Family Film Reviews

"Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (PG, 1 hr., 30 min.)

Stereotypical ethnic humor and trite doggie poop jokes intermingle with genuinely funny bits in this very uneven live-action (well, mostly) family comedy from Disney. The live dogs talk to one another, their lips forming words (thanks to computer animation), though humans can't hear them. Many people love this effect, but it gives the Family Filmgoer the creeps for some reason. The movie naturally features a bit of doggie toilet humor and jokes about being "fixed." Human characters occasionally wear skimpy bikinis. But the chief reason for the PG rating is the scariness of the villains, both canine and human.

Chloe (voice of Drew Barrymore) is a diamond-collared, Rodeo Drive-outfitted Chihuahua who lives with a doting Beverly Hills designer named Viv (Jamie Lee Curtis). Viv asks her flighty niece Rachel (Piper Perabo) to dogsit while she travels. As spoiled and snooty as Chloe is, Rachel insults Viv's handsome gardener, Sam (Manolo Cardona), and his earthy Chihuahua Papi (George Lopez). Papi adores Chloe, but she won't give him a sniff.

Rachel and her pals take Chloe on a beach holiday to Mexico, where Chloe is snatched by a dogfighting ring and forced to face a vicious, slobbering Doberman named Diablo (Edward James Olmos). This could definitely scare kids under 8. Rescue comes in the form of Delgado (Andy Garcia), a gruff German shepherd, who snatches her by the scruff and runs. While Rachel, Sam and Papi frantically hunt for Chloe with the Mexican police, the spoiled little pooch is learning how the other half lives, among the strays of Mexico, riding the rails, and nearly being snookered by Chico the iguana (Paul Rodriguez) and Manuel the rat (Cheech Marin), an amusing (totally animated) criminal duo. One of the film's cleverest scenes has Chloe and Delgado come upon a colony of Chihuahuas living in a ruined Aztec temple. They're led by Monte (opera star Placido Domingo) who preaches against dressing up and infantilizing Chihuahuas -- "no mas!"

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Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER

"Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (NEW) PG -- Stereotypical ethnic humor and trite doggie poop jokes intermingle with genuinely funny bits in this uneven live-action (well, mostly) family comedy from Disney. The live dogs talk to one another, their lips forming words (thanks to computer animation) but humans can't hear them. A pampered, Rodeo Drive-outfitted Chihuahua named Chloe (voice of Drew Barrymore) is left in the care of her owner's (Jamie Lee Curtis) flighty niece, Rachel (Piper Perabo). Rachel and her pals take Chloe on a beach holiday to Mexico, where Chloe is dognapped and taken to a dogfighting ring. She faces Diablo (Edward James Olmos), a vicious Doberman, which could scare kids under 8. A gruff German shepherd, Delgado (Andy Garcia), rescues her and they go on the run. While Rachel and her aunt's handsome gardener Sam (Manolo Cardona) and his earthy Chihuahua Papi (George Lopez) -- who adores Chloe -- frantically hunt for her, she is learning how the other half lives. Two funny animated creations, Chico the iguana (Paul Rodriguez) and Manuel the rat (Cheech Marin) also try to snooker her. There are gags about being "fixed," but it is the scariness of the canine and human villains that earns the PG.

"Igor" PG -- Gloomy and self-consciously glib, this computer-animated feature doesn't know what audience it's after. Inspired by classic monster movies, it is mildly amusing, but not hilarious or heartfelt enough to overcome the creepiness factor. Its spoofs of scary creatures might scare little kids on a big screen. The script is full of plays-on-words geared to adults. We are in Malaria, land of monsters and evil scientists. Igor, a hunchback lab assistant (voice of John Cusack), creates his own monster after his boss blows himself up. His helpers are Scamper (Steve Buscemi), a roadkill bunny, and Brain (Sean Hayes), a cognitive organ in a jar. None of these creatures as written offers much for kids to love. To his horror, Igor's monster, Eva (Molly Shannon), comes to life nice. How can he ever beat Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard) at the Evil Science Fair? The script contains crude phrases, toilet humor and tasteless humor about blind kids.

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-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" (NEW) -- The title characters in this witty, eccentric teen comedy are smart and hate booze and drugs, yet are the hippest most musically savvy kids in the story. How cool is that? "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" (based on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan) isn't for younger teens but ought to give high-schoolers a kick. However: Many teens in this film do drink; an active sex life is a given; gay and straight kids accept one another easily. So some parents will balk. There is a strongly implied sexual situation, not seen but heard, other sexual innuendo and slang, a religious spoof, an ethnic slur, midrange profanity, and grrrrross toilet humor. Nick (Michael Cera) is a sweet-natured high-school senior from New Jersey who plays with a band. His girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena), a cliched mean girl, has dumped him. He leaves her sad phone messages and sends her mix CDs. Schoolmate Norah (Kat Dennings) picks up the tossed CDs and loves them, but doesn't know Nick. They all encounter one another one night in the Manhattan rock club scene (great soundtrack). Norah's pal Caroline (Ari Graynor) gets sick drunk. The gay guys in Nick's band, who think Nick and Norah are cosmically matched, offer to drive Caroline home and lose her. Left on their own, Nick and Norah argue and then spark.

"Nights in Rodanthe" (NEW) -- Richard Gere and Diane Lane play unhappy people who find each other in this handsome, utterly predictable weeper. The movie (based on Nicholas Sparks' novel) is so full of cliches that without having read the book you can easily foretell plot twists or mouth bits of dialogue along with the actors. Adrienne (Lane) is separating from her unfaithful husband (Christopher Meloni) and goes to stay at her friend's (Viola Davis) beachfront bed-and-breakfast on North Carolina's Outer Banks. She'll run the place while her pal travels. It's off-season and the only guest is a somber (but handsome!), divorced surgeon (Gere). Wine, food, stories about their children, a hurricane -- all roads lead to love. Many teens would be bored by this beach novel movie. The film has implied sexual situations, mild profanity, and drinking.

"The Duchess" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) -- A gripping story, gorgeous design, and vibrant acting make this fact-based tale about an 18th-century ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales shine. Taken from the biography "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" by Amanda Foreman, the film recounts how 17-year-old aristocrat Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightley) is wed to a rich, powerful, 40-ish cold fish, the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes) in the 1770s. The two have nothing in common and it doesn't help that she has daughters and not sons. Their estrangement worsens after the duke takes Georgiana's best friend (Hayley Atlwell) as his mistress, but won't allow her to be with her own true love, politician Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper). So Georgiana becomes a fabled darling of society and seeks ways to express herself. The film contains a nongraphic but strongly implied marital rape and other implied consensual situations. There is an out-of-wedlock child. Characters drink a lot. More for high-school history and romance buffs.

"Eagle Eye" -- What begins as a breathless thriller degenerates into endless car crashes and a phony-baloney last act. But "Eagle Eye" has strong performances and, in its goofy way, illustrates for teens the debate over how to fight terrorism without giving up our rights. Chicago copy store employee, Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf), learns of his twin brother's death in a car crash. His brother was elite military. Jerry finds his own bank account suddenly flush and his apartment full of weapons. An anonymous cell phone caller orders him to follow directions or die. An FBI agent (Billy Bob Thornton) is sure Jerry's a terrorist. On the run, Jerry meets up with single mom (Michelle Monaghan), who got a call that her little boy (Cameron Boyce) would die unless she, too, followed orders. They become criminals to obey the voice. Casualties are not graphic. The mayhem includes guns, explosions and children in danger. There is some profanity and drinking. OK for teens.

"Lakeview Terrace" -- Samuel L. Jackson brings his meanest glower to southern California cop Abel Turner in this unpleasant thriller, which needed a bit of humor and a lighter touch. Turner takes an instant dislike to Chris (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington), who move in next door, partly because they are an interracial couple. His hostility grows after his kids (Regine Nehy and Jaishon Fisher) glimpse the couple making love (nongraphically) in their pool. Harassment and confrontation lead to a violent finale. The film includes bloody shootings, a hostage situation, suicide threats, strong profanity, sexual slang and innuendo, subtle verbal references to child molestation, a bachelor party with scantily clad women and suggestive dancing, drinking and smoking. Too violent and sexualized for middle-schoolers.

"Ghost Town" -- A kind of modern, secular riff on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," "Ghost Town" is a giggle from start to finish. Sourpuss dentist Bertram Pincus (the great British comic Ricky Gervais) is rude to everyone and leads a friendless life. After a colonoscopy, he starts to see ghosts, who follow him around. He thinks he's hallucinating, till the hospital admits that he "died" for several minutes under anesthesia -- hence his link to the Other Side. The pushiest spirit is Frank (Greg Kinnear), a faithless husband in life, who wants Bertram to save his widow, Egyptologist Gwen (Tea Leoni), from marrying a prig (Billy Campbell). The film has some strong profanity, jokes about a mummy's penis, a drink called a "screaming orgasm," other mild sexual innuendo, a hint of nonsexual nudity, a gag about nitrous oxide, and toilet humor. Most teens.

"Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys" -- Writer/director Tyler Perry's melodrama sprawls all over the place, but it's a character-rich tale acted by a fine cast, so it entertains despite sermons, cliches and predictable turns. Millionaire Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) and hardworking cafe owner Alice Pratt (Alfre Woodard) are best friends. Alice's daughter Andrea (Sanaa Lathan), obsessed with money and status, cheats on her construction worker husband (Rockmond Dunbar) with her developer boss, William (Cole Hauser), who is also Charlotte's no-good son. The film has midrange sexual innuendo, infidelity and suicide themes, drinking, and a moment of marital violence. A mild PG-13 for most teens.

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-- R's:

Appaloosa (NEW) -- Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen have a beautiful screen friendship as leathery gunslinger/lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch in this gritty old-fashioned Western set in the New Mexico Territory of the 1880s. Harris directed the adaptation of Robert B. Parker's novel. Cole and Hitch come to Appaloosa because the city fathers want to end harassment by a rancher, Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) and his gang. Bragg murdered a marshal (shown in a prologue) and Cole wants him to hang. In the middle of this tense scenario appears a fetching widow (Renee Zellweger) who proves to be a woman of changeable character and whose presence distracts the lawmen. The movie has many narrative glitches -- time passing is very confusing -- but the Harris/Mortensen pairing and their cryptic dialogue is pure horse opera poetry. There are bloody shootouts (also horses shot), sexual innuendo, implied sexual trysts, strong profanity, brief nudity and drinking. OK for high-schoolers.

"Religulous" (NEW) -- Comic Bill Maher, a nonbeliever, takes on the three major monotheistic religions in this most unjournalistic documentary. In his trademark in-your-face style, he mocks, debunks, rails against and insults what he sees as the ridiculous spiritual myths people cling to. The movie is often very funny, and will pique many people's intellects, but will likely offend many Christian, Jewish and Muslim believers. Maher visits storefront churches, a creationism museum, a New Testament theme park, the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem, priests in Rome -- and everywhere he goes he debates the faithful. The film will challenge thoughtful older teens. "Religulous" contains strong profanity, verbal references to sex and drugs, and brief toplessness.

"Miracle at St. Anna" -- Spike Lee's adaptation of James McBride's novel about African-American soldiers in World War II engages us emotionally at times, but the story is cumbersome and confusingly told. A postal clerk in modern New York shoots a customer dead. Why? This flashes us back to the war. Four soldiers from the 92nd "Buffalo Soldier" Division, take cover in an Italian village. Staff Sgt. Stamps (Derek Luke) is the leader. Sgt. Bishop Cummings (Michael Ealy), a ladies' man, objects to fighting segregated America's war. Cpl. Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) speaks Italian. Cognitively disabled Pvt. Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller) befriends a local child (Matteo Sciabordi). There is very graphic battlefield gore and a harrowing depiction of townsfolk gunned down by German soldiers, with the implication that a baby is bayoneted. There is profanity, seminudity, a sexual situation, sexual innuendo, smoking and drinking. Not for under-17s.

"My Best Friend's Girl" -- Vile, exploitative, misanthropic, sexist -- this nasty comedy is all that and more, and as graphic in its sexual language as an R-rated film can get. It is less so in its depiction of sexual situations. The most troubling thing about the movie is the way it dehumanizes sex and belittles emotion. Dane Cook plays Tank, a male chauvinist pig who hires himself out to pals who pay him to date their estranged girlfriends and treat them so badly that they go running back. His naive roommate (Jason Biggs) is in love with Alexis (Kate Hudson) and asks Tank to work his magic on her. The film also has seminude dancers, suggestive dancing, sexual situations, strong profanity, homophobic slurs, pot, cigarettes and drinking. Not for under-17s.