Family Film Reviews

"Amelia" (PG, 1 hr., 51 min.)

Unlike its fascinating subject, the legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart, "Amelia" never quite gets off the ground. Even so, teens and preteens with a taste for history and heroes may be transported by the movie's rich 1920s and '30s look, its flying scenes and its gossipy moments about Earhart's marital infidelities. Although Hilary Swank's portrayal comes off as highly accurate -- she gets the voice, the stance, everything from the old newsreels -- "Amelia" is academic and a little bloodless. Director Mira Nair ("The Namesake," PG-13, 2006; "Vanity Fair," PG-13, 2004), who's known for eliciting juicy characterizations, has taken a rather staid approach here. Based on two books ("East to the Dawn" by Susan Butler and "The Sound of Wings" by Mary S. Lovell), the film seems a bit bookish.

Even so, there are interesting ideas woven throughout -- including the question that dogged Earhart during her short career: Was she as skilled at being a pilot as she was at being a celebrity? Was she reckless? Were she and her navigator, Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), up to the task during that final, tragic round-the-world flight, when they disappeared while trying to locate a tiny island in the South Pacific to land and refuel?

All these questions and personal issues about Earhart's up-and-down marriage to publicist George Putnam (a New Englandy-sounding Richard Gere) and her affair with aristocratic West Point flying instructor Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) are posed in the film, but dryly. (Gene Vidal was author Gore Vidal's father, and we meet Gore as a little boy, played by William Cuddy.) The movie focuses on Earhart's decade or so of celebrity and flashes back only briefly to her childhood. We never meet her parents. Something seems to be missing that would have fleshed her out. The movie is absorbing and beautiful to look at, but a little hollow.

There are some briefly scary aviation sequences, including a nonlethal crash. The final flight, when Earhart and Noonan disappeared over the South Pacific, is woven piecemeal throughout the film, but it does not try to depict how they went down. There is rare mild profanity, and characters smoke and drink. There are gently implied premarital and extramarital trysts in silk nightwear, and a club singer dances suggestively.

Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages

-- OK FOR MOST KIDS 6 AND OLDER:

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" PG -- Deliriously funny and inventive, this animated comedy (loosely based on the children's book) in 3-D will tickle kids 6 and older. In fact, the hilarity will delight all ages. A few things could scare the littlest ones: There is a dangerous spaghetti tornado, an avalanche of leftovers, and a dangerous midair struggle with an out-of-control food-flinging machine. There is mild toilet humor and one character swells up after eating peanuts, but is OK. In a dreary little island town off the Atlantic Coast, inventor Flint Lockwood (voice of Bill Hader) creates a machine that converts water into food. Only he can't control it. It blasts into the sky and rains cheeseburgers, steaks, ice cream and more onto the town. A perky TV reporter, Sam Sparks (Anna Faris), covers the story. Flint and Sam may be kindred spirits, but first they must stop his machine!

-- OK FOR MOST KIDS 8 AND OLDER:

"Astro Boy" PG -- "Astro Boy" starts slowly, but is great fun once it gets going -- full of humor, action and vivid characters, and rich in film and literary references parents can explain to kids later. (The many political jokes are geared to adults.) However, the level of mayhem, and the theme of parental rejection in this computer-animated sci-fi fable (based on a 1951 Japanese manga comic that begot several TV 'toons), make it more appropriate for kids 8 and older. Young Toby (voice of Freddie Highmore) lives among the lucky humans who have fled a trash-filled Earth (shades of "WALL-E," G, 2008) to futuristic Metro City, floating above the planet. Toby's father, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage), is a scientist who works for evil General Stone (Donald Sutherland). When a warrior robot goes out of control and kills Toby early on, a heartbroken Tenma creates a robotic Toby (echoes of "Pinocchio" and "Frankenstein"), but then rejects the artificial "boy." General Stone, seeing the robotic Toby is outfitted with advanced weaponry, sends his military to destroy him. Toby crashes onto Earth, where he's befriended by orphans (shades of "Oliver Twist") and a lone adult, Ham Egg (Nathan Lane). General Stone sends forces after Toby -- now Astro Boy -- and his new friends. The fighting includes gunfire and much mechanical destruction.

-- OK FOR MANY KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"Amelia" PG (NEW) -- Unlike its fascinating subject, legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart, "Amelia" never quite gets off the ground. Even so, teens and preteens with a taste for history and heroes may be transported by the movie's rich 1920s and '30s look, its flying scenes and its gossipy moments about Earhart's love life. Hilary Swank's portrayal comes off as highly accurate in voice and manner, based on newsreels we've seen, yet is somewhat bloodless. Director Mira Nair's film is never less than absorbing, but a little bookish -- perhaps too wedded to the biograhies it's based on ("East to the Dawn" by Susan Butler and "The Sound of Wings" by Mary S. Lovell). The film does seem to ask whether Earhart was as skilled a pilot as she was a celebrity. It also explores -- if rather dryly -- her up-and-down marriage to publicist George Putnam (Richard Gere), and her affair with aristocratic West Point flying instructor Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). There are mildly harrowing aviation sequences, including a nonlethal crash and moments woven throughout the film that imagine Earhart's final, fateful round-the-world flight, in which she and navigator Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston) disappeared over the Pacific. The film does not try to imagine how they died. Characters smoke and drink. There is rare mild profanity, gently implied premarital and extramarital trysts in silk nightwear, and a club singer who dances suggestively.

"Where the Wild Things Are" PG -- Some parents may decide that this moody, unusual adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved 1963 picture book is too emotional and intense to be a family film. But they'll be surprised at how easily kids 10 and older (and many who are younger) will get director Spike Jonze's unique take. He has vastly expanded upon the little boy Max's encounter with the Wild Things, and mixes live action with puppetry and animation to achieve a startling level of realism. Young Max (terrific Max Records) and his tantrums and unhappiness seem urgently authentic. After a fight with his mom (Catherine Keener), Max runs away. Realism becomes fantasy as he sails through a storm and lands on an island where he meets the huge, furry Wild Things. All his traits and troubles are echoed ingeniously among the monsters, who make Max their king. What starts as a bumptious friendship degenerates into arguments and sadness, yet the story ends on a sweet note before Max heads back to reality. This film is not for kids who have short attention spans, who find strong, realistically portrayed emotions hard to deal with, or who could be scared into nightmares by the idea of stuffed animals becoming enormous monsters in an alternate world. The Wild Things fight and hurt one another at times (not lethally, but a feathered arm gets pulled bloodlessly off), and say mean things.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" -- A small-town teen becomes a "half-vampire" and goes to live with members of a traveling freak show in this humorous, offbeat fable, which takes the idea of feeling like a "freak" during tricky teenage years and runs with it in a smart, inventive way. Honor student Darren Shan and his rebellious friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson), bored with their conformist town, go to see the "Cirque du Freak" show. Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) and his trained spider fascinate them both. A student of vampires, Steve recognizes Crepsley as one. Through a series of tortured plot twists, the boys become involved in the vampires' world and Crepsley demands that Darren "die" and become his assistant. Darren complies and goes to live with the Cirque freaks. The film includes vampire-versus-vampire mayhem that is more supernatural than graphic, but there is moderate bloodletting, a snapped neck, a couple of stabbings, not to mention the stylishly gross Cirque du Freak woman (Jane Krakowski) who can tear off her limbs and grow them back. At one point Darren's human family is in danger. OK for most teens with strong stomachs.

"The Stepfather" -- A psycopath poses as a sensitive widower, courts single women with kids, then murders them, changes his persona and moves on in this predictable but effectively creepy remake of the R-rated 1987 film. Dylan Walsh (of TV's "Nip/Tuck") plays the insidious David, and Sela Ward his latest prey, a divorcee with three kids. The movie shows David throwing an old woman downstairs and asphyxiating her. He drowns one victim and bludgeons another. More violence is strongly implied with knives and a buzz saw, though just off-camera. David also grips a child painfully by the neck. There are make-out scenes that hint at an intimate teen sexual relationship. Characters drink beer and wine, and a teen drinks liquor at an adult's urging. There is occasional profanity. Not really for middle-schoolers.

"Couples Retreat" -- A perfect example of how useless the PG-13 rating has become, this crass comedy is full of masturbatory and testicular humor and graphic visual innuendo. If it were actually funny, one would just recommend it for 17 and older. But it is mostly dull. Four couples -- Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell), Dave (Vince Vaughn) and Ronnie (Malin Akerman), Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis), and the divorced Shane (Faizon Love) and his 20-year-old girlfriend Trudy (Kali Hawk) -- go to a resort that gives New Age-y marital counseling. The female characters barely register, except for Trudy, who is played as an African-American stereotype instead of a person. There is an implied nongraphic sexual situation, a bare behind, implied frontal nudity, toilet humor, milder profanity, infidelity themes, a silly shark incident, and drinking. Not for under-17s.

-- R's:

"Law Abiding Citizen" -- Strong performances still can't make this bloody revenge drama, with its exploitative violence, plausible. Gerard Butler plays Clyde, a man who loses his wife and daughter in a vicious home invasion, then orchestrates painful deaths, not only for the killers, who he believes got off too easily, but for law enforcement officials he thinks failed him. Jamie Foxx plays Nick, the prosecutor on the original case. In one upsetting scene, Nick's little daughter (Emerald-Angel Young) accidentally sees a video showing how Clyde dismembered one of his family's murderers. While not hyper-graphic, the scene feels gory. There is an execution by lethal injection that becomes "cruel and unusual," and a mini-explosion blows someone's brains out. The film also contains some strong profanity and briefly crude sexual innuendo. Not for under-17s.

"Paranormal Activity" -- A young couple, Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat), try to get rid of a ghost -- or demon -- that has begun to disturb their slumbers in this entertaining, if derivative, low-budget hit. There is no on-screen violence (though there is briefly implied off-screen violence), only disturbing noises and an invisible force that moves doors and leaves other evidence of its presence. Micah decides to record their sleep on video to capture the supernatural visits, and what they see when they play it back each day becomes more and more eerie. Micah insists on trying to contact the spirit with a Ouija board. Bad move. The R rating reflects profanity and understated innuendo about the unwed couple's sex life. Characters drink wine. OK for high-schoolers and even some middle-schoolers.