From the ArcaMax Publishing, Family Film Reviews Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/familyfilms/s-538756-255714
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (PG-13, 1 hr., 48
min.)
There's a brooding intensity to this prequel about the origin of
Wolverine, leader of the mutant X-Men fighters (based on the comic
books). It is even darker than the already somber-toned trio of PG-13
hits -- "X-Men" (2000), "X2" (2003) and "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006)
that preceded it and very, very violent. There are many implied
impalements and a beheading, but all with little gore. Still, it
remains an iffy proposition for middle-schoolers or preteens. This is
a fable in which violence resolves every situation and innocents die.
There's a grim subplot about an island of captured mutants kept in a
nuclear power plant. The script contains occasional profanity and
sexual innuendo, and there is brief male nudity -- but from a great
distance with no visible details.
A strong cast led by Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine and Liev
Schreiber as his murderous half-brother Victor/Sabretooth helps a
viewer over the narrative bumps, which are several, including a
puzzling prologue and a muddled ending that only partially sorts out
all the strands in the story. We meet James Logan and Victor as boys
in 1845, living in Canada's Northwest Territories. There's a killing
and the boys flee. Young Logan already has superhuman strength and
blades of bone that pop out of his knuckles when he's riled. We follow
the seemingly immortal half brothers through the Civil War, World Wars
I and II, and Vietnam. Victor, too, has superhuman powers -- the
strength, speed, nails and teeth of a tiger whenever he needs it.
Hence the moniker Sabretooth. Unlike Logan, Victor becomes an amoral
murderer.
During Vietnam, Victor and Logan are recruited by a sinister American
military man, Stryker (Danny Huston), to join a team of other mutants
with special powers. It's implied they kill a group of Nigerians in
the process of retrieving a valuable meteorite. After that, Logan
drops out and Victor stays. Logan returns to the north woods, works as
a lumberjack and lives with his girlfriend, Kayla (Lynn Collins) --
until Victor appears and commits a murder just to hurt Logan. Bent on
revenge, Logan finds Stryker and lets him do a dangerous experiment,
using the meteorite's super element to change his skeleton and those
knuckle blades into unbreakable metal. Now calling himself Wolverine,
Logan seeks out former "team" member Wraith (musician will.i.am) to
help him find and kill Victor.
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 and the
loss of a loved one. In a sci-fi near-future, the teenaged Goku
(Justin Chatwin) gets a glass sphere with secret powers -- a
Dragonball -- for his 18th birthday. The evil alien Lord Piccolo
(James Marsters) 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 this saccharine confection, so her dad, Robby Ray Stewart,
decides she needs some "Hannah detox" time at the family's Tennessee
farm. Hannah's off-stage 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." 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 the town from a developer, and flirt with
an aw-shucks local boy (Lucas Till). The brashest phrase is "sweet
cheeks," the strongest brew is iced tea and there is mild sexual
innuendo. OK for under-8s, too, but they won't get everything.
-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:
"Battle for Terra" PG (NEW) -- Humorless and preachy, this
computer-animated sci-fi tale (in 3-D) for kids tells of a peaceable
planet called Terra attacked by human invaders seeking a home, now
that Earth and the rest of their solar system are uninhabitable due to
war and climate. The Earthlings' militarist leaders argue that all
alien beings are expendable, but when Terrian teen inventor Mala
(voice of Evan Rachel Wood) encounters invading Earthling officer Jim
Stanton (Luke Wilson) and his translator robot Giddy (David Cross --
the film's only dash of wit), they find common ground and try to stop
the impending battle. Mala's friend Senn (Justin Long) sees her
helping a human and tells the planet elders, who thought at first the
invaders might be gods. The animation is dim and colorless, though
there's at least a nice whimsy in the way the Terrian world is
conceived -- there are flying whales -- that echoes some 20th century
art and architecture. There is at least one sacrificial suicide to
save others. We see Mala witness her father's (nongraphic) death.
There are Terrians abducted and possibly killed, and the aerial
battles feature big explosions and destructive sci-fi zaps. Characters
are shown nearly asphyxiated for lack of their home atmosphere. Kids
10 and older may at least find the ideas in the film worth pondering.
"Earth" G -- Though it is rated G, this hour-and-a-half
reduction of the 11-hour "Planet Earth" documentary series that ran on
cable TV 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 cut away before blood gets
spilled, but "Earth" celebrates the pursuit, slowing it to a kind of
ballet. We're also reminded that creatures can starve. The film
features many creatures and plants, but focuses on a polar bear mother
and cubs, and her doomed mate hunting on a melting ice shelf; a mother
elephant and her calf; and a humpback whale and her calf -- all on the
hunt for food or water. Even with a turgid symphonic score and
overdramatic narration, the film feels abridged, but the footage is
gorgeous. Just be sure your kids can handle the idea of animals dying.
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (NEW) -- There's a brooding
intensity to this prequel about the origin of Wolverine, leader of the
mutant X-Men fighters (based on the comic books). It is darker than
the trio of PG-13 hits -- "X-Men" (2000), "X2" (2003) and "X-Men: The
Last Stand" (2006) that preceded it. The film is very violent, with
lots of implied impalements and a beheading, but little gore.
Innocents also die. So it is an iffy proposition for middle-schoolers
or preteens. A strong cast led by Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine and
Liev Schreiber as his murderous half-brother Victor/Sabretooth helps
us over the narrative bumps, which include a puzzling prologue and a
muddled ending. We meet James Logan and Victor as boys in 1845 Canada.
There's a killing and the boys, who both have mutant powers, flee.
Logan already has blades of bone that pop out of his knuckles when
he's riled. Victor develops a tiger's nails, teeth, speed and
strength. We follow the two apparent immortals through the Civil War,
World Wars and Vietnam. Victor becomes an amoral killer. He and Logan
are recruited by a sinister military man, Stryker (Danny Huston), to
join a mutant special ops team. It's implied they kill a group of
Nigerian workers while retrieving a valuable meteorite. Logan leaves
Victor and drops out. A few years later, Logan is living in the north
woods with girlfriend Kayla (Lynn Collins). Victor commits a murder to
hurt Logan. Bent on revenge, Logan finds Stryker and lets him
experiment to change his bone and blades into unbreakable metal. Now
calling himself Wolverine, he goes after Victor. The film has too much
going on, such as the subplot about an island of captured mutants. The
script contains occasional profanity and sexual innuendo, and there is
nudity -- but from a great distance.
"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" (NEW) -- This crass but
semi-clever fable owes its plot to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas
Carol" and its sensibility to "Sex and the City." Matthew McConaughey
spoofs his own screen persona as Connor, a selfish, smarmy fashion
photographer who brags about bedding all his models, then dropping
them cold. He's visited by the spirit of his late uncle (Michael
Douglas, nearly stealing the movie), the selfish, smarmy guy who
taught him how to treat "dames." His repentant uncle warns that three
ghosts will appear to save Connor from himself. All this occurs on the
eve of his younger brother's (Breckin Meyer) wedding, where Connor
alienates everyone by drunkenly trash-talking marriage and trying to
impress Jenny (Jennifer Garner), a childhood sweetie who broke his
heart in middle-school and who is the reason for his self-protective
piggishness. The movie dodges an R with witty euphemisms for sexual
terms and descriptions of promiscuity. There is much sexual innuendo
and a few briefly steamy but nonexplicit, largely implied, sexual
situations. There are verbal references to orgies and drugs. The
script has lots of midrange profanity and toilet humor. Connor shows
signs of being an alcoholic. There is other drinking, midrange
profanity, and a theme about losing one's parents as a child. Too
crass and sexualized for middle-schoolers.
"Obsessed" (NEW) -- Beyonce Knowles does not test her acting
skills as Sharon, a wife and mother threatened by a woman who is
literally crazy for Sharon's husband in this cheesy, predictable
thriller. The only nuanced performance is by Idris Elba as Derek,
Sharon's stockbroker spouse. They have a toddler who only appears when
it's convenient for the story. When Lisa (Ali Larter, flirty and
snarky by turns), a temp at Derek's office, makes a play for him and
won't accept his rebuff, the wheels are set in motion. (He does ogle
her legs early on, but it's implied that's just him being male.)
Lisa's behavior -- jumping into Derek's car in lingerie, drugging him
at a company retreat so she can join him in his hotel bed, attempting
suicide by overdose -- gets the attention of the cops. Sharon figures
Derek's cheating and throws him out. Eventually, Lisa proves truly
psychopathic. "Obsessed" can't end without a knock-down-drag-out
between Sharon and Lisa. The film has considerable sexual innuendo and
brief nonexplicit marital sexual situations. Lisa's attempted
seductions are steamy, at least on her part, but stylized and
nongraphic. At one point, the baby seems in danger. There is smoking,
drinking and midrange profanity. Not at all for middle-schoolers.
"The Soloist" -- High art, edginess and entertainment mix in
near-perfect proportions here. "The Soloist" is based (with some
fictionalization) on columns 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 trapped within
a schizophrenia-like illness. Lopez learns Ayers was a cello student
at Juilliard 30 years earlier. (Ayers plays several instruments but
has no cello when Lopez meets him.) In flashbacks, we see how young
Nathaniel began to hear voices and disassociate from reality. One of
Lopez's readers donates a cello. When Nathaniel first plays it,
director Joe Wright cuts from Ayers' ecstatic face to pigeons gliding
over the city, and the film flies, too. L.A.'s violent, drug-fueled
Skid Row is a character itself, and many of its denizens are extras.
The workaholic writer and homeless musician slowly 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.
"17 Again" -- Teen idol Zac Efron will no doubt thrill his
fans, but, he lacks the acting skills to play a 37-year-old man zapped
back into his 17-year-old body believably. Luckily, the supporting
cast adds a lot of zip. We meet 17-year-old Mike (Efron) in 1987, when
he walks away from a college basketball scholarship to marry his
pregnant girlfriend Scarlett (Allison Miller). Twenty years later,
37-year-old Mike (a shlumpy Matthew Perry) is out of work, moaning
about lost opportunities, and living with his oddball pal Ned (funny
Thomas Lennon) because Scarlett (now played by Leslie Mann) is
divorcing him. A visit to the old high school makes him wish he could
be 17 again and a magical janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) makes it
happen. After the initial shock, Mike decides to pose as a student. As
he lectures giggly girls on abstinence and tries to flirt with his
30-something wife, the premise seems far more creepy than funny. 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" -- This political thriller is two-thirds smart,
taut and terrific, but its last act craters under a load of red
herrings. The movie sketches political Washington and the shrinking
world of old-style newspaper reporting with rat-a-tat repartee and
vivid atmospherics. These pay bigger dividends than the actual plot.
Russell Crowe plays print reporter Cal McAffrey of the struggling
Washington Globe. 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) from the paper's online side. The
movie has gun violence but shows little blood or graphic wounds. There
are dead bodies, a liver on a scale in the morgue, midrange profanity,
sexual slang, implied infidelity and promiscuity, drug references,
drinking and smoking. News-savvy high-schoolers may like it.