PG-13
Snow White and the Huntsman. Teens who like romantic fantasies with an edge could be transported by this long but gorgeous movie. A prologue recounts the Snow White back story most of us know. When Snow White is of age, the evil queen Ravenna must consume her beating heart to stay young. The girl escapes into the awful Dark Forest. Ravenna and Finn hire the Huntsman to capture Snow White, but he decides to protect her instead. The hunted pair find brief respite in a charming enchanted forest, where they meet a band of dwarves. Snow White’s childhood friend William joins them to raise an army against the queen.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The level of violence and disturbing images make the movie a sometimes R-ish PG-13 and probably not entertainment for preteens. Fight scenes include many swords and daggers piercing flesh, although there is not a lot of blood. More disturbing to young or nightmare-prone moviegoers are the images of the queen, the rotting animal corpses in the Dark Forest, tree branches turning into writhing serpents and a huge, roaring troll. There is some sexual innuendo. Ravenna and King Magnus have a nongraphic bedroom scene before she kills him.
Men in Black III. If they have the patience to get through a draggy first act, high-schoolers, college kids and even parents will get a mild kick out of “Men in Black III.” It’s okay for most middle-schoolers, too, but they might miss some of the humor. Agents J and K are still busy keeping control of space aliens living incognito on Earth. The alien Boris escapes from prison on the moon. He heads to Earth to kill Agent K, who put him in prison decades earlier. Agent J has a dream in which K is dead and was never his partner. J travels back in time to the 1960s and meets up with K’s younger self so they can kill Boris and allow Agent K to survive.
The bottom line: Boris’s murders are not bloody but quite graphic for a PG-13. The film includes mild sexual innuendo. The dialogue includes occasional midrange profanity and a Viagra joke.
Moonrise Kingdom. If teens 15 and older recall with pleasure “Fantastic Mr. Fox" filmmaker Wes Anderson’s charming stop-motion animated film with its deadpan vocal performances, they might be primed to love “Moonrise Kingdom.” This oddball love story involving two depressed 12-year-olds, set in 1965, is not for middle-schoolers or preteens. It weaves in rather adult themes and includes a mild sexual encounter between the 12-year-olds. The comedy fits in with all of Anderson’s idiosyncratic work and his terrific cast gives outwardly affectless, but deeply felt performances. Sam is a camper with the Khaki Scouts. He disappears one morning and worried Scout Master Ward notifies the local policeman Capt. Sharp. The two men and the other scouts begin a search. They learn that Sam is an orphan and his foster parents don’t want him back. They also discover that Sam met Suzy the year before during a church concert. Suzy lives with younger brothers and two laconic lawyer parents. Suzy is unhappy and prone to rages. She and Sam plan to run away together.
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