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"Earth" (G, 1 hr., 29 min.)

Though it is rated G, this hour-and-a-half reduction of the 11-hour "Planet Earth" documentary series that ran in 2006 on the Discovery Channel has more than its share of harrowing moments. What narrator James Earl Jones calls "the drama of the hunter and the hunted" in his trademark baritone is repeated over and over. Animal-loving kids, especially those under 10, may find it upsetting to see a pride of 30 lions bring down an elephant, or to see a leopard chase down a young antelope. The gifted filmmakers carefully cut away before any blood gets spilled, and indeed some nature films on cable television are much more graphic. But "Earth" does celebrate the beauty of the pursuit, slowing it down to a kind of ballet as the narrator reminds us that this is nature playing itself out. Equally poignant is the doomed male polar bear, struggling to hunt on a melting ice shelf. The narration repeatedly notes that animals will starve if they don't succeed in their searches for food and water. So be sure your children can handle the idea of animals dying.

"Earth" follows the the seasons of the sun and the creatures beneath it from the Arctic to the Antarctic. The material compiled from the longer TV documentary does seem abridged and somewhat disjointed here, with a turgid symphonic score and overdramatic narration used to compensate. Even so, the footage is gorgeous. We follow a polar bear mother and her cubs emerging from hibernation, their father on his lonely hunt, a mother elephant and her calf trekking with the herd to a watering hole, and a humpback whale and her calf swimming from the tropics to Antarctica. Amid the three central stories, other subplots unfold: cranes flying over the Himalayas, caribou migrating across Canada, ducklings leaping from the nest, plants blooming in desert and tundra, and more.

"The Soloist" (PG-13, 1 hr., 59 min.)

"The Soloist" blends high art and entertainment in near-perfect proportions. From its poignant, funny script (by Susannah Grant) to the fully invested acting of co-stars Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. to the tough, clear storytelling by director Joe Wright, it works. It is the story of a friendship based (with some fictionalization) on columns and a book by Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez and recounts how he (played by Downey) spots a homeless man playing a violin and is intrigued. Maybe there's a column in it. Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx), it turns out, was a promising young student at Juilliard 30 years earlier, but dropped out. He has schizophrenia or some other condition that causes him to hear voices and disassociate from reality. In flashbacks, we see how young Nathaniel showed signs of both genius and illness until illness overtook him. Lopez learns that Nathaniel was actually a cello prodigy, but a cello would be too big to haul in a grocery cart. Then a fan of Lopez's columns donates a cello. When Nathaniel plays it for the first time beneath a bridge and director Wright cuts from his beatific expression to pigeons gliding over the roiling city, it all comes together.

As the friendship between the writer and the homeless musician grows, Lopez witnesses firsthand the violent, drug-fueled atmosphere of L.A.'s Skid Row. Director Wright portrays its denizens (he used many real homeless people as extras) as the Wretched of the Earth. Lopez, a workaholic who shirks all personal responsibility except his deadline, feels responsible for Nathaniel. Despite difficulty and blowups, they build a friendship. This sounds Hollywood-corny, but the film is smart and edgy enough to avoid that.

This is a film for thoughtful teens and grown-ups. It has brief violent scuffles, a bloody crime scene without a body, homeless people using drugs and unconscious or dead from overdoses. There is occasional profanity, drinking and smoking, and a bit of gross toilet humor.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Dragonball: Evolution" PG -- Brightly hued, yet bland, this special-effects-laden coming-of-age fantasy, based on a Japanese manga comic, shows martial-arts fights, hurled fireballs, falling rocks and zapper gunplay. Kids under 8 may be briefly scared by horned beasts, slime monsters and molten lava. There is a flying dragon, but it's not evil. The film contains mild sexual innuendo and teen bullying. In a sci-fi near-future we meet the teenaged Goku (Justin Chatwin). Grandpa (Randall Duk Kim) has raised Goku and taught him martial arts. As Goku's 18th birthday nears, Grandpa gives him a pretty glass sphere that has secret powers -- a Dragonball. There are only seven in the world, and Goku's true identity is part of their secret. The evil alien Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) kills Grandpa and comes after the Dragonball. Goku joins Master Roshi (Chow Yun-Fat), a young inventor (Emmy Rossum) and a desert highwayman (Joon Park) to fight back.

"Hannah Montana The Movie" G -- Teen pop star Hannah Montana's off-stage self, Miley Stewart, gets too big for her high-heeled sneakers in "Hannah Montana The Movie," so her dad, Robby Ray Stewart, decides she needs some "Hannah detox" time at the family's Tennessee farm. Hannah's offstage self, Miley Stewart, is played by Miley Cyrus, and Miley Stewart's dad, Robby Ray, is played by her real-life dad, country-and-western star Billy Ray Cyrus, so it's hard to see them as "just folks" in this saccharine confection. Equally unconvincing is the premise that Miley Stewart's school friends never realize she's Hannah. But for little girls, none of this matters. They'll get to see Hannah/Miley sing, shop, take pratfalls, ride a horse, do a benefit to save her hometown from a developer, and flirt with an aw-shucks local boy (Lucas Till). There is mild sexual innuendo. The brashest phrase is "sweet cheeks," the strongest brew is iced tea. OK for under-8s, too, but they won't understand everything.

"Monsters vs. Aliens" PG -- Kids 8 and older ought to have a fine time at this silly, pretty ingenious animated spoof (in 3-D) of 1950s "creature features." The movie fizzes along funnily, apart from a couple of slow bits midway. Even the "scary" scenes are amusing, which can calm younger kids. Some under-8s may be spooked when the human heroine Susan (voice of Reese Witherspoon) walks too near a just-crashed meteorite and 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) attacks. Imprisoned by the government with other mutant "monsters" -- including B.O.B. (Seth Rogen), a blob with an eyeball; Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), a mad scientist; and an ape-fish called The Missing Link (Will Arnett) -- Susan leads them in battle against Gallaxhar. There is mild toilet humor, a remark about "boobies,"and a hint of bare behind. One monster seems to die but is OK.

-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Earth" G (NEW) -- Though it is rated G, this hour-and-a-half reduction of the 11-hour "Planet Earth" documentary series that ran on cable television in 2006 has many harrowing moments. What narrator James Earl Jones calls "the drama of the hunter and the hunted" occurs over and over. Animal-loving kids, especially those under 10, may find it upsetting to see a pride of lions bring down an elephant, or a leopard catch a young antelope. The filmmakers carefully cut away before blood gets spilled, but "Earth" still celebrates the pursuit, slowing it down to a kind of ballet. There is also the doomed male polar bear, struggling to hunt on a melting ice shelf. We're reminded that animals can starve in a changing habitat. "Earth" follows the seasons of the sun from Arctic to Antarctic and focuses on three sets of animals: A polar bear mother and two cubs emerge from hibernation as the father goes on his lonely hunt; a mother elephant and her calf trek with the herd to a watering hole, and a humpback whale and her calf swim from the tropics to Antarctica. The film also visits cranes flying over the Himalayas, caribou migrating across Canada, ducklings leaping from a north woods nest, plants blooming in desert and more. The film does seem somewhat abridged, with a turgid symphonic score and overdramatic narration used to compensate. Even so, the footage is gorgeous. Just be sure your children can handle the idea of animals dying.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"The Soloist" (NEW) -- "The Soloist" blends high art and entertainment in near-perfect proportions. It is based (with some fictionalization) on columns and a book by Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.) and his acquaintance with Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx), a homeless musician of great gifts but suffering from a schizophrenia-like illness. Lopez spots Ayers playing the violin on the street and is intrigued because he's so good. He learns Ayers was a student at Juilliard 30 years earlier, but dropped out. In flashbacks, we see how young Nathaniel began hearing voices and disassociating from reality. Nathaniel was actually a cello prodigy, but a cello would be too big to haul in a grocery cart. A fan of Lopez's columns donates a cello. When Nathaniel plays it for the first time beneath a bridge and director Joe Wright cuts from Ayers' beatific expression to pigeons gliding over the roiling city, it all comes together, yet the film is too smart and edgy to be corny. The violent, drug-fueled atmosphere of L.A.'s Skid Row is almost a character in the film and many of its denizens are extras in the film. Lopez, a workaholic who shirks all personal responsibility except his deadline, feels responsible for Nathaniel. Despite difficulty and blowups, they build a friendship. There are briefly violent scuffles, a bloody crime scene with no body, people using drugs or unconscious from overdoses, occasional profanity, drinking, smoking, and toilet humor. For thoughtful teens.

"Paris 36" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- This charming, whimsical French film (with subtitles) may appeal to high-schoolers who've read about Europe between the wars and the rise of fascism. It will also win over all hopeless romantics. Set in a blue-collar district of Paris, the movie recounts how a motley group of stagehands and concessions workers take over the local music hall from which they've just been laid off and try to make it succeed. The group's leader, Monsieur Pigoil (Gerard Jugnot), has his heart broken when his wife runs off and takes their 12-year-old son JoJo (Maxence Perrin) away. The communist electrician (Clovis Cornillac) falls for the pretty new singer (Nora Arnezeder) who is a "protege" of a fascist-supporting gangster (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu). There are anti-Semitic and racist jokes at a rally, drinking, smoking, a suicide theme, briefly topless dancers, a steamy but nonexplicit sexual situation, and brief nongraphic violence, including two murders.

"17 Again" -- Teen idol Zac Efron will no doubt thrill his teen fans , but acting-wise, he lacks the nuance to play a 37-year-old man zapped back into his 17-year-old body. Luckily, the supporting cast gives him great help. In a prologue set in 1989, 17-year-old Mike (Efron) walks away from a basketball scholarship and college to marry his pregnant girlfriend Scarlett (Allison Miller). Twenty years later, 37-year-old Mike (a shlumpy Matthew Perry) is out of work and living with his oddball best friend Ned (funny Thomas Lennon) because Scarlett (now played by Leslie Mann) is divorcing him. A visit to his old high school makes him wish he could be 17 again and a magical janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) makes it happen. Posing as a student, Mike lectures girls about abstinence, tries to help his own troubled teens (Michelle Trachtenberg and Sterling Knight), and to reconcile with his wife. There is much sexual innuendo, some of it semiexplicit, mild profanity, and condoms passed out in a human sexuality class, though they're not shown. It's implied that some teen characters drink and engage in sexual activity. Not for preteens.

"State of Play" -- Two-thirds of this political thriller is smart, taut and terrific, but its third act collapses under too many red herrings. The movie sketches political Washington and the shrinking world of old-style newspaper reporting with rat-a-tat repartee and vivid atmospherics, which pay bigger dividends than the actual plot. Russell Crowe plays print reporter Cal McAffrey, who works for the struggling Washington Globe, where his editor (Helen Mirren) is desperate for a big story. When a prominent congressman's (Ben Affleck) pretty staffer dies mysteriously, a scandal erupts. Cal, a buddy of the congressman's, tries to report the story and protect his pal. He butts heads with Della (Rachel McAdams), a blogger from the paper's online side. The movie has gun violence but shows little blood or graphic wounds. There are dead bodies, a liver resting on a scale in a morgue, midrange profanity, sexual slang, implied infidelity and promiscuity, drug references, drinking and smoking. News-savvy high-schoolers may like it.

"Fast & Furious" -- Teens will likely enjoy the ride in this third sequel, which reunites the moody cast of the original film ("The Fast and the Furious," PG-13, 2001). The acting and dialogue seem pseudo-serious, but the racing stunts are heart-stoppingly staged. Parents may worry that kids will imitate the driving. At least one pedestrian gets run over. The movie has gun violence, explosions and head-banging fights, but no graphic injuries. It has midrange profanity, a couple of steamy kisses, briefly implied sexual situations, young women in skimpy outfits, drinking and drug references. There are tired racial and ethnic stereotypes. Antihero Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) remains a fugitive from justice. After his girlfriend is murdered, he reconnects with his sister (Jordana Brewster) and FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) looking for revenge.

-- AN R:

"Observe and Report" -- It has arresting moments, but this dark, nihilistic comedy lurches about, never settling on a tone. It contains drug abuse and drinking, steaming profanity, a couple of explicit sexual situations, and prolonged scenes of male frontal nudity in the form of a flasher tearing through a shopping mall. The mayhem includes fights, a police beating and gun violence. Comic actor Seth Rogen plays Ronnie, the mall's stupid, racist, profane, bullying head security guard. He longs to impress the trashy cosmetics saleswoman, Brandi (Anna Faris). He also irritates a cop (Ray Liotta), who rightly views him as an idiot. When Ronnie cares for his alcoholic mom (Celia Weston) he earns a bit of sympathy. Not for under-17s.

(c) 2009, Washington Post Writers Group.

This news arrived on: 04/23/2009

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