From the ArcaMax Publishing, Family Film Reviews Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/familyfilms/s-495041-290400
"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.
---
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.
----
-- 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.
----
-- 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.
----
-- 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.