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"Confessions of a Shopaholic" (PG, 1 hr. 52 min.)

There is much amusement in watching the maxed-out credit card habits of Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), the sweetly ditzy, wildly addicted high-end shopper in "Confessions of a Shopaholic." It is when the movie's tired and predictable romantic plot takes over that the film lurches into secondhand territory. Even so, the over-the-top silliness and glitz ought to energize kids (mostly girls, one can predict) 10 and older, and the message about not spending more than you have comes across well and without sermons. Shiny mannequins in designer duds actually speak to Rebecca (thanks to computer animation), at least in her mind, luring her to buy more stuff. It's a clever conceit, and what happens to her provides an effective, if obvious, cautionary tale for today.

Based on the first two "Shopaholic" novels by Brit writer Sophie Kinsella, the film has been Americanized, except for leading man Hugh Dancy. He plays Luke, the editor of a business magazine who hires Rebecca to write a column about saving money geared to everyday folks. (Never mind how they "meet cute" and how she gets the job. It's all boilerplate cliche.) Little does Luke know that Rebecca is more than $16,000-plus in debt and being doggedly pursued by a debt collector (Robert Stanton). Nor does Luke know that Rebecca's stalwart roommate Suze (excellent, eccentric Krysten Ritter) has signed her up with a shopaholics support group. (Rebecca speaks so poetically of why she loves shopping that she nearly destroys a meeting.) Rebecca gets moral support from her thrifty, flea-market-cruising parents (Joan Cusack and John Goodman) and faces temptation from a fashion magazine editor (Kristin Scott Thomas in uber-chic makeup and clothes). It takes a public humiliation and the prospect of losing Suze and Luke to put Rebecca on the path to fighting her addiction.

There is mild sexual innuendo, including a mild joke about a male statue's penis. The characters get drunk, and Rebecca fights with a woman over a pair of Gucci boots, no less.

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Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Coraline" PG -- Director Henry Selick's brilliant stop-motion animated movie (the characters are puppets, the sets constructed) is exciting fare for kids 8 and older who love scary fairy tales -- a work of gorgeous, funny-frightening complexity. However, easily spooked youngsters as old as 12 may find the film's second half upsetting. After all, it is about a little girl who enters a menacing through-the-looking-glass world and nearly loses her parents. In the second half, there is a creepy metallic spider intent on harming children. The film was shot in a subtle form of 3-D and is worth seeing in that format. Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning) lives with her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) in the ancient Pink Palace Apartments. Her folks, both writers, have no time for her. One night, Coraline follows their acrobat neighbor's (Ian McShane) performing mice through a small door into a place that looks just like home, only brighter, with her identical parents acting all cheery. But Other Mother and Other Father have buttons instead of eyes and they want that for Coraline, too. In this surreal world, creatures and plants transform in wondrous, unsettling ways. The film includes a few crass words and shows lady acrobats in scanty costumes. It does end happily.

"The Pink Panther 2" PG -- A vast improvement over Steve Martin's first attempt ("The Pink Panther," PG, 2006) to update the 1960s Inspector Clouseau comedies, this movie will tickle kids and adults who love pure silliness. The incompetent-but-lucky Paris policeman joins a hotshot team of investigators trying to solve a series of big thefts -- Magna Carta, the Shroud of Turin, the Pink Panther diamond. In one clever sequence, Clouseau skulks outside the mansion of a suspect (Jeremy Irons), his pratfalls captured soundlessly on security cameras in an homage to silent film comics. Clouseau also tumbles off the pope's balcony, dressed in the pontiff's robes, yet the scene seems inoffensive. Lily Tomlin will amuse adults as a political-correctness guru. There is much slightly bawdy sexual innuendo, some of it verbal ("foreplay") and some of it visual and verbal, focusing on cleavages and derrieres. There are mild ethnic insults.

"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 kind social worker (Don Cheadle). They start sheltering a wild array of pooches in an abandoned hotel, 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.

"Inkheart" PG -- Kids 10 and older who've read the book will have an easy time following this handsome but convoluted film. Others should see it too, because it makes reading seem wildly exciting. We learn that some people who read aloud are "silvertongues" who can cause characters from books to materialize. Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) is one. In a European bookshop he finds a rare copy of a fantasy novel called "Inkheart." A character from the book, Dustfinger (Paul Bettany) appears. Mo and his 12-year-old daughter Meggie flee to their eccentric aunt (riotous Helen Mirren) as other "Inkheart" villains follow. We learn that Meggie's mother (Sienna Guillory) was long ago sucked into "Inkheart" as the villains escaped. These villains might scare under-10s, threatening to stab and shoot people. There's a people-eating monster, 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 amusing family comedy about a buffoonish shopping-mall security guard who scoots around on a Segway, trying to look like a real cop. Divorced, Paul 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. Kids under 10 may be upset when the bad guys 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 bottom. There is mild sexual innuendo and swearing.

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-- OK FOR 10 AND OLDER:

"Confessions of a Shopaholic" (NEW) -- The credit-card-maxing habits of Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), the ditzy, wildly addicted shopper of the title, are fun to observe in "Confessions of a Shopaholic." Sadly, after the movie's painfully predictable romantic plot takes over, the comic confection congeals. Based on the first two "Shopaholic" novels by Brit writer Sophie Kinsella, the film has been Americanized, except for leading man Hugh Dancy, as Luke. The editor of a finance magazine, Luke hires the clothes-crazy Rebecca to write a column about saving money geared to everyday people. Luke is unaware of Rebecca's $16,000 credit-card debt and the collector (Robert Stanton) pursuing her. Nor does he know that Rebecca's friend Suze (excellent Krysten Ritter) has enrolled her in a shopaholics support group. But Rebecca is an addict and she lies like an addict. Unless she gets her problem under control, she risks losing her friend and the ever-so-cute Luke. Likely to entertain kids (mostly girls, one can predict) 10 and older, the film shows it's not smart to spend more than you have. There is mild sexual innuendo, including a subtle joke about a statue's penis. The characters get drunk, and Rebecca fights with a woman over a pair of Gucci boots.

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-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Push" (NEW) -- Older teens with an affinity for science-fiction thrillers may be taken with "Push," which is a Hollywood product, but feels like a Hong Kong action flick. It has smashing visuals -- colorful, gritty, nervous and full of eccentric folks. The "hey there, cupcake!" dialogue rings cleverly film-noir. But the complex story gets tied up in knots. Operatives with superhuman mind-reading, future-seeing, memory-wiping and kinetic powers clash in Hong Kong. Nick (Chris Evans), who can make things float, is hiding out there from the evil "Division" that trained and altered him, but "sniffers" from the agency track him. Thirteen-year-old Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a "watcher" who sees the future, rescues Nick and says they must rescue her captive mother, but that they'll die unless they change the future first. There is mayhem -- gunplay, impalement, people tossed across rooms and through glass, ear-shattering screams, suicides forced by mind control. There is midrange profanity, sexual innuendo, smoking and subtly implied drug use. Young Cassie gets drunk once. More for high-schoolers.

"He's Just Not That Into You" -- This highly entertaining romantic comedy (with a little drama), clearly aimed at females, adds characters and plot to the popular nonfiction book's advice. Crisp, funny and poignant, the film subtly chides young singles for casual affairs and the brittle emotions that result. Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) trusts every guy who says he'll call, and nearly stalks them if they don't. Conor (Kevin Connolly) pines for Anna (Scarlett Johansson), who takes up with Ben (Bradley Cooper), who's married to Janine (Jennifer Connelly), whose friend Beth (Jennifer Aniston) lives happily with Neil (Ben Affleck), who won't marry her, while Mary (Drew Barrymore) has no romance at all. Meanwhile, Gigi gets dating advice from Alex (Justin Long). The film's mature themes make it better for high-schoolers 16 and older. There is a semiexplicit sexual tryst and another that is less explicit, but with implied nudity. There is crude sexual slang, midrange profanity, drinking, and implied smoking.

"Taken" -- Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA operative who uses his expertise in lethal violence to rescue his 18-year-old daughter (Maggie Grace) after she and a friend (Katie Cassidy), while on a trip to Paris, are abducted by Eastern European gangsters. He uses what he hears in her panicked phone call, plus his intelligence contacts, to home in on Albanian thugs in Paris who kidnap and drug girls, using them as prostitutes and auctioning off virgins. It's a lurid theme. The film is clever in its use of re-enactment to illustrate Bryan's thinking. The stabbing, shooting, head-bashing, car-crashing violence is intense but not graphic. Similarly, the portrayal of prostitution and the drugged girls is not explicit. There is midrange profanity, and some crude sexual references, but not much. The film feeds negative stereotypes of Muslims in how the villains are portrayed. Not for middle-schoolers.

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-- AN R:

"Friday the 13th" (NEW) -- A whole new generation of good-looking 20-somethings suffer grisly deaths at the hands of the seemingly immortal slasher-in-a-hockey-mask, Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears), in this update of the 1980 original and its 80 (perhaps I exaggerate) sequels, all rated R. Graphic and bloody, with impalements, throat-slashings and a beheading, as well as strong profanity, explicit sexual situations and near-nudity, this "Friday the 13th" will satisfy fans of the slasher genre, but it is not for under-17s without parental OK. In the prologue, a group of hard-partying campers get the Jason treatment. A few weeks later, Clay (Jared Padalecki) comes to Crystal Lake in search of his missing sister (Amanda Righetti). He meets another group of young adults staying at a fancy lake house belonging to arrogant rich-guy Trent (Travis Van Winkle). Jenna (Danielle Panabaker), the nice girl in the party, helps Clay search. Jason comes after them in a logic-free killing spree. The film shows marijuana use and drinking.

(c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group.

This news arrived on: 02/12/2009

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