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Family movie guide
By Times staff
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 24, 2002
The Family Movie Guide should be used along with the Motion Picture Association of America rating system for selecting movies suitable for children. Only films rated G, PG or PG-13 are included in this weekly listing, along with occasional R-rated films that may have entertainment or educational value for older children with parental guidance. Compiled by St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall.
RECOMMENDED
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
(G) -- A Christian-oriented film with computer-animated vegetables spreading the Gospel. The story of Jonah and the whale becomes a kiddie's delight for about an hour until restlessness sets in. Any objectionable material is based solely on the viewer's theological beliefs.
Tuck Everlasting
(PG) -- A young woman (Alexis Bledel) discovers a secret community of immortals led by parents William Hurt and Sissy Spacek. Should she go back to the real world and live human, or live forever with their hunky son (Joshua Jackson)? The rating results from brief violence.
RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS
Brown Sugar
(PG-13) -- Standard romantic comedy conventions get a hip-hop twist. Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan play lifelong friends made for each other, although they won't admit it. Young viewers will appreciate the rap music backdrop with lyrics well within PG-13 boundaries. Brief sensuality; a few moderate profanities.
Sweet Home Alabama
(PG-13) -- Reese Witherspoon's popularity in the youth market will be a major draw for this romantic comedy. Parents shouldn't worry about the film's content, including minor profanity, crude humor; a few jokes are aimed at a gay character. Sensual tension is mild in Witherspoon's love triangle with Patrick Dempsey and Josh Lucas. Southerners may be offended by the film's Hee Haw attitude, an overused screen stereotype.
The Tuxedo
(PG-13) -- Well, it's a Jackie Chan movie, so that means an abundance of martial arts mayhem. But Chan's style is funnier, more family-friendly than most action heroes'. Nothing graphic, just a bruising extension of the physical comedy of Chaplin and Keaton. Jennifer Love Hewitt adds sexual heat, plus some of the moderate profanity.
NOT RECOMMENDED
Abandon
(PG-13) -- Katie Holmes has plenty of young fans from her stint on the television series Dawson's Creek, but this grown-up thriller about college campus murder may be too much for some parents to approve. The rating is due to "drug and alcohol content, sexuality, some violence and language."
Barbershop
(PG-13) -- This bawdy comedy skirted an R rating despite an abundance of profanity (including a few F-words), genial criminals, numerous punch lines based on sex and one scene of marijuana smoking. Some worthwhile lessons in accountability, fidelity and friendship shine through in the third act, but the remaining comedy may be unsettling to parents watching with children.
The Four Feathers
(PG-13) -- Children may have little interest in a 19th century British colonial adventure, unless they're fans of co-stars Heath Ledger (A Knight's Tale) and Kate Hudson (Almost Famous). The PG-13 rating is due to "intense battle sequences, disturbing images, violence and some sensuality."
Moonlight Mile
(PG-13) -- There are some heavy issues for young viewers to bear in Brad Silberling's household tragedy. The death of a daughter and the way grief manifests itself isn't child's play. Moderate profanity, mild sexual situations.
The Ring
(PG-13) -- This creepy horror flick is definitely not for children with its nightmarish images and an unsavory subplot about child endangerment (and worse). Only minor profanity and brief sensuality, but this film might deserve an R rating.
The Truth About Charlie
(PG-13) -- Young viewers probably won't realize this is a remake of the 1966 movie Charade starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. (How many of them know Grant and Hepburn, for that matter?) Mark Wahlberg and Thandie Newton take over the roles as a widow learns her late husband had criminal ties, and she doesn't know whom to trust. The MPAA rating is due to violence, sexual content and brief nudity.
White Oleander
(PG-13) -- Michelle Pfeiffer plays an imprisoned mother whose daughter (Alison Lohman) gets shuffled among foster homes. The rating is the result of "mature thematic elements concerning dysfunctional relationships, drug content, language, sexuality and violence."
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