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Film
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 27, 2003
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.
Agent Cody Banks B
(PG) -- Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz becomes an adolescent James Bond in his new movie, echoing the secret agent misadventures of Spy Kids. Like that film and its sequel, Agent Cody Banks includes bloodless blow-'em-up violence and a few rude words but nothing to offend. Brief, mild sensuality from an adult spy (Angie Harmon) is harmless fun.
(G) -- Only a few instances of mild peril make this Disney sequel questionable for small children. Otherwise, it's monkey (and tiger and bear) business as usual, so much that children may think they're watching 1967's original The Jungle Book.
(G) -- The Disney animated classic returns in the IMAX format. The screen image is larger and the music louder, but the film's fun and inspiring themes remain intact. Mild peril and veiled violence, mature themes, including the murder of a parent and subsequent misplaced guilt.
(G) -- Winnie the Pooh's tiny pal Piglet faces discrimination about his size by the citizens of the Hundred Acre Woods in a movie that will be on home video soon. Nothing objectionable except Disney's attempt to shove inferior projects into theaters for fast cash.
Catch Me If You Can B
(PG-13) -- Leonardo DiCaprio may attract young viewers, but parents should be ready to discuss the consequences of his character's teen crime spree, during which he poses as a lawyer, a doctor and an airline pilot to cash bogus checks. Steven Spielberg's film makes crime look like great fun, even paying off by the end credits. Moderate profanity, sexual situations, mature themes, including divorce and adultery.
(PG-13) -- The end of the world is coming, this time because Earth's core has stopped spinning. A team of terranauts travels to the center to detonate a jump-starting nuclear bomb. The MPAA rating is due to sci-fi tension and brief profanity -- not to mention the wrong answers that could result on geology tests.
(PG-13) -- The slam-bang action of last year's Spider-Man is comparable to this live-action version of another Marvel Comics superhero, a blind lawyer (Ben Affleck) with hypersensitive senses. The rating results from violence that surpasses Spider-Man (including graphic stabbings and a gruesome death by subway train) and the sensual presence of Jennifer Garner (TV's Alias) as Daredevil's rival, Elektra.
Bringing Down the House B
(PG-13) -- A lonely guy (Steve Martin) flirts on the Internet and meets an escaped convict (Queen Latifah) who adds spice to his dull life. Some of that fun comes in the form of sexual humor, punch-line profanity and drug references.
(PG-13) -- The Academy Award's best movie of 2002 isn't for children. Director Rob Marshall turns the Broadway musical into a steamy bump-and-grind with mature themes, including infidelity, using sex to get ahead, murder, corruption and all that jazz. Moderate profanity, brief violence.
(PG-13) -- Chris Rock's humor gets toned down a bit for this political satire, but there's still plenty of comical profanity, some sexual references and drug-related humor.
(PG-13) -- Children generally won't be interested in this tale of three women in various centuries suicidally influenced by Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway. The film's pacing and mature themes, including lesbianism, infidelity, AIDS and suicide, are too downbeat for young attention spans. And for some adults'. Moderate profanity.
(PG-13) -- The second installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy features the same qualities as last year's The Fellowship of the Ring that may not appeal to small children: a three-hour running time, too many talky passages between violent battles and thousands of scary creatures.
(PG-13) -- Gwyneth Paltrow stars as a small-town refugee dreaming of becoming a flight attendant. Desperate lunges for humor include sophomoric sexual jokes, profanity.
(PG-13) -- The original shocker about a disturbed man and his deadly, obedient rats was nightmarish enough in 1971. Imagine the graphic deaths and horrific rat stampedes created with today's special effects for this remake, not to mention more sexual tension and profanity than the first film.