The Family Filmgoer: Watching With Kids in Mind

CLICK (PG-13, 98 minutes)

Adam Sandler & Co. mix crude humor and weepy sentimentality to surprising success in this long and crass but warmhearted 21st-century take on such chestnuts as Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). Yet the Family Filmgoer hesitates before recommending "Click" for teens under high-school age. The movie -- in which the time travel occurs via a "universal" remote control -- contains much rude sexual innuendo, including homophobic humor, and verbal and visual sex jokes. These include the family dog repeatedly trying to mate with a big stuffed toy. There are images of a married couple making love under the covers in comically super-fast style (movement shown in silhouette), once with a dog jumping on the bed and mimicking them. There is a repeated gag, using a Yiddishism, about the size of a baby boy's penis. There is also a joke about Michael Jackson and child molestation. The script includes much midrange profanity, toilet humor and many jokey references to drug abuse, though none is ever shown. There is a theme about a supporting character's marital infidelities. Sandler's character smokes cigars and there is talk of drinking. In an early scene, a group of Arab princes from the Middle East are portrayed as comic stereotypes. The film shows secretaries as bimbos, and spoofs fat people. Finally, it includes more serious themes about the pain of losing an elderly parent and even a beloved pet.

Sandler -- still not fully convincing in emotional moments -- plays architect Michael Newman, a nice but driven dad and husband who shortchanges his forgiving wife (Kate Beckinsale), adorable kids (Joseph Castanon and Tatum McCann) and loving parents (Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner) with his workaholism, in thrall to a sleazy boss (David Hasselhoff). When an exhausted Michael goes to Bed, Bath & Beyond in search of a universal remote control, he passes through a door marked "Beyond" and encounters the bespectacled, otherworldly Morty (Christopher Walken, who else?) who hands him a remote that Michael soon discovers can mute his wife and kids and fast-forward through arguments. Then it starts fast-forwarding through his life.

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8 and Older

"Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties" (PG). Not a classic but amusing second film (following "Garfield: The Movie") based on the comic strip, with sarcastic, lasagna-loving Garfield done in computer animation (with Bill Murray's voice, and the same glassy eyes from the first film) within a live-action film; this time Garfield and fellow pet Odie (a live, non-speaking dachshund mix) stow away with owner Jon (Breckin Meyer) on a trip to London where Garfield is mistaken for an aristo-cat named Prince (voice of Tim Curry) and takes up residence in a country manse, ruling a roost of live, talking house pets and farm animals; the late owner has left the house to Prince, against the wishes of an evil relative (Billy Connolly), who has tried to do away with the cat. Crude humor; less obvious sexual innuendo; scary but dumb Doberman named Rommel; drunken ferret; slapstick mayhem in which no human or beast gets hurt. Kids younger than 8 fidgeted during preview of dialogue-heavy film.

"Nacho Libre" (PG). Jack Black, agile-browed and jelly-bellied, stars in amiably off-center yet somehow hip comedy (by creators of 2004's "Napoleon Dynamite," also PG) about a humble friar named Nacho who cooks in a Mexican monastery; he recruits a sidekick (Hector Jimenez) and tries out for Mexico's popular wrestling circuit, Lucha Libre, to make money so he can serve orphans at the monastery better food and impress a lovely, chaste nun (Ana de la Reguera). Slapstick but still bone-crunching wrestling, fights with crotch kicks, body slams, head-bangs, arm-twists, baton thwacks; gross-out humor; mild sexual innuendo; partially exposed men's tushes; PG-13-ish moment in which a hurled corn-on-the-cob embeds in someone's eye socket.

"Cars." Pixar's latest computer-animated fable, in which "cars are people, too," follows selfish red race car Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson), stranded in a one-cylinder desert town called Radiator Springs, where he finds humility, love (with a Porsche voiced by Bonnie Hunt) and happiness; car characters glint like metal, but have hugely expressive "faces"; he meets a crusty old Hudson (Paul Newman) and a hillbilly tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy) who takes him "tractor tipping"; 'toon starts badly, looking like an ad for NASCAR, but evolves into a sweet tribute to pre-superhighway, Route 66 America. Racing scenes have vivid crashes, but cars don't die; dialogue includes "hillbilly hell"; some autos embody ethnic stereotypes; mild sexual innuendo younger kids will miss; much dialogue and nearly two-hour length make under-8s fidget.

PG-13s and Two PGs More for Teens

"The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift." Third film (after "The Fast and the Furious" and "2 Fast, 2 Furious") about illegal car racing among "outsider" teens, twenty-somethings; better acted, but again with screeching tires, macho guys, girls in hooker-esque garb, much anti-social behavior, all boding ill for our civilization; American teen (Lucas Black, looking way past high school age) gets into trouble for drag racing and, to avoid jail, goes to stay with his naval officer dad (Brian Goodman), stationed in Tokyo; he gets involved with Tokyo racers and a pretty classmate (Nathalie Kelley) linked to mobsters; his nemesis is a gangster/racer champ (Brian Tee) known for high-speed gliding around curves, or "drifting"; Rapper Bow Wow plays a slick American teen expat. Racing scenes show endangerment of pedestrians, destruction of property; crude sexual remarks; some strong profanity; passionate kissing; fatal crash; fights; gunplay; drinking, smoking. High schoolers.

"Wordplay" (PG). Hugely likable documentary celebrates nerdism, language, sportsmanlike conduct and smart people who love the New York Times crossword puzzle, among them former president Bill Clinton, former senator Bob Dole, comic Jon Stewart and Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina; film also profiles brilliant but less well-known puzzle solvers who compete in annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (as heart-stopping here as any basketball game), those who create the puzzles and Times puzzle editor Will Shortz. Rare, muted profanity and crude language; words with a mildly sexual connotation; verbal references to smoking, drinking; brief glimpse of a print article mentioning Playboy magazine and sex. Language and puzzle-loving teens, some 10 and older.

"The Lake House" (PG). Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in dreary, illogical time-bending romance about a Chicago doctor (Bullock) and architect (Reeves) who live in a fabulous lake house at different times and correspond by leaving letters in the house's mailbox, gradually realizing they are (a) soul mates and (b) communicating from different years. Even Einstein couldn't disentangle this movie's universe, but Chicago looks great. Occasional profanity: barnyard curses, Deity's name taken in vain; a couple of intense kisses; nongraphic but upsetting scene showing a pedestrian hit by a bus; themes about losing one's parents. Somber tone and themes more for teens.

"The Heart of the Game." Thoroughly involving documentary about high school girls basketball in Seattle, features amiable, eccentric coach Bill Resler, a college prof who moonlights as girls basketball coach at Seattle's upscale Roosevelt High; film traces how he and Darnellia Russell, a smart, athletically gifted transfer student from the inner city, achieved success, despite her complicated home life and objections of state sports officials. Occasional strong profanity; unwed older teen's pregnancy a key theme; muted discussion of another girl having been sexually molested by a private basketball coach; pep talks with visceral images such as "draw blood!" or "beat the snot out of 'em." Thoughtful teens would like this film.

"The Break-Up." Silly-smart, unsentimental, refreshing he-said/she-said comedy stars Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston as ill-matched cohabiting Chicagoans -- he won't do dishes; she nags; they break up, but neither will leave their cool condo; they stay and drive each other and their friends nuts. Much sexual innuendo, mostly mild, but some involving crude sexual slang; lewd plot point involves woman getting total bikini wax, then parading naked in front of her ex -- features only brief rear nudity, but implication is clear; aftermath of a strip poker game shows couples in underwear or possibly topless (implied), drinking, making out; much mid-range profanity, occasional stronger stuff; mild ethnic slur, homophobic humor. Iffy for middle schoolers.