7 and older
MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED (PG). Kids 7 and older (and their parents) can’t help but have fun at this superior second sequel in the animated series about animals from the Central Park Zoo that are stranded in Madagascar and then Africa. Lion Alex, zebra Marty, giraffe Melman and hippo Gloria still languish in Africa and long for home. Those clever penguins and their monkey lackeys get to Monte Carlo, so Alex and the others follow them. Alex corrals the penguins into flying them to New York, but the jury-rigged plane crashes. Stuck in Europe, the zoo animals attract an evil animal control officer. The animals escape, but the path from Europe to New York is paved with complications.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Under-7s may find some of the mayhem a little too harrowing, partly because of the 3-D presentation. The script includes toilet humor, including when a circus elephant accidentally sits on a kid and gets him partially stuck in its backside. The word “Bolshevik” is used in place of a popular barnyard epithet that starts with “bull.”
PG-13
ROCK OF AGES. High-schoolers who love Broadway musicals or their parents’ 1980s rock tapes will find much fun in this flawed film, but fans of hard rock-and-roll may feel cheated. Adapted from the hit 2009 Broadway jukebox musical and brimming with familiar songs by the likes of Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, REO Speedwagon and others, “Rock of Ages” is part big-hair spoof and part tribute. But director Adam Shankman relies too heavily on stars and new layers of plot that weigh it down. Wannabe singer Sherrie arrives in Los Angeles and meets wannabe rocker Drew, who gets her a job at the club where he works. The owner has the tax man breathing down his neck, and his only hope is a promised appearance by drug-and-booze-addled rock god Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise).
THE BOTTOM LINE: “Rock of Ages” includes strongly and steamily implied sexual situations in suggestive undress and subtly implied drug use, so it isn’t great fare for middle-schoolers despite its PG-13 rating. Stacee Jaxx and his scantily clad groupies, for example, seem perpetually high in ways that chugging mere scotch doesn’t explain. Characters all drink and engage in occasional midrange profanity, crude sexual slang and toilet humor. Sherrie sees hookers on the street and later dances in a strip club.
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNSTMAN. Teens who like romantic fantasies with an edge could be transported by this long but gorgeous movie. When Snow White is of age, the queen, Ravenna, must consume her beating heart to stay young. The girl escapes into the Dark Forest. Ravenna hires 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 sometimes R-ish and probably not for preteens. Fight scenes include swords and daggers piercing flesh. 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.
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