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Family Film Reviews

Jane Horwitz

"Space Chimps" (G, 1 hr., 21 min.)

Walking out of a showing of "Space Chimps," The Family Filmgoer overheard a father and daughter -- she appeared to be 7 or 8 -- debate the computer-animated film. She thought it was funny and he thought it was the dumbest thing he'd ever seen. That sums it up for this 'toon about NASA chimps who are way smarter than their human handlers know. They retrieve an unmanned space probe from a planet on the other side of the universe and even save the planet's blobby pink, blue and green inhabitants (who speak perfect English) from a tyrant. Kids 10 or younger may find "Space Chimps" amusing and parents will sigh. There are bad rhymes-with-chimp puns and plenty of simian slapstick. Gags kids won't get about the superego and the id are there so grown-ups will think they're watching a smart film. They're not. Never mind the bad science. The animation looks candy-box ugly, the story is a jury-rigged mess, and the female chimp's hairdo is awful. The actors voicing the characters are the film's strongest asset. It contains mild toilet humor, monster-ish plants and animals with toothy jaws that go after the chimps and their little alien allies, plus a number of big crash-landings. There is very mild sexual innuendo.

Ham III (voice of "Saturday Night Live's" Andy Samberg) is a smart-aleck stunt chimp who gets shot out of a cannon at the circus. His grandfather was the first chimp in space, but this Ham likes showbiz. Then NASA loses an unmanned probe on the far side of the universe. They send a ship to track it, putting chimps on board to test whether humans could survive such a mission. Ham is shanghaied and sent along as a PR stunt with NASA chimps Titan (Patrick Warburton) and Luna (Cheryl Hines). They crash into the planet Malgor where Zartog (Jeff Daniels) reigns.

"Step Brothers" (R, 1 hr., 33 min.)

In this lewd-for-the-heck-of-it comedy, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly play Brennan and Dale, respectively, two 40-ish slackers still living with single parents. They don't know each other, but they're about to. Still 16 emotionally, they play in treehouses, bang on fancy drum sets, stash porn magazines, talk about masturbation, watch TV and avoid work. Then Brennan's mom (Mary Steenburgen) and Dale's dad (Richard Jenkins) meet and marry and the doofuses become stepbrothers. First they hate each other and fight and drive their newlywed parents nuts. Then Dale punches out Brennan's obnoxious brother (Adam Scott) and they realize they're destined to be best friends and take on the world.

Unfortunately, the idea of two really annoying guys enabled by weak parents to live as middle-aged moochers proves to be really annoying as entertainment, too. Not that the comedic talents of Ferrell, Reilly and director/co-writer Adam McKay (they did "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," PG-13, 2006) doesn't make for some laughs. It's just that sitting through "Step Brothers" is more painful than funny.

The profanity and crude sexual slang is so intense that the movie is problematic fare for anyone under 17 without parental OK. In addition to every kind of sexual term and innuendo, there are a couple of explicit sexual situations, a partial view of a male sex organ, all kinds of locker-room grossness, gag-inducing toilet humor, homophobic slurs, and on and on.

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Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR TOTS ON UP:

"Space Chimps" G (NEW) -- Kids 10 or younger may find "Space Chimps" funny and parents will just suffer through it. There are bad rhymes-with-chimp puns and plenty of simian slapstick. Gags about the superego and the id are tossed in so grown-ups will think they're watching a smart film. They're not. The animation looks candy-box ugly and the story is a jury-rigged mess. Ham III (voice of "Saturday Night Live's" Andy Samberg) is a smart-aleck stunt chimp at the circus. His grandfather was the first chimp in space, but this Ham prefers being shot out of a cannon. When NASA loses an unmanned probe on the far side of the universe, they decide to send a ship after it, with chimps on board to test whether humans could survive such a mission. Ham is shanghaied and sent along as a PR stunt with NASA chimps Titan (Patrick Warburton) and Luna (Cheryl Hines). They crash into the planet Malgor where the evil Zartog (Jeff Daniels) reigns and save Malgor's blobby pastel creatures (who speak perfect English) from tyranny. There are monster-ish plants and animals with toothy jaws that go after the chimps, plus a number of crash-landings. There is very mild sexual innuendo and toilet humor.

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-- OK FOR KIDS 6 AND OLDER:

"WALL-E" G -- This computer-animated robot romance from the geniuses at Pixar breaks enchanting new ground, artistically, comically and technically. While the movie is funny and exciting, the mild existential dread in its central idea -- a trash-covered Earth abandoned by all but robots -- and the way the narrative slows in the middle could mean occasional fidgets or upset for some kids under 6. Slightly scary bits include roaring dust storms and fiery spaceship landings.

WALL-E is a trash-compacting robot in Manhattan some 700 years hence. He's squat and grungy, with plaintive binocular "eyes." He collects knickknacks, has a cockroach buddy and watches an ancient tape of "Hello Dolly!" (G, 1969). One day he finds a living plant. When a spaceship lands and offloads a sleek, white robot, EVE, WALL-E is smitten and shows her his plant. She grabs it and the spaceship scoops her back up. WALL-E hitches a ride. They dock at a starship full of humans. "WALL-E" is preceded by "Presto" (G), a hilarious animated short about a magician and his rabbit.

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-- BETTER FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Meet Dave" PG -- This science-fiction comedy geared to grade-schoolers is half-baked, but amiable. Eddie Murphy turns his physical comedy skills to playing a space alien. Part of a race of brainy human-like creatures who are tiny compared to the "primitive" people of Earth, he captains a spaceship designed to look just like an Earthling, created in his own image. His mission is to use the humanoid ship to scope out Earth for energy sources and destruction. He and his crew operate the arms, legs and mouth, etc. as the captain's avatar interacts with New Yorkers and befriends a single mom (Elizabeth Banks) and her little boy (Austyn Lind Myers). The movie includes much toilet humor, mild sexual innuendo, mild gay jokes and some drinking.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" PG -- When a prehistoric bug pops out at you in the digital 3-D version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth," you know it'll be fun, so try to see it in theaters offering that format. The movie is wildly simplistic and a little cheesy, but not a bad ride in 3-D. It might even spur some kids to read the Jules Verne novel that inspired it. The language is tame -- one silly joke about a rock called "schist." Kids under 8 may be scared when the characters swoosh roller-coaster style through a mine shaft, or free-fall down a tunnel into the Earth's center, or are pursued by a dinosaur, giant piranhas and man-eating plants. Brendan Fraser plays geology professor Trevor Anderson, who, like his late brother Max, studies the Earth's crust. Trevor and his 13-year-old nephew (Josh Hutcherson) read Max's notes in the margins of Verne's novel, then head to Iceland in search of a tunnel to the Earth's core and tumble into Verne's world.

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-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Brideshead Revisited" (NEW) -- Literary-minded high-schoolers may be swept up by this gloomy, affected adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel. The saga spans the 1920s to the 1940s, following posh English characters caught in a tug-of-war between passion, ambition, societal taboos and the demands of faith. The tale should intrigue thoughtful teens, but the mannered acting and overdecorated style of the film may put them off. Matthew Goode plays middle-class Oxford student Charles Ryder, who is befriended by the heavy-drinking, homosexually flirtatious aristocrat, Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw). At the palatial family home, Charles meets Sebastian's pious mother, Lady Marchmain (splendid Emma Thompson), whose devout Catholicism makes her doubly vigilant about her children's choices. She asks Charles to protect Sebastian and limit his drinking, but soon Charles is in love with Sebastian's sister Julia (Hayley Atwell). This makes Sebastian jealous and sad. Lady Marchmain feels let down by Charles and tells him she won't let her daughter marry a bourgeois atheist. The film contains much drinking and smoking, a nongraphic sexual situation, seminudity, marital infidelity and subtle hints of dissipated lives.

"The Dark Knight" -- The late Heath Ledger walks away with "The Dark Knight" as Batman's nemesis, The Joker, a villain he plays as a kind of terrorist. He's maniacal, funny, and pathetic in his lack of human feeling. Younger kids may have nightmares about this Joker, who broadcasts a video in which he kills someone in the manner of al-Qaeda. The camera cuts away, but still. Not a movie for teens under high-school age, let alone grade-schoolers, "The Dark Knight" artfully oozes post-9/11 paranoia. Troubled by his role as a vigilante, Batman, aka Gotham City billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), decides to help (and test) the new district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Wayne's former love, Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal), is Dent's girlfriend. "The Dark Knight" barely dodges an R rating by limiting the gore, but it depicts hostage situations with children in danger, point-blank shootouts and assassinations. The Joker puts a pencil through someone's head, and a character loses half his face in a fire and becomes the gruesome Two-Face. There is rare crude language.

"Mamma Mia!" -- A buoyant burst of energy, romance and eye candy, "Mamma Mia!" should lift teen and adult audiences (especially of the female persuasion) into a zone of dizzy good humor. It is pure kitsch, but a hoot. Adapted from the hugely successful stage show built around the 1970s and early 1980s hits of ABBA, "Mamma Mia!" is a very mild PG-13. Set on a Greek Island, circa 1999, it tells how Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a young woman about to be married, invites to her wedding the three men (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard and Colin Firth) she knows her mother had affairs with around the time she was conceived. Donna (Meryl Streep), who owns a struggling hotel on the island, has no idea her daughter yearns to meet her father, nor do the men know why they've been invited. The rest is a blur of song, dance, revelations and great scenery. Christine Baranski and Julie Walters have wicked fun as Donna's pals. Director Phyllida Lloyd keeps "Mamma Mia!" fizzing. The rating reflects drinking, talk of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and youthful promiscuity, mild sexual innuendo, rare semi-crude language, and one briefly bare behind.

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" -- The goblins, elves, ogres and monsters that populate this extraordinary-looking film -- a blend of computer effects and gorgeous animatronic puppetry -- often upstage Hellboy (Ron Perlman) himself and his team at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. The ravishing visuals overlay a dreary narrative and heavy-footed action. Teens may still like the film's look and Hellboy's tough-with-a-heart-of-gold persona. In this sequel (to "Hellboy," PG-13, 2004), the brick-red, horned superhero, aided by his pyrokinetic love Liz (Selma Blair), the gilled "aquatic empath" Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and the gaseous "protoplasmic mystic" Johann Krauss (voice of Seth MacFarlane) takes on evil Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) from a magical underworld. The mayhem and monsters make the movie too intense for preteens. There are impalings, an implied beheading, and an infant in peril, as well as toilet humor, beer, cigars, mild profanity and sexual innuendo.

"Hancock" -- Will Smith plays a drunk, slovenly, rude, amnesiac superhero in "Hancock," a movie with a great premise but dismal follow-through. Even so, high-schoolers will like Smith's cool turn. John Hancock (Smith) catches bad guys and saves folks all over Los Angeles, but his flying is sloppy, his flat-footed landings tear up the streets and he wrecks stuff. He also sleeps on benches clutching a bottle of booze and grabs at women's derrieres. Then he rescues Ray (Jason Bateman), a public relations man who decides to rehabilitate Hancock. But Hancock senses an intense past connection with Ray's wife (Charlize Theron). This angle grows ever more implausible and derails the film. The movie is an iffy choice for middle-schoolers, as it is highly profane. It also contains gross-out humor, sexist and homophobic jokes, mild sexual innuendo, a bank robbery with terrified hostages wired with explosives, gun battles and perhaps fatal wounds.

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-- AN R:

"Step Brothers" (NEW) -- In this trash-mouthed, lewd-for-the-heck-of-it comedy, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly play Brennan and Dale, two 40-ish slackers living with (and off of) single parents. About 16 emotionally, they play in treehouses, stash porn magazines, obsess over masturbation, watch TV and avoid work. They don't know each other, but when Brennan's mom (Mary Steenburgen) and Dale's dad (Richard Jenkins) meet and marry, the two doofuses become stepbrothers. They drive their newlywed parents nuts at first with their jealous feuding. The combined comedic talent of Ferrell, Reilly and director/co-writer Adam McKay (they did "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," PG-13, 2006) brings some laughs, of course, but the story is more annoying than funny. The profanity and crude sexual slang are so intense that the movie is problematic for anyone under 17. The film features a vast array of sexual terms, a couple of explicit sexual situations, partial male frontal nudity, locker-room grossness, gag-inducing toilet humor, homophobic slurs, and on and on.

(c) 2008, Washington Post Writers Group.

This news arrived on: 07/24/2008

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