A guide to movies from a family perspective:
“Angels &Demons”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Mature teens and older.
What you should know: Tom Hanks returns as Robert Langdon and reunites with director Ron Howard for another movie based on a Dan Brown novel. This time, Langdon is caught in the aftermath of the kidnapping of four cardinals in Rome, the theft of antimatter and news that an ancient group called the Illuminati has resurfaced.
Language: A handful of mild four-letter words.
Sexual situations, nudity: None.
Violence/scary situations: This is where the movie earns its rating. A man is killed and his eyeball sliced out. Other people are kidnapped, murdered, set on fire, poisoned, killed in an explosion, targeted for drowning, shot to death and branded with a red-hot iron. A sense of peril prevails throughout.
Drug/alcohol use: Nothing notable.
“Star Trek”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Moviegoers 9 or 10 and older.
What you should know: This sci-fi adventure explains how the core characters came to be. It introduces Kirk as a newborn and then rebellious boy in Iowa, and Spock as a scorned child on his home planet. They quickly turn into young men played by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto. In addition to introducing them on their first big mission, the movie shows how other key characters joined the crew.
Language: Nine or so mild four-letter words, the sort sometimes heard on TV, plus stronger versions of “butt” or “nonsense.”
Sexual situations, nudity: A woman is shown in childbirth, a couple canoodle on a bed and others are shown kissing.
Violence/scary situations: Characters, including a father, die offscreen or on-, and there are lots of violent fights, explosions, risky maneuvers, near-death moments and scenes of peril.
Drug/alcohol use: Characters are shown drinking beer, and a scene set in a bar touches off a brawl.
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Mature tweens and up.
What you should know: This is a prequel to the three “X-Men” movies, and it explains how the character of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) came to be. It also introduces many other mutants, including Victor Creed, aka Sabretooth.
Language: Some profanity, uses of “hell” and other mild expletives.
Sexual situations and nudity: Jackman, briefly, is photographed naked from behind, while on the run, or leaping into a waterfall. He and his girlfriend are seen in bed.
Violence/scary situations: This is where the movie earns its rating. You watch countless killings, including the death of a main character. Also features a montage of wartime violence, fiery explosions, fatal shootings or slashings, fights, falls, rage, imprisonment, medical experiments and transformations.
Drug/alcohol use: Some brief scenes in bars where people are drinking.
“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Teens and up.
What you should know: Matthew McConaughey plays womanizer Connor Mead, who, like Ebenezer Scrooge, is visited by ghosts who show him past, present and future. Engineering this trip is his late playboy uncle.
Language: A couple of uses of “Jesus,” mild four-letter expletives and a derogatory term for a gay man.
Sexual situations and nudity: Models are shown in their underwear. Much like his uncle, Connor has slept with scores of women, and that theme runs throughout. Mistaking a woman for a ghost, he fondles her breasts. Much is made of hooking up at weddings and some past bedroom liaisons.
Violence/scary situations: Connor and his younger brother lost their parents in a fatal car accident, which is mentioned but not dramatized. Other situations, such as a face slap, a tumble from bed or a car chase, are played for laughs.
Drug/alcohol use: Adults drink champagne, shots, wine and lots of other alcohol, and someone recalls a party with a “pile of blow,” slang for cocaine.
Scripps Howard News Service
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