The Family Filmgoer
Watching With Kids in Mind
Everyone's Hero (G, 87 minutes)
In this likable, if unexceptional computer-animated fable, a Depression-era kid named Yankee Irving (voice of Jake T. Austin) goes on a hero's journey to restore Babe Ruth's stolen bat. It is a character-rich story that ought to appeal to kids 6 and older, with comically harrowing chases, gross jokes about a "booger ball" pitch and bean digestion, scenes showing Yankee's worried parents and a gratuitous dig at Eleanor Roosevelt that kids won't get. Accompanying the 10-year-old hero on his trip from New York to Chicago, where the Yankees are playing the Cubs in a crucial World Series game, are a talking baseball named Screwie (Rob Reiner) and the Babe's (Brian Dennehy) lucky bat, Darlin' (Whoopi Goldberg), who also talks. Only Yankee Irving can hear them or see their faces. He finds Screwie in his neighborhood sandlot, where the kids always ridicule Yankee's batting skills. He and Screwie rescue Darlin' from a crooked Cubs pitcher (William H. Macy) who steals the bat from the Yankees' locker room. Yankee Irving's dad (Mandy Patinkin) loses his job at Yankee Stadium because of it, and the boy's mission is to restore his dad's name. The film's 1930s atmosphere (it was directed by Christopher Reeve until his death, then completed by Colin Brady and Dan St. Pierre) is evocative. Negro League players also help Yankee Irving on his journey. Kids may need explanations about the Depression and the Negro Leagues.
Gridiron Gang (PG-13, 120 minutes)
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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson carries on his broad shoulders, smiling his million-kilowatt smile, this long, preachy real-life saga, based on a 1993 television documentary. Teenagers who like sports dramas may find it involving. Johnson plays Sean Porter, a counselor at a California juvenile detention center for violent teen boys. Desperate to make them forget gang loyalties, Porter starts a football team and arranges for them to play schools on the outside. (If "civilian" parents object, we don't hear it.) Though talented young actors (led by Jade Yorker) play the troubled teenagers, this clumsy drama drags on through endless cliches -- training montages, setbacks, tragedies and triumphs. "Gridiron Gang" portrays a couple of fatal shootings and rough fights. It contains lots of midrange profanity, a few stronger words, mildly crude sexual language, a racial slur, themes about teenagers fathering babies and about losing a parent.
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8 and Older
"How to Eat Fried Worms" (PG). Likable, funny gross-out fable (based on the 1973 kids' novel by Thomas Rockwell), about 11-year-old Billy (Luke Benward), who bets the bully (Adam Hicks) at his new school that he, Billy, can eat 10 worms in a day; a nice girl (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) in his class lends moral support, but he must chew alone; film deftly shows value of friendship, understanding -- even for bullies; Billy eats worms fried in lard, exploded in a microwave, pureed with broccoli -- bilious recipes not to try at home; vomit jokes; worm sphincter gags; Billy's little brother says "penis"; ragged proprietor of a bait shop scarily chases kids.
10 and Older
"Invincible" (PG). Surprisingly poignant, expertly acted reality-based tale of Vincent Papale (Mark Wahlberg in strong turn); an out-of-work teacher and part-time bartender in 1976 Philadelphia, Papale is a champ at neighborhood football games; when the new Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear) holds open tryouts, Papale decides to go; he so impresses Vermeil, he winds up making the NFL team, despite the pro players' hostility toward a 30-year-old rookie. Rare mild profanity; understated sexual tension between Papale and a new love (Elizabeth Banks); football field mayhem; beer.
PG-13s
"The Covenant." This tale about buff teen warlocks at a New England prep school who are descendants of Salem witches and keep their powers secret is like a silly music video masquerading as a movie. Caleb (Steven Strait), on the eve of his "ascendance" to full power at age 18, is challenged by a newcomer (Sebastian Stan) who puts Caleb's girlfriend (Laura Ramsey) under a spell and plans to steal his powers. Dead bodies with blank white eyes; a skeletal human; swarming spiders; rats; warlocks slam each other against walls, zap each other with light; much teen sexual innuendo; a few make-out moments; shower scene with implied nudity; gross-out humor; middling profanity; homophobic slur; smoking, drinking.
"The Wicker Man." Plodding, often laughably flat-footed thriller stars Nicolas Cage as unimaginative cop, traumatized by witnessing a terrible crash in which a mother and daughter apparently die; at the behest of an ex-girlfriend (Kate Beahan) he travels to a weird, remote farm commune where she lives to find her missing daughter; he suspects the commune leader (Ellen Burstyn) of using evil pagan rituals. Harrowing crash shows truck slamming into mother and daughter's car, but injuries, dead bodies never shown; scene recurs as stylized hallucination; disturbing images of drowned people, a dead man with mouth sewn shut, full-term human fetuses preserved in laboratory jars, swarming bees; punches thrown; occasional profanity; smoking. Teenagers.
"Crossover." Lively parable -- at times comedic, at times preachy, but always engaging, visually inventive -- about two Detroit pals (Anthony Mackie and Wesley Jonathan) who play street basketball, their ethics endangered by a slick ex-sports agent (Wayne Brady) who places illegal bets on their amateur teams and tries to lure the best player of the two to go pro. Eva Pigford shines as a gold-digger girlfriend. A mild-to-midrange PG-13: occasional profanity, crude language; briefly steamy but nongraphic make-out scenes; other sexual innuendo; toilet humor; punches; moderate drinking, smoking. Teenagers.
Rs
"The Black Dahlia." Deeply flawed film noir -- hilariously melodramatic and convoluted, with maddeningly obscure dialogue -- based on James Ellroy's novel, in turn based on the gruesome real-life 1947 murder of struggling Hollywood actress Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner); Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett as cops obsessed with the crime, thrown curves by other cases, a woman they both love (Scarlett Johansson) and a rich girl (Hilary Swank) with secrets. Graphic views of the mutilated corpse; shoot-outs; bullet-riddled victims, including a child; bloody baseball bat and razor attack; rough boxing match; steamy but abbreviated, non-explicit sexual situations; toplessness, back-view nudity; semi-explicit scenes from a porn film; profanity; racial slur; drinking, smoking; references to drug use. 17 and older.
"The Last Kiss." Affably rumpled, ultra-articulate adult dramedy about thirty-somethings and the pain of learning to be adults; Zach Braff stars as a guy suddenly terrified that his longtime girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett) is pregnant and his life is over; Rachel Bilson as the college girl who tempts him; Casey Affleck, Michael Weston, Eric Christian Olsen as his pals, their love lives in turmoil, too; Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson as his girlfriend's folks, in precarious shape themselves. Explicit sexual situations with near-total nudity; profanity; marijuana use; drinking; toilet humor. Inappropriate for most under-17's.
"Hollywoodland." Expert film-noirish murder mystery set in 1950s La-La Land, inspired by apparent 1959 suicide of actor George Reeves (Ben Affleck), who played Superman on TV but longed for a movie career; Adrien Brody as eager, unethical private eye who tries to learn the truth from Reeves's ex-lover (Diane Lane) and her thuggish studio exec (Bob Hoskins) husband, imagining various scenarios for the actor's demise. Graphic gun violence; bloodied victims; explicit, though clothed, sexual situation; steamy sexual innuendo; milder love scenes; implied nudity; strong profanity; drinking, smoking. 16 and older.
"The Protector." Thai martial arts star Tony Jaa in athletically impressive, at times poignant, but nearly incoherent saga as elephant breeder from rural Thailand whose father is murdered and his prize elephants stolen by Thai gangsters; trained by his dad in ancient martial arts, he follows bad guys and elephants to Australia. Ever more lethal-looking martial arts mayhem, though bloodless; graphic sound effects imply bones and skulls cracking, tendons tearing; gunshot kills elephant early on; steamy sexual innuendo; implied sexual situations; toplessness; implied drug use; drinking; rare crude language. In Thai with subtitles, some English dialogue. 16 and older.