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"Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail" (PG-13, 1 hr., 43 min.)

Tyler Perry's tried-and-true formula for raucous family comedies that preach responsibility runs out of steam in "Madea Goes to Jail." Teen audiences may yawn during the first hour, in which melodrama overtakes comedy as Perry heavy-handedly sets up the plot so Madea can get thrown in jail, where she will help a troubled young woman (Keshia Knight Pulliam) face life with renewed courage. Though his co-stars (Perry always plays the battle-ax Madea himself) are prominent pros (Derek Luke, Viola Davis, Pulliam), his script, based on his stage play, is very unwieldy.

By today's standards, the movie is a middle-of-the-road PG-13. It includes a prostitution theme, an implied rape, other violence against women -- none of it portrayed graphically -- and verbal discussion of a long-ago gang rape at a frat party. A prospective boss demands sex from a job applicant and gets kneed in the crotch (off-screen). There is sexual innuendo about women in prison, mild profanity, a racial slur, liquor and cigarettes. Madea's cellmate is a giggling convicted serial killer.

Ignoring her pious daughter Cora's (Tamela J. Mann) entreaties to mend her ways, Madea continues her driving violations, assaults on police officers and other public, occasionally armed, scuffles. She finally has the book thrown at her by an unsympathetic judge (TV's Judge Greg Mathis). Meanwhile, on the film's other plot path (Madea disappears for long stretches), we meet a kind-hearted assistant district attorney, Joshua (Luke), who tries to help Candace (Pulliam), a drug-addicted prostitute he knew in college before her life went south. Both Joshua and a minister (Davis), who works with women on the streets and in prison, have trouble reaching Candace. Joshua's snooty fiancee Linda (Ion Overman), also an assistant DA, jealously disapproves of his efforts. You want to see how Madea will talk some sense into Candace in prison, but it's like serving a life sentence waiting for that to happen.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Coraline" PG -- Director Henry Selick's stop-motion animated film, a dazzling work of imagination, is exciting fare for kids 8 and older who love scary-funny fairy tales. Yet easily spooked children as old as 12 may find the second half upsetting. After all, it's about a little girl who enters a menacing through-the-looking-glass world and nearly loses her parents. Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning) lives in a ramshackle apartment house with eccentric tenants. Her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), both writers, have no time for her. One night, she follows mice through a little door and into a place that looks like home, but much cheerier -- except Other Mother and Other Father have buttons for eyes. She must escape this surreal world, where a metallic spider chases kids and things transform in odd ways. The film has a few crass words and lady acrobats wear scanty costumes. It ends happily. See it in 3-D if possible.

"The Pink Panther 2" PG -- This movie will tickle those who love pure silliness, and it's a vast improvement over Steve Martin's dreary first attempt ("The Pink Panther," PG, 2006) to update the Inspector Clouseau comedies of the 1960s and '70s. The bumbling Paris cop joins a team investigating high-profile thefts. In a lovely sequence, Clouseau skulks outside a mansion, his pratfalls captured soundlessly on security cameras in a nod to silent film comics. He also tumbles off the pope's balcony, dressed in papal robes, yet the scene seems inoffensive. There is much semi-bawdy sexual innuendo, some of it verbal ("foreplay") and some of it focusing on cleavages and derrieres. There are mild ethnic insults.

-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Confessions of a Shopaholic" PG -- The credit-card-maxing habits of Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher), the dizzy, addicted shopper of the title, are amusing to watch. Then the pallid romantic plot kicks in, and the comedy congeals. Luke (Hugh Dancy), the cute editor of a finance magazine, hires Rebecca to write about saving money. He's unaware of her $16,000 credit-card debt or that her friend (excellent Krysten Ritter) has enrolled her in a 12-step program for shopaholics. Likely to entertain kids (mostly girls) 10 and older, the film (based on novels by Sophie Kinsella) shows that spending more than you have is bad, yet it still revels in the designer clothes Rebecca buys. There is mild sexual innuendo and characters get drunk.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail" (NEW) -- Tyler Perry's tried-and-true formula for raucous family comedies that preach responsibility runs out of steam this time. Teen audiences may yawn, as melodrama drowns out comedy in the first hour of this unwieldy film, based on Perry's stage play. A midrange PG-13, it includes a prostitution theme, an implied rape and other violence against women, none of it very graphic. There is talk of a long-ago gang rape at a frat party. A boss demands sex from a job applicant and gets kneed in the crotch (off-screen). There is sexual innuendo about women in prison, mild profanity, a racial slur, liquor and cigarettes. Madea's cellmate is a giggling serial killer. Madea continues her driving violations, assaults on police and occasionally armed scuffles. An unsympathetic judge (TV's Judge Greg Mathis) gives her a tough sentence. On the other plot path, we meet a nice assistant district attorney, Joshua (Derek Luke), who tries to help Candace (Keshia Knight Pulliam), a drug-addicted prostitute he knew in college before her life went bad. His fiancee Linda (Ion Overman), also an assistant DA, disapproves. Madea and Candace finally meet in prison and Madea helps the young woman regain confidence, but it's like serving a life sentence waiting for that to happen.

"The Class" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- If they're willing to deal with fast- moving subtitles, American teens might be riveted by this French film, set in a middle school in Paris. Based on Francois Begaudeau's novel, taken from his teaching experiences, the movie has a "cinema verite" feel. Most of the kids and teachers, including Begaudeau, play themselves or variations of themselves worked out in improvisations. Begaudeau teaches French literature and grammar. His students are African and Asian immigrants. Some of the kids' boisterous, sullen, funny, emotional exchanges with their teacher -- insults, disruptions, arguments, occasional learning -- reflect unhappy feelings about France and about how they think France views them. We sit in on faculty meetings, too, as one boy's expulsion is debated. There is occasional strong profanity (the F-word), racial and homophobic slurs, muted sexual innuendo, smoking, and teachers having a champagne toast. In French with subtitles.

"Fired Up" -- Two high-school football players (Nicholas D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen) sign up for majority-female cheerleading camp, hoping to score more than touchdowns in this crass, marginally diverting comedy. Without all the sexual innuendo, breast jokes and gay (sometimes homophobic) humor in "Fired Up," the movie would be about 10 minutes long. There are implied nongraphic sexual situations, implied nudity, bare behinds, profanity, sexual slang, and implied beer drinking. "Fired Up" shows real spark only once -- a telling scene in which all the gung-ho cheerleaders at the camp watch "Bring It On" (PG-13, 2000), the hit cheerleading movie with Kirsten Dunst. They repeat all the lines along with the characters on-screen. The rest of the film is just a crude teen sex comedy. Too crude for middle-schoolers.

"Fanboys" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- Part road-trip comedy, part valentine to "Star Wars" geeks, "Fanboys" could have used a bit more geekiness and less crassness, but it's still pretty funny. It is 1998. Four "Star Wars" fanatics (Sam Huntington, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel and Chris Marquette) head west on an eventful quest to director George Lucas' ranch. They plan to steal a print of the not-yet-released "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" (PG, 1999). It's been ages since the last film ("Star Wars: Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi," PG, 1983) and they want their dying pal (Marquette) to see the new one. "Fanboys" is very R-ish, with crude sexual slang and innuendo, homophobic humor and implied toplessness, as well as nongraphic sexual situations, profanity, drug use, toilet humor and a muted subplot about one guy's online romance with a girl who turns out to be 10 years old. 16 and up with parental OK.

"He's Just Not That Into You" -- Crisp, funny and poignant, this romantic comedy/drama, based on the popular nonfiction book, subtly chides young singles for casual affairs and brittle emotions. Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) practically stalks guys who promise to call and then don't -- until she gets eye-opening pointers from Alex (Justin Long). Meanwhile, Conor (Kevin Connolly) pines for Anna (Scarlett Johansson), who takes up with Ben (Bradley Cooper), who's married to Janine (Jennifer Connelly), and Beth (Jennifer Aniston) lives with Neil (Ben Affleck), who shuns marriage, while Mary (Drew Barrymore) can't get a date. There are semiexplicit sexual trysts, one with implied nudity. There is crude sexual slang, midrange profanity, drinking, and implied smoking. A better bet for high-schoolers 16 and older.

"Taken" -- Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA operative who uses his skills to rescue his 18-year-old daughter (Maggie Grace) after she and a friend (Katie Cassidy) are abducted in Paris. He homes in on a gang of Albanian thugs who kidnap and drug girls, then use them as prostitutes, even auctioning off virgins. The film makes ingenious use of re-enactment. Despite the lurid theme, it is understated. The stabbing, shooting, head-bashing mayhem is intense but not graphic, and the portrayal of prostitution is not explicit. There is midrange profanity, and a few crude sexual references. "Taken" feeds negative stereotypes of Muslims in its villains. Not for middle-schoolers.

-- R's:

"Two Lovers" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- This quiet film about the vagaries of love is acted with great skill and complexity of feeling, especially by Joaquin Phoenix. Partly inspired by the Dostoevsky story, "White Nights," the film unfolds in fits and starts, yet slowly builds characters you care deeply about. Leonard (Phoenix), who has had bouts of suicidal depression in the past, works at his parents' (Isabella Rossellini and Moni Moshonov) Brooklyn dry cleaners. They're thrilled when their handsome, emotionally fragile son seems taken with the daughter (Vinessa Shaw) of dad's business associate (Bob Ari). Then a glamorous young woman moves into their building. Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow) is beautiful, needy, and a kept woman. Leonard becomes obsessed with her. The film includes two semiexplicit sexual situations, brief toplessness, profanity, a suicide theme, unwed pregnancy and a miscarriage. Thoughtful teens 16 and older.

"The International" -- Fine actors, intriguing locales and a stunning shootout in New York City's Guggenheim Museum help "The International" work, despite a frustratingly opaque plot -- something about an international bank with tentacles in weapons deals, politics and terrorism. High-schoolers may find its point of view -- that such banks profit from tragedy -- intriguing. Interpol investigator Lou Salinger (Clive Owen) becomes convinced that a bank had his partner killed to cover up a weapons deal. He and a Manhattan assistant district attorney (Naomi Watts) chase clues. The R rating reflects blood-spurting point-blank shootouts, strong profanity, but almost no sexual innuendo except for a remark about "getting laid."

(c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group.

This news arrived on: 02/26/2009

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