From the ArcaMax Publishing, Family Film Reviews Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/familyfilms/s-487119-886512
"New In Town" (PG, 1 hr., 36 min.)
Teen girls may get a kick out of this romantic comedy, not for its
central love story, but for its funny and eccentric supporting
characters. For more discriminating filmgoers, however, "New in Town"
could be a frustrating experience. It opens with refreshing oddball
humor and originality, but gradually falls into ever more formula and
cliche, until its last act becomes nothing but that. It's as if those
making the movie just stopped caring. Some transitions are so abrupt,
it feels as though scenes are missing -- quite possible, since the
rating was adjusted from PG-13 to PG, which may have required cuts.
Renee Zellweger plays Lucy, a brittle, ambitious executive with a
Miami-based food conglomerate. She's sent to a small factory in rural
Minnesota -- in winter -- to supervise changes and layoffs. One of the
film's choicest moments is her reaction as she walks out of the
airport into the late November air wearing a short skirt, a light
jacket and high heels. She howls a mostly muffled expletive. Not all
the locals are friendly, as they suspect what Lucy's up to, but the
factory secretary, Blanche (Siobhan Fallon Hogan, who steals the
film), takes an unwilling Lucy under her wing. Lucy is utterly
unprepared for how nice Blanche and her family and friends are. Then
she meets the very cute union rep, Ted (Harry Connick Jr.). They argue
about everything, so of course it must be love. Through all this,
Zellweger's Lucy never melts convincingly. Whether the fault lies in
writing, directing, acting or editing, potentially lovely moments are
lost. But oh, those funny supporting characters -- scrapbooking,
ice-fishing, havin' a beer, talkin' about how cold it is. These are
small pleasures that sadly can't carry the film.
It includes mild profanity, toilet humor, a joke about religion, a
comic moment in which people get embarrassed when Lucy's nipples show
through her (non-see-through) sweater because of the cold, sexual
innuendo in a remark about teens dating, kissing, skimpy lingerie
attached to a car aerial to attract attention after an accident, and
drinking.
Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various
ages
-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
"Hotel for Dogs" PG -- A sister and brother living in bad
foster care fill the hole in their lives by sheltering stray dogs in
this contrived, yet cuddly fantasy. Sixteen-year-old Andi (Emma
Roberts) and 11-year-old Bruce (Jake T. Austin) hide their adopted
Jack Russell from their comically awful foster parents (Lisa Kudrow
and Kevin Dillon) and their nice social worker (Don Cheadle). The kids
scam local merchants for cash to feed the pooch. One day, their dog
leads them into an abandoned hotel where they find two more strays.
With the help of three neighborhood kids (Johnny Simmons, Kyla Pratt
and Troy Gentile), Andi and Bruce begin sheltering a wild array of
pooches, and Bruce builds ingenious machines to feed and exercise
them. Amid the poop and piddle jokes are themes about losing parents
and a flawed foster care system. It is hinted that pound dogs are
euthanized. A kid kicks an adult in the crotch, and there is a teen
kiss.
"Bride Wars" PG -- Tween girls may delight in the
shop-till-you-drop ethos of "Bride Wars," but many a parent will
cringe at the ugly stereotype of females who lust after all things
expensive. How tone-deaf is that for 2009? If the movie were a hoot,
it might be less offensive, but its wit is labored. Best friends Liv
(Kate Hudson), a tough lawyer, and Emma (Anne Hathaway), a
sweet-natured schoolteacher, start feuding after a wedding planner
(Candice Bergen) schedules their nuptials opposite each other. It is
gently implied that both women live with their fiances, and there is a
bachelorette party with guy strippers in skimpy outfits doing
suggestive dancing. There is much drinking and rare mild profanity.
"Inkheart" PG -- Kids 10 and older who have read the book
"Inkheart" will have an easy time keeping up with this handsome but
convoluted tale. Others should see it too, because it makes reading
books seem incredibly exciting. We learn that certain people who read
stories aloud are "silvertongues" who can cause characters from books
to materialize. Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) is one, we learn in a
prologue. Years later, he and his 12-year-old daughter Meggie (Eliza
Hope Bennett) are traveling in Europe. Meggie's mother Resa (Sienna
Guillory) disappeared long ago. Mo won't explain why, so Meggie feels
abandoned by her. In a bookshop he finds a rare copy of "Inkheart" and
a character from the book, the fire-eater Dustfinger (Paul Bettany),
appears. Mo and Meggie flee to their eccentric aunt (riotous Helen
Mirren) as worse "Inkheart" villains pursue them -- thugs with prose
tattooed on their faces. They're scary for under-10s, threatening to
stab and shoot the protagonists trying to rewrite "Inkheart's" ending.
There's a monster that can eat people, rare crude humor and mild
sexual innuendo.
"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" PG -- Comic Kevin James brings a lovely
mix of heart and innocence to the title role in this surprisingly
amusing family comedy about a buffoonish shopping-mall security guard
who becomes a hero. Paul scoots around on a Segway, trying to look
serious and cop-like while also flirting awkwardly with the girl
(Jayma Mays) at the hair weave kiosk. Divorced, he lives with his
mom (Shirley Knight) and teen daughter Maya (charming Raini
Rodriguez). When a gang of robbers takes hostages in the mall, Paul
tries to foil them solo while the SWAT team gathers outside. Kids
under 10 may be upset when the bad guys repeatedly threaten to kill
hostages. There is gunfire and an explosion. Paul's daughter is put in
danger. It's implied that Paul's Segway hits a dog. We see the back of
a shopper's bra as she beats Paul up. He gets drunk and we see a
tattoo on his behind. There is mild sexual innuendo and swearing.
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY AND A PG MORE FOR TEENS:
"New in Town" PG (NEW) -- Teens, girls in particular, may get a
kick out of this romantic comedy, not for its central love story, but
for its funny and eccentric supporting players. For more
discriminating filmgoers "New in Town" will be a frustrating
experience. It opens with refreshing and original humor, but falls too
soon into formula and cliche. Renee Zellweger plays Lucy, a brittle,
ambitious executive with a Miami food conglomerate. She's sent to a
small factory in Minnesota -- in winter -- to supervise product
changes and order layoffs. She encounters plenty of hostility, but
only kindness from her friendly, pious secretary, Blanche (Siobhan
Fallon Hogan). When Lucy meets the union rep, Ted (Harry Connick Jr.),
they clash about everything, so of course it must be love. Zellweger
never quite gets down off her high horse, which robs the film of
potentially choice moments. But oh, those funny supporting characters
-- scrapbooking, ice-fishing, havin' a beer, talkin' about how cold it
is. "New in Town" contains mild profanity (some of it partly muffled),
crude language, toilet humor, a joke about religion, a gag about
nipples showing through Lucy's (non-see-through) sweater, sexual
innuendo, skimpy lingerie attached to a car aerial, and drinking.
"The Uninvited" (NEW) -- Based on a Korean horror film, "The
Uninvited" is only a half-scary movie with a groan-worthy ending.
Still, there are enough jumpy moments for teens who savor the
waking-nightmare style of horror. Anna (Emily Browning) comes home
after 10 months at a psychiatric hospital. Her breakdown occurred
after her mother (Maya Massar), already ill, died in a fire. Anna's
dad (David Strathairn), a writer, has now taken up with her late
mother's nurse, Rachel (Elizabeth Banks). Anna and her sister Alex
(Arielle Kebbel) try to expose Rachel as a gold digger, but Dad won't
listen. Rachel becomes menacing. Anna has hallucinations in which she
sees ghostly children and her mother, sometimes as a charred corpse.
The film shows bloodied, impossibly bent bodies and someone's back
breaking. It has a suicide theme, references to child murders, jokes
about condoms and a vibrator, implied sexual situations, drunkenness,
tranquilizer shots, and rare profanity. Not for middle-schoolers.
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- This magically spun
saga never loses its wonder. In a New Orleans hospital, the daughter
(Julia Ormond) of a dying old woman reads aloud from an old diary --
that of Benjamin Button (played mostly by Brad Pitt). The film flashes
back to his birth in 1918 as an infant who looks freakishly like an
old man. Raised by a housekeeper (Taraji P. Henson) at the old folks
home where his father abandons him, Benjamin looks ever younger as he
grows. He goes to sea, discovers sex (in a brothel), and learns how
fleeting happiness is, as his life only coincides briefly with his
true love, Daisy (Cate Blanchett). There are strongly implied
nonexplicit sexual situations, partial nudity, a bad car accident, war
deaths, rare profanity, drinking and smoking. Yet still a great movie
for teens.
-- R's:
"Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" (NEW) -- An impressive cast of
British actors lends Shakespearean importance to this dark and
hilariously grandiose vampires-versus-werewolves saga. High-school age
fans of gothic horror ought to be entertained. It's rather fun, truth
be told. Intended as a prequel to "Underworld" (R, 2003) and
"Underworld: Evolution" (R, 2006), " ... Rise of the Lycans" is set,
it seems, in medieval times, when Viktor (Bill Nighy), king of the
vampires, rules his castle inside a mountain (away from lethal
sunlight). But Viktor has problems: Werewolves are multiplying in the
forest and his daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra) is having a thing with the
mixed-breed human-werewolf slave Lucian (Michael Sheen). Lucian leads
a slave rebellion, his character recalls (pretentiously) Moses and
Jesus. The film is nearly black-and-white except for blood, but the
violence is more stylized than graphic. Still, there are impalements,
throat-cuttings, skull-crushings, and a semiexplicit sexual situation
with seminudity. The snarling, racing werewolves are creepy.
"Wendy and Lucy" (NEW) -- Wendy is a young woman on the road
with her dog Lucy. They fall on hard times, sleeping in Wendy's car,
in this unvarnished hard-luck tale of the rough side of the American
Dream. High-school cinema buffs will be impressed by the austere,
sometimes wordless simplicity of director/co-writer Kelly Reichardt's
film and Michelle Williams' equally unaffected performance as Wendy, a
morose empty vessel who seems to invite tragedy. In fact, the film's
dry, inexorable sense of doom, despite the simplicity of its acting
and its look, seems a bit self-consciously arty. There is strong
profanity and marijuana use. Wendy shoplifts.
"Defiance" -- The script and direction are just workmanlike,
but the acting is vibrant and the story astonishing in this fact-based
World War II story. The Bielski brothers from German-invaded Belarus,
then part of the Soviet Union, evade Gestapo raids and flee into the
forest in 1941. Others soon join them. Uneducated and with criminal
backgrounds, Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber) and Asael
(Jamie Bell) use their skills to help the group survive. Tuvia and Zus
argue over using violence for survival versus revenge. The film
contains bloody, point-blank shootings, but other violence is less
graphic. We see a mass grave of Jewish villagers, but the view is
blurred. There is sexual innuendo, a gently implied sexual situation,
a reference to rape, rare profanity and drinking. For high-schoolers
into history and ethical issues.
"Waltz with Bashir" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- This visually and
emotionally stunning animated docudrama from Israel looks like a
graphic novel. Its subject is nothing less than repressed memories of
wartime atrocities, so the audience should be 16 or older.
Writer/director Ari Folman served in the Israeli army during the 1982
invasion of Lebanon, but remembers little. He visits former army pals
and gradually recalls that he was near the Sabra and Shatila
Palestinian refugee camps in West Beirut when Lebanon's Christian
Phalangist militia massacred some 3,000 people in the camps while the
Israeli military failed to intervene. The film contains violent and
upsetting images, sexual innuendo, female nudity, profanity, drinking
and smoking. As with "Defiance," it is for high-schoolers into history
and its moral quandaries.