summon up much feeling. The film has affecting moments, but feels tedious and long. It's based on actor George Hamilton's childhood memories about his mother. OK for high-schoolers, but unlikely to intrigue many of them, it contains midrange profanity, drinking, smoking, subtle gay themes, and a scene in which Anne is arrested for "soliciting" in a hotel bar. There is a brief threat of violence.

"Post Grad" -- A smart college grad named Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel, "Lena" in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" films, a PG in 2005, and a PG-13 sequel in 2008; and Rory on TV's "Gilmore Girls") discovers it's not so easy to get a great job the day after you get your diploma. So she moves back in with her oddball family (including Michael Keaton as her boyish dad and Carol Burnett as her cranky grandmother). Her pal Adam (Zach Gilford) is, of course, in love with her, but tires of waiting. Her suave next-door neighbor (Rodrigo Santoro) offers a brief romantic fling. All this sounds corny, yet the script, direction and cast are so sharp that the movie crackles. There are a couple of steamy but nonexplicit sexual situations, wine and beer-drinking, midrange profanity, crude humor, jokes about death, pointless Latino stereotypes, and a gag about Dad accidentally running over a cat that some will find unfunny. More for high-schoolers who like offbeat humor.

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" -- Fueled by impressive digital effects, this futuristic war flick will divert action-loving teens. It is mindless, but it has style. The violence is nongraphic, but there is much loud and explosive destruction. People's heads are probed by long needles in a lab. In the prologue, a hot metal mask is placed on a man's face as punishment. There is midrange profanity. In the near future, an arms manufacturer named McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) has a new nanotechnology that can attack tanks, planes and guns by "eating" the metal they're made of. Of course, McCullen is bent on world domination. An American general (Dennis Quaid) is wise to him and intends to use the supersecret G.I. Joe unit to stop him. Ace soldiers Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) join the unit. Duke learns that his estranged wife (Sienna Miller) now works for McCullen.

"Julie & Julia" -- A sizable minority of high-schoolers may savor this celebratory adult-focused fable. It tells parallel stories -- one based on Julie Powell's book and blog about how, in 2002, she made all 524 recipes in Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and the other based on Child's autobiographical "My Life in France." The modern scenes tell a genial fable with Amy Adams as a charming, confidence-challenged Julie, but the real main course is Child's life in Paris as a diplomat's (Stanley Tucci) wife after World War II, when she indeed mastered French cooking. Meryl Streep is wondrous as an idealized, funny Julia Child. Writer/director Nora Ephron's film floats easily between postwar Europe and 21st-century Queens. There are a few strongly implied but nongraphic marital sexual situations and mild sexual innuendo. There is heavy smoking and drinking, rare but occasionally strong profanity, and a reference to suicide.

-- R's:

"The Final Destination" (NEW) -- You can't get more formulaic than the four "Final Destination" films, all rated R and all about protagonists who survive some accident or disaster only to be picked off by the invisible, inexorable spirit of Death who kills them in a particular order and in a particular way. The films always foreshadow this for the audience -- showing bolts loosening, gasoline spilling, a nail gun falling -- so we know the "freak accidents" to come, then see them unfold in blood-and-guts detail. There's always one character who has premonitions and tries to stop the catastrophes. In "The Final Destination" the deaths happen in 3-D and a nice fellow named Nick (Bobby Campo) has the premonitions. He alerts spectators of impending catastrophe at a NASCAR-type raceway. Then the survivors he saved start to die one by one. Nick and his girlfriend (Shantel VanSanten) try to stop Death's course. There are many impalements. The film has strong profanity and one graphic sexual situation with semi-nudity. The huge popularity of death fests like this must give one pause. Not for under-17s.

"Gamer" (NEW) -- Though it seems to critique the coarsening of our culture -- the decline of taste, public behavior, personal ethics and morality -- "Gamer" spends an awful lot of time exploiting those issues for thrills. Not for under-17s, it earns its R with strongly implied, sometimes quite explicit, sexual situations involving virtual-reality prostitution (with sensationalized female toplessness and near-nudity). There is graphic, bloody violence and strong profanity. The film's trippy futuristic design and computer-generated effects are impressive and the cast is strong, but in the end, it fails to engage emotions -- one cannot live on sci-fi and sarcasm alone. Gerard Butler plays Kable, a death row inmate (he was framed, of course) who, along with others, is used to fight in lethal staged battles as part of a video game that blends live-action with virtual-reality technology. The designer (Michael C. Hall) is a nutty, amoral control freak. Smart-aleck rich kid Simon (Logan Lerman) is the gifted gamer who steers Kable through the firefights. Kable needs to break free of the game to rescue his wife (Amber Valletta) and child (Brighid Fleming) on the outside.

"Extract" -- A funny, slightly mean-spirited spoof of American malaise at home and at work, "Extract" is geared to grown-ups but mature high-schoolers might like it. It has dry wit, dead-on characterizations and no cheap laughs. Jason Bateman plays Joel, owner of a little factory that manufactures food flavorings such as almond extract. His assembly-line workers goof off too much. His wife Suzie (Kristen Wiig) is always too tired to make love, and his annoying neighbor (David Koechner) keeps pushing tickets to a Rotary Club dinner. Joel tells his troubles to Dean (Ben Affleck in hippie hair), an amoral bartender. Dean suggests hiring a moronic young gigolo (hilarious Dustin Milligan) to seduce Suzie. If Suzie goes for it, then, Dean says, Joel has the all-clear to cheat on her with his flirty new temporary hire, Cindy (Mila Kunis of TV's "That '70s Show"). But Cindy is a crook. The film shows much recreational drug use and has semi-crude sexual slang, drinking, strong profanity and a subtly implied sexual tryst.

"Taking Woodstock" -- This good-hearted fable should fascinate high-schoolers 16 and older interested in the '60s. It's about the transformed lives of stunned locals living on the fringes of the 1969 Woodstock festival and its half-million young, groovy attendees. Note that the film has frontal nudity, subtly implied sexual situations (both hetero- and homosexual), drinking, strong profanity, ethnic and homophobic slurs, and brief mayhem. It also portrays drug use and LSD hallucinations. The film is based on Elliot Tiber's 2007 memoir. The young Elliot (Demetri Martin), a not-quite closeted artist, is trying to help his passive father (Henry Goodman) and savagely defensive mother (Imelda Staunton), both World War II refugees, to salvage their broke cottage colony in the Catskills. When he hears that a nearby town has revoked its permit for a music festival, Elliot calls the producers and offers his town. A dairy farmer, Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy), rents them his land. The film offers charmed performances and distant wisps of great music.

"Inglourious Basterds" -- Cinema buffs 16 and older who delight in Quentin Tarantino's flamboyant, mayhem-laced filmmaking will latch right onto this wildly implausible but arresting, often stunning, yarn -- even if they don't catch all his references to other war movies. There is very graphic violence, a brief explicit sexual situation, strong profanity and much drinking and smoking. Brad Pitt, with a peanut-butter-thick Southern accent as Lt. Aldo Raine, leads a squad of Jewish-American soldiers into occupied France to ambush German soldiers and collect their scalps. (This is Tarantino's riff on war movies, not history. He loots the Holocaust to tell a tale of bloody vengeance.) In the prologue, an SS man (Christoph Waltz) scares a French farmer into admitting he's hiding a Jewish family. One young Jewish woman (Melanie Laurent) escapes the SS machine guns. In Paris under an alias, she runs a cinema and plots to kill the entire German high command during a premiere at her theater. She's unaware that Raine and others are planning the same thing.