Family Film Reviews

-- 8 AND OLDER:

"TOOTH FAIRY" PG -- In this family fantasy, the always amiable, if not comedically adept, Dwayne Johnson plays Derek, a professional hockey player known as the Tooth Fairy because he's knocked out so many opponents' pearly whites. He's bitter because his career is on a downward slope. His girlfriend (Ashley Judd) gets angry when he starts to tell her youngest (Destiny Grace Whitlock) there is no tooth fairy. That night, Derek sprouts wings and finds himself standing before the big boss (Julie Andrews) in the magical tooth fairy headquarters. He's sentenced to three weeks as a tooth fairy. His "caseworker" is a droll fairy bureaucrat (Stephen Merchant), and he gets his magical shrinking paste and other tools from a wisecracking senior fairy (Billy Crystal). Derek gets into trouble trying to hide his new identity. The special effects look cheesy and the earthbound part of the plot is corny, but the tooth fairy stuff is still fun.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Derek's loss of faith in his dreams sets the story in motion, which is why its mildly dramatic elements may be a little beyond kids under 8. There is ice hockey mayhem and very mild sexual innuendo. Many of this uneven movie's best moments are geared to adults in the ironic repartee between Derek and his fairy caseworker.

-- A PG GEARED MORE TO TEENS:

"PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS: THE LIGHTNING THIEF" PG (NEW) -- This savvy mix of contemporary teen culture and Greek myth (based on the first in author Rick Riordan's series of five novels) ought to entertain teens and pleasantly surprise adults, as it feels and looks like the classic special-effects films of the 1950s and 60s. It might also inspire kids to go back and read the myths. Zeus (Sean Bean) and Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) meet atop the Empire State Building. Zeus believes the son of Poseidon has stolen his lightning bolt, and he wants it back or else. Cut to Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), a New York high-schooler whose mom (Catherine Keener) is married to a beer-guzzling bum (Joe Pantoliano). Percy sees himself as a loser, but during a museum visit he learns he's a demigod -- the child of his mom's long-ago liaison with Poseidon. Percy's pal Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) is a satyr assigned to protect him, hiding his goat half under baggy pants and crutches. The museum guide (Pierce Brosnan) is actually a centaur. Sent to a camp where demigods train, Percy soon discovers his strengths. He meets Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), daughter of Athena, and Luke (Jake Abel), son of Hermes. When his mother is abducted by Hades, god of the Underworld, Percy, Annabeth and Grover go on a quest to rescue her.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A significant number of preteens would like "Percy Jackson & the Olympians ... ", but those in the 10-to-12 range need to be able to handle mayhem that is intense, even if largely bloodless. Young Percy and his cohorts fight a huge, horned Minotaur, the serpent-haired Medusa (Uma Thurman, in a fun turn that snake-phobics should avoid), a hydra-headed monster and other fire-breathers. There is the beheading of an immortal and the bandying about of the severed head, a monster impaled on his own horn, femur-cracking fights and gashes. There is mild but frequent sexual innuendo and phrases such as "hooking up."

-- PG-13s:

"DEAR JOHN" -- Teens who like a good cry at the movies can shed salty tears over "Dear John," a sentimental and sometimes laughably predictable love story, based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. A key subplot about an adult character with autism is actually more interesting and imaginatively done than the central romance. Channing Tatum plays John, a stoic Special Forces soldier who falls in love -- via endless music montages -- with the lovely Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) while he's home in South Carolina on leave. After the 9/11 terror attacks, John re-ups with the military, and though they correspond with many love letters, Savannah finds the distance and her worry over John's safety too much. Teens who may have studied acting will be impressed and moved by scenes between John and his seemingly distant dad (Richard Jenkins), who, John comes to learn, is actually autistic.

THE BOTTOM LINE: There are a couple of quick but intense battle scenes in which we see lots of blood, though the injuries are not graphic. The film shows brief images of a World Trade Center tower collapsing. Characters drink, there is occasional mild profanity, and at least one steamy love scene in which Savannah and John remove outer clothing. There is briefly implied toplessness. In addition to the autism theme (which also features a child), there a couple of characters who become ill and die, so grief and loss are also themes.

"WHEN IN ROME" -- Teen girls may gravitate toward this fantastical romantic comedy, poorly (and cheaply) executed though it is, because of its likable stars -- Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel. Along with them, the footage of Rome and the Guggenheim Museum in New York make for excellent eye candy, but even teen fans of Bell and Duhamel may find the story pretty thin. Bell plays a Guggenheim curator -- an unlucky-in-love careerist (with Anjelica Huston as her gorgon boss) who fears she'll never find a soul mate. She goes to Rome for her sister's wedding and meets her new brother-in-law's one-time roommate, Nick (Duhamel). They spark instantly, but Beth is afraid to fall. She gets drunk, wades into a fountain and retrieves a few coins. The men who tossed the coins fall magically in love with Beth and follow her back to New York -- a sausage manufacturer (Danny De Vito), a male model (Dax Shepard), a magician (Jon Heder), and an artist (Will Arnett). Beth fears Nick is under the same spell and that his love is not real.

THE BOTTOM LINE: "When in Rome" is a mild PG-13 by that rating's ever-expanding standards (making the rating ever more useless). Characters drink and kiss and flirt, but there are really no sexual situations and only mild sexual innuendo. There is rare mild profanity and brief gross-out humor. Nick has gentlemanly instincts, which is refreshing.

"AVATAR" -- Teens may find the premise in James Cameron's "Avatar" eye-opening and debate-worthy. He proposes that Western exploitation of indigenous peoples will continue even with alien creatures beyond Earth. Try to see it in 3-D, because this futuristic sci-fi epic mixes live-action with digital animation in wondrous ways, though the characterizations and dialogue are pretty leaden. "Avatar" is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a mineral-rich moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Its humanoid inhabitants, the Na'vi, are tall and blue, with tails. They can bond physically and spiritually with all of nature. Jake (Sam Worthington), a former Marine whose legs are paralyzed, comes to Pandora to work for Grace (Sigourney Weaver), a scientist. Whenever Grace transfers Jake's consciousness into a manufactured Na'vi body -- his avatar -- he can walk again. While in his avatar body, Jake meets a Na'vi warrior, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and a romance sparks. Meanwhile the security chief (Stephen Lang) for a mining firm can't wait to start mowing down Na'vi for profit.

THE BOTTOM LINE: "Avatar" includes loud, intense, but fairly bloodless mayhem, using futuristic military weapons and ancient ones. There is an implied sexual tryst, remarks about the Na'vi that recall racial slurs, and some profanity. The Na'vi are semi-naked, but with no "naughty bits" visible. There are huge, mythic dragonlike creatures on Pandora.

-- R's:

"FROM PARIS WITH LOVE" -- High-schoolers 17 and up who like irreverent action flicks could find plenty of diversion here. The best thing about "From Paris With Love" is John Travolta's wild performance, complete with shaved head and hoop earring, as an American agent with nearly supernatural gifts of marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat. The film, older teens will find upon closer inspection, makes little earthly sense as a get-the-terrorists bloodfest that plays more like a cops-versus-drug-dealers tale than a spy drama with a credible plot. Ah, well. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays James, a buttoned-down assistant to the U.S. ambassador in Paris, with a great apartment and a French girlfriend (Kasia Smutniak). He also performs small tasks for a nameless covert agency and hopes he'll soon be promoted to full-fledged spy. Travolta plays Charlie Wax, a violence-loving agent who comes to partner with James to avert disaster as an American delegation arrives in Paris for a summit.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The simplistic way the terrorist threat is portrayed and the casual use of South Asian and Middle Eastern stereotypes should bother thoughtful teens over 17. The gun battles spatter gallons of blood and the fights are bone-crushers. The language is highly profane, and there is drug use and drinking, as well as strong sexual innuendo and steamily implied but nongraphic sexual situations.

"EDGE OF DARKNESS" -- The convoluted narrative in this grim, rather thankless police thriller (based on a 1980s British miniseries) may put off high-schoolers, even those 17 and older. The violence is too realistically graphic for under-17s, and Mel Gibson's grizzled hero-of-few-words may not appeal to them either. His screen acting remains first rate, though, in his tortured turn as Craven, a Boston homicide detective whose daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) is ill -- vomiting, nosebleeds -- and can't tell him much about her work at a nuclear research facility. As he prepares to take Emma to the hospital, she's shot by a gunman in a passing SUV. Nearly catatonic with grief, Craven comes to suspect that his daughter's boss (Danny Huston) and a few smarmy public officials are hiding a big secret. The sharp byplay between Craven and a sardonic "fixer" (Ray Winstone) who specializes in cleaning up secret messes for the Feds is the element film buffs 17 and up may like.

THE BOTTOM LINE: There are bloody, point-blank gun battles and graphic wounds, frequent use of the F-word and other profanity, as well as mild sexual innuendo. The film's emotional and narrative arcs are very dark.

"LEGION" -- High-schoolers 16 and older with strong stomachs for screen mayhem may be willing to go along with "Legion," especially if they like thrillers that mix blood-and-guts with religious or occult themes. This film does that in a mishmash of horror and pseudo-biblical movie cliches that pile up in the silly, special-effects-laden third act. A group of people are stranded in a Mojave Desert cafe when the power and phones go out. A sweet old lady (Jeannette Miller) arrives and morphs into a profanity-spewing demon. Next, a tall, mysterious man named Michael (Paul Bettany) tells them that a disillusioned God intends to destroy humankind, and the zombie-like creatures bearing down on the cafe are avenging angels in human form. Michael, an angel defying God's orders, wants to save humanity. He also fires rocket-propelled grenades, which is handy.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The violence is intense and occasionally very bloody, with impalements, a man tied upside down on a cross, his skin bubbling with boils and exploding entrails. There are gun battles, the implication that a possessed child is killed off-camera, very strong profanity, smoking and drinking. The script deals with the nature of faith and obliquely with the abortion debate. Not for under-16s.