From the ArcaMax Publishing, Family Film Reviews Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/familyfilms/s-542317-852334
"Star Trek" (PG-13, 2 hrs., 7 min.)
The special effects are just tacky enough and the characters
more than vivid enough to make this "Star Trek" prequel work
just fine. It recounts in boisterous and occasionally confusing detail
how Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov met and wound
up boldly going from galaxy to galaxy at warp speed aboard the USS
Enterprise. Whether Trekkers (as purist buffs prefer to be called)
will approve of every aspect of director J.J. Abrams' film is
secondary to whether it's a good popcorn flick. It is.
Fine for teens, the film will also work for many kids 10 to 12, but
some of them may be unsettled by the Enterprise's space battles with
the vengeful Romulan leader Nero (Eric Bana), his ominous-looking ship
and planet-killing drill. There is verbal reference to "billions"
dying when planets are imploded. The prologue shows George Kirk (Chris
Hemsworth), heroic father of James T. Kirk, sacrifice himself by
flying his starship straight into an attacking Romulan vessel, even as
his wife (Jennifer Morrison) gives birth to their son on a fleeing
shuttle. There is implied torture, when Nero tries to get information
years later out of the Enterprise's first skipper, Capt. Pike (Bruce
Greenwood). The film includes hand-to-hand and sword-to-sword fighting
and an implied impalement, as well as phasers set on more than stun.
There is mild sexual humor and innuendo, a brief nongraphic sexual
situation, rare mild profanity, and a giant lobsterish monster.
As a wild 20-something, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) gets into bar
fights and chases women. But Capt. Pike reminds the young Kirk of his
heroic father and convinces him to become a Star Fleet cadet. He
excels and breaks the rules. Kirk's initial acquaintance with fellow
cadet Spock (Zachary Quinto) sparks quite a rivalry, including a
romantic one over language expert Uhura (Zoe Saldana). Kirk also
befriends Dr. Leonard McCoy, aka Bones (Karl Urban), Sulu (John Cho),
and the comically accented Chekov (Anton Yelchin). Later in the
adventure Kirk encounters cranky engineer Scotty (Simon Pegg). On
their maiden voyage with the Enterprise, an emergency call from Vulcan
leads to a confrontation with Nero and the attacking Romulans. Spock
struggles to balance his rational and emotional sides when his Vulcan
father (Ben Cross) and human mother (Winona Ryder) are endangered. And
thanks to a confusing "disrupted time continuum," young Kirk
encounters old Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who else?), who offers key
advice.
Parents and grandparents will chuckle to hear Scotty yell "I'm givin'
it all I've got, Captain!" and to observe the pitch-perfect banter
between the young Enterprise officers. Even for teens who don't
remember the 1960s TV show or the feature films, this "Star Trek"
stands on its own.
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Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various
ages
-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
"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. Miley Stewart is played by real-life pop star Miley Cyrus, of
course, and 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" who got lucky in showbiz. But little girls will thrill to
see Hannah/Miley sing, shop, take pratfalls, ride a horse, sing to
save her 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.
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-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:
"Battle for Terra" PG -- Humorless and preachy, this
computer-animated sci-fi tale tells of a peaceable planet called Terra
attacked by human invaders. The humans need a new planet, because
Earth is uninhabitable due to war and climate. The Earthlings'
militarist leader argues that all alien beings are expendable, but
when human officer Jim Stanton (voice of Luke Wilson) and his
translator robot (David Cross -- the film's lone dash of wit)
encounter Terrian teen Mala (Evan Rachel Wood), they bond and try to
stop the attack. The 3-D animation is dim and colorless, but at least
there's an artful whimsy in the shapes of the Terrian world. There is
at least one sacrificial suicide to save others. Mala sees her
father's (nongraphic) death. Terrians are captured and perhaps killed,
and aerial battles feature explosions and sci-fi zaps. Characters
nearly suffocate for lack of atmosphere. Kids 10 and older may like
the film's ideas.
----
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:
"Star Trek" (NEW) -- The special effects are just tacky enough
and the characters more than vivid enough to make this "Star
Trek" prequel work just fine as a popcorn flick to please both purist
fans and general audiences. It recounts in boisterous and occasionally
confusing detail how the young Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary
Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana),
Sulu (John Cho) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) met and wound up boldly
going from galaxy to galaxy at warp speed aboard the USS Enterprise.
Fine for teens, the film will also work for many kids 10 to 12, but
some of them may be unsettled by the Enterprise's space battles with
the vengeful Romulan leader Nero (Eric Bana), his ominous-looking ship
and planet-killing drill. There is verbal reference to "billions"
dying when planets implode. The prologue shows the sacrificial suicide
of George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), who flies a starship straight into
an attacking Romulan vessel, even as his wife (Jennifer Morrison)
gives birth to their son James on a fleeing shuttle. There is implied
torture, intense fighting, an implied impalement and a lobsteresque
monster, as well as mild sexual humor and innuendo, a brief nongraphic
sexual situation, rare mild profanity. As a wild 20-something, James
T. Kirk (Chris Pine) gets into bar fights and chases women. But Capt.
Pike, who'll command the new Enterprise, reminds Kirk of his heroic
dad and convinces him to enlist in Star Fleet, where he meets the
whole gang as a cadet. The Enterprise's first mission leads to a
battle with the Romulans; Kirk and Spock clash over how to handle it
once Pike is taken hostage, and Spock struggles with his emotions when
his Vulcan father (Ben Cross) and human mother (Winona Ryder) are in
peril. Thanks to a "disrupted time continuum," young Kirk meets an old
Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who else?), who has key advice. Even for teens
who don't remember the 1960s TV show or the feature films, this "Star
Trek" stands on its own.
"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" -- 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). Though also a PG-13, it is darker
than its predecessors -- more violent than enlightening and an iffy
proposition for middle-schoolers or preteens. Innocents die and there
are implied impalements and a beheading, but little graphic gore in
the vicious fights. Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine and Liev Schreiber
as his murderous half-brother Victor/Sabretooth get us over the
narrative bumps (a puzzling prologue and a muddled ending) by sheer
force of personality. We meet James Logan and Victor as boy mutants in
1845 Canada. Logan has blades of bone that pop out of his knuckles
when he's riled. Victor soon develops a tiger's traits. We follow
these apparent immortals through the Civil War, World Wars and
Vietnam. Victor becomes an amoral killer. He and Logan sign on with a
special ops mutant team recruited by an evil military man, Stryker
(Danny Huston). Offended by the unit's war crimes, Logan quits. Years
later, Victor seeks out Logan and commits a murder just to hurt him.
Bent on revenge, Logan finds Stryker and allows him to amplify his
mutant traits, changing his blades and skeleton into metal. Now
calling himself Wolverine, he goes after Victor. There is occasional
profanity, sexual innuendo, and brief nongraphic long-distance nudity.
"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" -- Crass but semi-clever, this
fable owes its plot to Charles Dickens and its sensibility to "Sex and
the City." Matthew McConaughey spoofs his own image as Connor, a vain,
smarmy fashion photographer who beds all his models, then drops them
cold. The spirit of his late uncle (Michael Douglas), a womanizer who
taught Connor how to treat "dames," appears to him, all repentant,
warning that three ghosts will visit Connor to save him. This occurs
during his younger brother's (Breckin Meyer) wedding weekend, where
Connor has been trash-talking marriage and trying to fluster the
lovely Jenny (Jennifer Garner), who broke his heart in middle school.
The movie dodges an R with witty euphemisms for sex and promiscuity,
but there is much sexual innuendo and a few briefly steamy but
nonexplicit sexual situations. There are verbal references to drugs,
midrange profanity and toilet humor. Connor shows signs of alcoholism
and others drink, too. There is a theme about losing one's parents
very young. Too bawdy for middle-schoolers.
"Obsessed" -- Beyonce Knowles gets angry, pouts and yells a lot
as Sharon, a wife and mother threatened by a woman who is literally
crazy for her husband in this cheesy, predictable thriller. The only
nuanced performance is by Idris Elba as Derek, Sharon's stockbroker
spouse. Lisa (Ali Larter), a flirty/snarky temp at Derek's office,
makes a play for him and won't accept his rebuff. Lisa's nutty
behavior -- jumping into his car wearing lingerie, drugging him at a
company retreat so she can sneak into his bed, attempting suicide by
overdose -- gets the attention of the cops and proves dangerously
psychopathic. The film has considerable sexual innuendo and brief
nonexplicit marital sexual situations. Lisa's attempted seductions are
steamy on her part, but stylized and nongraphic. At one point, Sharon
and Derek's baby seems endangered. There is smoking, drinking and
midrange profanity. Not for middle-schoolers.
"The Soloist" -- High art, edginess and entertainment mix in
near-perfect proportions in "The Soloist." It is based (with some
fictionalization) on columns by Los Angeles Times writer Steve Lopez
(played by Robert Downey Jr.) and his discovery of Nathaniel Ayers
(Jamie Foxx), a homeless musician of great gifts trapped by mental
illness. Lopez learns Ayers was a cello student at Juilliard 30 years
earlier. (Ayers plays several instruments, but has no cello when we
meet him.) Flashbacks show how the young Ayers began to hear voices
and disassociate from reality. After one of Lopez's readers donates a
cello, Nathaniel plays it ecstatically, and director Joe Wright cuts
to pigeons gliding over the city. The moment could be corny, but it
isn't. L.A.'s violent Skid Row is a character itself, and many of its
denizens are extras. The workaholic writer and the homeless musician
slowly build a friendship. There are briefly violent scuffles, a
bloody crime scene, people using drugs or unconscious from overdoses,
occasional profanity, drinking, smoking, and toilet humor. For
thoughtful teens.
"17 Again" -- Teen idol Zac Efron may thrill his fans, but he
lacks the acting skill to play a 37-year-old man zapped back into his
17-year-old body. At least the supporting cast helps him out. In a
prologue set in 1989, 17-year-old Mike (Efron) walks away from a
college basketball scholarship to marry his pregnant girlfriend
Scarlett (Allison Miller). Twenty years later, 37-year-old Mike
(Matthew Perry) is out of work, living with his oddball best friend
Ned (funny Thomas Lennon) and being divorced by Scarlett (now played
by Leslie Mann). Visiting his old high school, he wishes aloud he
could be 17 again, and a magical janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) makes it
happen. Posing as a student, young Mike lectures about abstinence and
tries to reconcile with his wife, which is 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.
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-- AN R:
"Next Day Air" (NEW) -- Violent, profane, lewd, full of drug
references (and some drug use) and characters on the wrong side of the
law, "Next Day Air" is not for under-17s. That noted, the movie is
very funny and, with well-known actors such as Mike Epps in a lead and
actor/musician Mos Def in a supporting role, likely to attract teens.
Directed by music video maven Benny Boom, it takes an edgy, wildly
satirical jab at inner cities where choices seem so limited that drug
dealing looks like an answer. Leo (Donald Faison of TV's "Scrubs"), a
delivery guy for the parcel service Next Day Air, is always high on
pot. He mistakenly drops a package at the apartment of crooks Brody
(Epps) and Guch (Wood Harris of TV's "The Wire"), who discover it
contains a load of cocaine. They plan to sell it, but the drug runner
down the hall (Cisco Reyes) and his wife (Yasmin Deliz) were expecting
that package, and their boss (Emilio Rivera) will kill them if they
don't find it. They're all on a collision course. The film also has
sexualized comedy and brief seminudity.