PG-13
The Hunger Games. Even teens who haven’t read Suzanne Collins’s popular trilogy will be gripped by this arresting film adaptation of the first book. However, despite the bravery and selflessness of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, the film has a dark view of human behavior and of the future, which some younger teens — and certainly preteens — might have trouble processing. Katniss lives in District 12 of Panem. Her father died in a mine explosion. Every year, as punishment for a long-ago rebellion, the Capitol requires each district to contribute two teenagers, or “tributes,” to take part in the Hunger Games, a fight to the death in which only one can win. When Katniss’s little sister is chosen in the lottery, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Peeta, the son of a local baker, becomes District 12’s second “tribute.” Once the competitors are let loose in a woodland battlefield, all their actions are tracked and broadcast on TV.
THE BOTTOM LINE: The violence is quite understated, but we do see bloody, painful-looking wounds. The young tributes fight and kill one another with daggers, spears, arrows and even land mines. We see a former winner holding the bloody brick he used to kill a rival. Katniss causes a huge wasps’ nest to fall on a group of rivals. We see multiple dead bodies of teen fighters. Katniss escapes a huge forest fire. The film includes rare, mild profanity and negligible sexual innuendo. A theme of loss runs throughout.
A Thousand Words. The film is okay for most teens, although parents of middle-schoolers might object to the sexual slang and other crude language. Jack McCall is a slick literary agent, married with a young son, but he’s too motormouthed to notice his family craving his attention. A popular guru, Dr. Sinja, sees right through him. A tree pops up in Jack’s yard, and every time Jack utters a word, the tree loses a leaf. Dr. Sinja warns Jack that when the tree’s last 1,000 leaves are gone, Jack will die. Jack must communicate without speaking to preserve his life.
The bottom line: Murphy’s character uses a lot of midrange sexual slang and crude language. His wife tries to seduce him in a hotel, where he’s caught in the hallway in his undies. His assistant talks nongraphically about his own kinky sexual longings and videos he and a co-worker made.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. The charm of the cast and the whimsy of the story make this an enjoyable little movie that high-schoolers 15 and older might find refreshing. Dr. Alfred Jones is a shy fisheries expert. Harriet works for a wealthy, spiritually inclined Yemeni sheik who loves salmon fishing and wants to bring that sport to Yemen. Dr. Jones thinks the idea is ludicrous, but he’s drawn in by Harriet and then ordered to get involved by the British prime minister’s hilariously cynical press secretary.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The film features one comical, semi-explicit sexual situation and a couple of other steamy but non-explicit encounters. The prospect of divorce is a sub-theme, as is a report of Harriet’s military boyfriend missing in action. The script includes rare profanity, and some characters drink.
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