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Jane Horwitz's "Family Film Goer" has been offering meticulous, informed reviews of all the latest films since August of 1993. Her attention to ...

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"Alien Trespass" (PG, limited release, 1 hr., 28 min.)

Nothing in this droll little sci-fi spoof is likely to unsettle most kids 10 and older, unless they're particularly sensitive to UFO/alien monster stories of even the gentlest sort. Those with a wide-ranging sense of humor will probably get the film's wit. In truth, however, "Alien Trespass" aims its satire more at older audiences familiar with those wonderfully cheesy 1950s science-fiction movies, such as "It Came from Outer Space" (1953), "The Thing from Another World" (1951) and "The Blob" (1958). Director R.W. Goodwin (of TV's "X-Files"), screenwriters James Swift and Steven P. Fisher and a terrific cast at once tease and pay homage to the low-tech special effects, wild overacting, and archetypal characters such as the clueless sheriff (wonderful Dan Lauria) who realizes too late the frantic teenagers were telling the truth: It's an alien invasion.

The film contains mild sexual innuendo and little or no profanity. It has gunplay and semi-scary bits involving a blobby one-eyed robotic monster with tentacle feet and a long tentacle arm. When it has eaten its human prey (off-camera) all that's left is a brownish mud puddle. Ewww!

Eric McCormack plays tweedy, pipe-smoking astronomer Ted, who doesn't notice the huge meteorite/spaceship that crashes into the hills near his house. When he hears rumors and checks it out, the aliens yank him into their ship and he re-emerges possessed by the alien leader, Urp. Ted's wife (Jody Thompson) notices the change in him, as does the waitress Tammy (Jenni Baird), who's sweet on him. Ted/Urp wanders through town trying to stop the escaped robotic killer.

"Fast & Furious" (PG-13, 1 hr., 45 min.)

The world surely doesn't need another sequel in this tire-and-metal-shredding franchise, but here it is anyway, this time reuniting the original cast from "The Fast and the Furious" (PG-13, 2001). Teens will likely enjoy the ride, and parents will understandably worry that their kids might imitate the maniacal driving they see in the film. In keeping with tradition, the story makes little real-world sense and the acting and dialogue are often unintentionally funny in their pseudo-seriousness. But the racing stunts with souped-up 1970s American muscle cars (and a few imports) are pretty impressive -- and occasionally heart-stopping.

In addition to the automotive mayhem, which features spectacular crashes and at times appears to put pedestrians at lethal risk, the movie contains gun violence, explosions and a couple of head-banging fights, but shows no graphic injuries. There is midrange profanity, a couple of steamy kisses leading to briefly implied sexual situations, young women in suggestively skimpy outfits, drinking and illegal drug references. The film exploits cheap racial and ethnic stereotyping of Latinos.

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), the muscled guy with the muscle cars, is still a fugitive from justice, living with his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) in the Dominican Republic and still running riot on the roads. When he learns the authorities are closing in, he leaves. Later -- but still early in the film -- he hears Letty has been murdered in Los Angeles. He goes there and reconnects with his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and her one-time love Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), the lawman with whom Dom clashed in the first film. Now an FBI agent, Brian defies orders and teams up with Dom because Letty's death was connected to a Mexican drug cartel the FBI is after. Undercover, Dom and Brian get jobs driving "shipments" for the cartel. This lets them drive wildly into tunnels under the border.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Monsters vs. Aliens" PG -- Kids 8 and older ought to have a fine time at this silly, irreverent and nearly always ingenious animated spoof of 1950s-era "creature features." It is in 3-D, but doesn't overdo it. Apart from a few slow moments in the middle, the movie fizzes along funnily. Even the "scary" bits are amusing, which will keep younger kids comfortable. There is toilet humor, but nothing too gross. Some under-8s may be spooked when the human heroine Susan (voice of Reese Witherspoon) mutates into a nearly 50-foot-tall version of herself, or when the multi-eyed outer space villain Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) clones himself into an army, or when his killer robot (which looks like a huge pickle) battles the monsters on the Golden Gate Bridge. After a meteorite crashes near Modesto, Calif., Susan walks too near it and later morphs into a giant in the middle of her wedding. Government forces abduct Susan, rename her Ginormica and imprison her with other mutant "monsters" from experiments gone awry. There's B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a translucent blob with a big eyeball; the mad scientist Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie); The Missing Link (Will Arnett), an ape-fish, and a huge grub worm Insectosaurus. Ginormica and the others are released to fight Gallaxhar. There is a remark about "boobies" and a hint of bare behind. (SPOILER ALERT: One monster seems to die, but later we learn it's OK.)

"Race to Witch Mountain" PG -- There are gun battles, head-slamming fights and chase scenes, all of which could unsettle sensitive kids 8 and younger watching this unexceptional but diverting popcorn flick. The chiseled, good-natured presence of Dwayne Johnson adds a needed center of gravity. Most of the mayhem is loud and fast, but bloodless, though there is a harrowing moment when the protagonists are stuck in a railroad tunnel with a spaceship and a train bearing down. Las Vegas cabbie Jack Bruno (Johnson) picks up teen siblings Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig), and later learns that they're alien beings with telekinetic and molecule-scrambling powers. Grudgingly, he helps them flee government types and an assassin from their home planet. (SPOILER ALERT: Unhelmeted, the alien assassin has a big exposed brain.)

-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Alien Trespass" PG (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- Nothing in this droll little sci-fi spoof is likely to unsettle most kids 10 and older, unless they're particularly sensitive to UFO/alien monster stories of even the gentlest sort. Those with a wide-ranging sense of humor will probably get the film's wit. In truth, though, "Alien Trespass" aims its satire more at older audiences familiar with those wonderfully cheesy 1950s science-fiction movies, such as "The Blob" (1958). Director R.W. Goodwin (of TV's "X-Files") has a sprightly script and terrific cast to help him both tease and pay homage to the low-tech special effects, wild overacting, and archetypes in such films. (Dan Lauria is a riot as the clueless sheriff.) Eric McCormack plays tweedy scientist Ted, who gets yanked into the spaceship and re-emerges possessed by its alien captain, Urp. Ted/Urp wanders through town trying to stop a murderous blobby one-eyed monster with tentacle feet and a tentacle arm that escaped the ship. The film contains mild sexual innuendo and little or no profanity. There is gunplay and the monster gobbles humans (off-camera) till all that's left is a mud puddle. Ewww!

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Fast & Furious" (NEW) -- The world surely doesn't need another sequel in this car-totaling franchise, but here it is anyway, reuniting the cast from the original film ("The Fast and the Furious," PG-13, 2001). Teens will likely enjoy the ride, and parents will worry that they might imitate the driving in the film. The acting and dialogue are often unintentionally funny, but the racing stunts are often heart-stopping. The mayhem features spectacular crashes. At least one pedestrian (albeit a bad guy) gets smashed. The movie shows gun violence, explosions and head-banging fights, but no graphic injuries. It contains midrange profanity, a couple of steamy kisses, briefly implied sexual situations, young women in suggestively skimpy outfits, drinking and references to illegal drugs. It also uses awful racial and ethnic stereotypes. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), the muscled antihero who loves racing muscle cars, remains a fugitive from justice. After his girlfriend Letty is murdered in Los Angeles, he reconnects with his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and her estranged love, FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker). The two men team up to get Letty's killer and bring down a Mexican drug cartel, leading to wild chases in tunnels under the border.

"The Haunting in Connecticut" (NEW) -- Solid acting and handsomely realized effects depicting ghostly visions and visitations make this a chilling occult tale. (Based on a true story, we're told.) The narrative is repetitive, but still effective. The movie pushes its PG-13 rating, however, with very disturbing hallucinatory images of decayed, mutilated and mummified corpses and violent events. There are flashbacks of someone preparing to snip the eyelids off a body, and of seances in which ghostly "ectoplasm" spews from a live person's mouth. The story also deals with a father's alcoholism and potential for violence. Children are put in danger and threatened. There is occasional profanity. Virginia Madsen plays Sara, whose teenage son Matt (Kyle Gallner) has a life-threatening illness. She moves the family to an old house near the hospital where Matt is treated. He immediately starts seeing dead people and worse in the house and becomes detached and obsessed. A cleric (Elias Koteas) helps Matt reveal the secret behind the haunting. Not for middle-schoolers because of the disturbing images and focus on terminal illness.

"12 Rounds" (NEW) -- WWE wrestling star John Cena is an affable, boulder-like presence in this undistinguished crime thriller, built around a series of huge stunts. Cena plays Danny Fisher, a New Orleans police detective who has earned the enmity of a vile international weapons-dealing terrorist/thief named Miles (Aidan Gillen). Somehow out of prison, Miles blows up Danny's house and car for starters, then abducts his girlfriend Molly (Ashley Scott) and sets up 12 impossible tasks for Danny to complete or Molly will die. Each involves putting innocents at risk, sometimes fatally -- an out-of-control trolley car (a cool sequence), a free-falling freight elevator, a safe deposit box with a bomb in it. Danny butts heads with the FBI agent (Steve Harris) who wants Miles, too. The film includes explosions, a fairly graphic but bloodless stabbing, gun battles, wild foot and car chases, a woman strapped with explosives, a pedestrian killed by a speeding car, midrange profanity, and mild sexual innuendo. More for high-schoolers.

"Knowing" -- This parable about the end of humankind is occasionally chilling, but more often overwrought and silly. It blurs the line between science fiction and theology, which high-schoolers may find interesting. The tall, ghostly men in black coats who speak telepathically to children could be space aliens or angels. In the prologue, a haunted little girl fills a page with numbers and it goes into her school's time capsule. Fifty years later, professor John Koestler (Nicolas Cage), a sad, hard-drinking widower, attends the capsule's reopening. His little boy (Chandler Canterbury) gets the paper with the numbers. John deduces that they are dates of disasters past and future. It's heady stuff, but "Knowing" is too heavy-handed to make it work. There are quick, intense depictions of the Asian tsunami, hurricane Katrina, 9/11, a plane crash, an out-of-control subway train mowing people down, a rain of fire. We see the injured and dead, but nothing graphic. There is a suicide theme and rare mild profanity.

"Duplicity" -- The Family Filmgoer is in the critical minority here, in finding "Duplicity" a smug, confusing bore. It may, however, capture the imaginations of teens 15 and older. Two impossibly good-looking former spies, Claire and Ray (Julia Roberts and Clive Owen), are now into higher-paying industrial espionage. The story loops back and forth in time, showing Claire and Ray in contradictory roles as enemies, co-conspirators, lovers and betrayers. But after an hour, one could stop caring how it all plays out. Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti are fun as rival CEOs. There are steamy but nongraphic sexual situations and implied trysts, verbal sexual innuendo, implied nudity, rare profanity and drinking. 15 and older.

-- R's:

"I Love You, Man" -- Paul Rudd plays Peter, a charming nerd, in this cleverly observed, but crass buddy comedy about a sensitive fellow so devoted to his fiancee (Rashida Jones), and so lacking in macho, regular-guy qualities -- hates sports, can't play poker, tells lame jokes -- that he has no male friends at all. He starts going on guy "dates" to find a friend who can be his best man. He meets Sydney (Jason Segel), a shambling, profane jokester who still acts like the biggest slacker in the frat house, and they hit it off. Whenever the movie threatens to take a pat, cliched route, it almost always veers in a more rewarding, funny direction. It is, however, truly crude. There is strong profanity, very graphic sexual slang, toilet humor, implied marijuana use and drinking. 17 and up.

"Sunshine Cleaning" (LIMITED RELEASE) -- In this fresh, eccentric and immensely enjoyable grown-up indie comedy, two 20-something sisters, sweet single-mom Rose (Amy Adams) and wild, undependable Norah (Emily Blunt), start a cleaning service, scrubbing away "organic" matter from murder, suicide and natural death scenes. Watching them learn the trade is comical, but it is the emotional journey these two struggling young women take -- along with Alan Arkin as their quirky dad -- that makes "Sunshine Cleaning" so rewarding. It gets syrupy once or twice, but mostly not. Aside from the graphic nature of the cleanups (the bodies are gone), the film touches on suicide and loss of a parent, and contains profanity, sexual situations -- one is explicit -- and pot-smoking. Film buffs 17 and older.

(c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group.

This news arrived on: 04/02/2009

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