Family Filmgoer

Watching With Kids in Mind

Fracture(R, 98 minutes)

What begins as an exercise in superficial cinematic glitz -- all fancy camera angles, pricey real estate and snarky dialogue -- ripens into a satisfying morality tale in "Fracture." Rather understated compared with many of today's R-rated films, "Fracture" contains stylized gun violence, not graphic but with much blood. Only one scene implies lovemaking, and it, too, is stylized and not graphic. The dialogue contains a lot of midrange profanity and crude sexual language, milder sexual innuendo and toilet humor. Characters also drink.

The film's not-so-secret weapon is Anthony Hopkins as the villain, a wealthy aeronautics executive who shoots his unfaithful younger wife (Embeth Davidtz) and seems to confess, only to send the authorities on a fool's errand in which all the evidence against him melts away. Hopkins's character more than occasionally recalls his signature film psychopath, Hannibal Lecter, but is less clever and more human. The film's protagonist is assistant district attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), a star prosecutor with a record-breaking conviction rate. Willy soon learns there are factors in this case designed to tarnish his reputation, such as a missing weapon and a cop enmeshed in a love triangle. More a character actor than a leading man, Gosling is most interesting when Willy stops chewing gum and starts weighing his moral choices.

Disturbia(PG-13, 104 minutes)

"Disturbia," which topped the box office last week, is a coarser and more violent film with its PG-13 rating than "Fracture" is with its R. Themes about a misogynistic serial killer and suburban voyeurism are interwoven in the film with a classic teen romance. The melding of these genres is never comfortable and looks more exploitative and cynical as the film goes on. Certainly "Disturbia" is not suitable for middle school kids. It shows the dead female victims of a serial killer, wrapped in plastic and hidden behind a wall. And it hints at how the man goes about his murders, with the sounds of screaming and the sight of blood spattering. Apart from its darker elements, the movie is full of the understated sexual innuendo and implied longing of a teen love story. Though none of that is explicit, there are a couple of fairly steamy kissing scenes. There are also lascivious shots of girls in bikinis and of a young woman undressing, though with her back to the camera and no nudity. Even so, we're seeing her through the eyes of her voyeuristic teen neighbor -- and he's our hero. One gag has two little boys secretly watching a porn video showing topless women covered in whipped cream. The script also includes a marital infidelity theme, barnyard profanity and a drug reference in a song lyric.

Shia LaBeouf plays Kale, a smart but troubled high schooler who can't get beyond the death of his dad a year earlier in an awful road crash (shown in the prologue). Kale socks a teacher and gets three months of house arrest, complete with an electronic ankle bracelet. He starts using his cellphone, video cameras and such to spy on the neighbors. A cute new girl named Ashley (Sarah Roemer) has moved in next door. Soon she and Kale find a flirty kinship, and they, plus Kale's pal Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), are spying together. They begin to suspect another next-door neighbor (David Morse) of murder. There is much of Hitchcock's "Rear Window" (1954) in "Disturbia," just not the classy part.

ALSO PLAYING

6 and Older

"Meet the Robinsons" (G). Gorgeous computer-animated feature (shown in colorful, non-scary 3-D at some theaters) celebrates imagination, individuality and creating a family when you don't have one in a tale about bespectacled 12-year-old inventor Lewis; an orphan eager to find his mom, Lewis invents a "memory scanner"; Wilbur Robinson, a boy from the future, takes Lewis there -- a cheery art deco-style future, which at darker moments looks more like the dehumanized world of Fritz Lang's 1927 silent classic, "Metropolis." Lewis meets the riotously eccentric Robinson clan and feels loved. Baby abandoned on orphanage step; serious theme handled humorously shows how childhood loneliness, sadness and failure can stalk us through life; Bowler Hat Guy villain wears a hat that sprouts metal legs, chases folks; Lewis and Wilbur crash a time machine; rude taunts "puke-face" and "booger-breath"; dinosaur topiary comes to life, chases folks.

8 and Older

"Firehouse Dog" (PG). Heavy-handed comedy nearly defeats a strong cast with its corny script, over-sold jokes and clumsy special effects that spoil the wonderment; a movie star Irish terrier, Rexxx, falls from a plane during a film stunt, lands safely in a tomato truck (minus his wavy hairpiece) and endears himself to a firehouse crew in the nearby city with his agility and courage, becoming their mascot and winning over the fire captain's (Bruce Greenwood) sullen 12-year-old son (Josh Hutcherson); but an arsonist is on the loose, and Rexxx's trainer (Dash Mihok) misses him. Too many doggie digestive jokes: Rex has noisy flatulence, poops into a pot of stew; intense firefighting scenes with explosive smoke, flames, falling beams; boy, dog and a firefighter are trapped at various times, all rescued; subplots about grief, loss, anger over mother's abandonment of them, a firefighter uncle who died in a blaze.

"Are We Done Yet?" (PG). Less crass, more amusing sequel to Ice Cube's 2005 comedy "Are We There Yet?"; Cube plays sportswriter-entrepreneur Nick now married to Suzanne (Nia Long), the divorcee he pursued in the first film; with her and his new stepkids (Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden, both less arch and annoying than in the first film), he moves into a house that needs major repairs; John C. McGinley is Nick's amusing, over-the-top foil as the ever-present real estate agent and contractor. Mild sexual innuendo; chaste romance between 13-year-old girl and a slightly older boy; comic scenes with deer and raccoons acting crazy; bats swarm; owl swoops to grab a chipmunk; pigeon falls dead after being shot (off-camera) with a nail gun; huge fish pulls a child underwater (a quick rescue); toilet humor; "plumber's butt."

PG-13

"Blades of Glory." Riotous, rude farce about figure-skating rivals Chazz (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy (Jon Heder), banned forever from competition for public scuffling; three years later, a stalker/fan (Nick Swardson) and a veteran coach (Craig T. Nelson) note a loophole that would allow the two to compete as the first male duo. Constant R-ish verbal, visual sex jokes go beyond innuendo: crotch gags; references to Chazz's "sex addiction" (he attends a lascivious support group, claims he had an affair with a 35-year-old woman when he was 9); much gay (at times homophobic) humor; a towel worn dangerously low; drinking; talk of drug use; adoption spoof; incest joke; death threat; ice stunt video ending in bloody accidental decapitation; profanity; toilet humor. Not for middle schoolers.

Rs

"The TV Set." Smart, sardonically funny spoof of how TV pilots are made and artists' visions dumbed down; film is a cautionary tale that applauds idealism; David Duchovny stars as creator of a new autobiographical series based partly on memories of a family suicide; Sigourney Weaver as the network exec who junks the suicide theme and hires the worst possible actor (Fran Kranz) for the lead; Ioan Gruffudd as her BBC-bred assistant who tries to save the series' integrity but gets co-opted, too. Strong profanity; milder sexual innuendo, sexual language; drinking; abuse of painkillers; a marijuana moment; suicide theme. 16 and older.

"The Reaping." Silly film borrows much from occult/religious thrillers such as "The Exorcist," "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen"; despite nice atmospherics, it never makes chills of its own; Hilary Swank as an ex-minister, now professor, who lost her faith after a tragedy and now debunks miracles; she and her assistant (Idris Elba) go to a Louisiana town, asked by a local man (David Morrissey) to find scientific reasons their river has turned blood-red, cattle are dying, frogs are falling from the sky (Old Testament-style plagues) so townsfolk won't kill a 12-year-old girl (AnnaSophia Robb) they suspect of satanism. Gun suicide; dreamlike, semi-explicit sexual situation; subtext about menstruation, puberty; piles of dead cattle; swarming locusts, maggots; children endangered; fire and brimstone; profanity; drinking. 16 and older.