The Family Filmgoer
Watching With Kids in Mind

By Jane Horwitz
Friday, June 29, 2007

Ratatouille(G, 110 minutes)

This gorgeous computer-animated film by "The Incredibles" writer-director Brad Bird spins a terrific yarn about a French rat named Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt) who follows his bliss and becomes a gourmet chef. One hopes film and food lovers everywhere will discover "Ratatouille," though it is probably too long and involved a story on too rarefied a subject for kids younger than 10. It is a classy, fun film, from its ravishing three-dimensional renderings of Paris to its jazzy score and vivid characters. Even so, it will not appeal to the rodent-phobic, though its rats have cute pink bulbous noses. (The humans all look vaguely like Charles de Gaulle or French film actors of yore.) When Remy nearly gets trampled on the street or in the kitchen, or when people with guns and meat cleavers chase him and his fellows, it can be intense. A store selling rat poison has dead rats in its window. And, of course, characters drink wine.

A young country rat, Remy has a supersensitive nose and a genius for combining foods to enhance their flavors. Unlike his garbage-guzzling family, he likes subtle tastes. He also reads and walks on two legs and tries to convince them that humans aren't all bad. Remy gets separated from his family when they barely escape a lady with a shotgun. He lands solo in the sewers of Paris with his cookbook written by a top chef. Remy finds the author's old restaurant. He bonds with gawky dishwasher Linguini (Lou Romano) and turns him into a master chef by hiding under his toque and pulling on his hair like a puppeteer to guide his hands.

"Ratatouille" is preceded by "Lifted," a funny animated short about aliens in a UFO trying to abduct a sleeping man from his bed, except they're having trouble operating the spaceship. We get a view of the man's partially bare behind as they try to pull him out of a window.

ALSO PLAYING

6 and Older

"Surf's Up" (PG). Funny, carefree computer-animated penguin saga should delight all age levels; cleverly set up as a reality TV show about a surfing-obsessed Rockhopper penguin, Cody Maverick (voice of Shia LaBeouf), who leaves his Antarctic isle to compete in a tropical surf-off; he befriends a spacey surfing rooster (Jon Heder), a lovely penguin lifeguard (Zooey Deschanel) and her shy, hippie-ish uncle (Jeff Bridges) who teaches him the Zen of surfing; Tank (Diedrich Bader), a bullying surfer champ, harasses Cody. Toilet humor; occasional crude language ("crap," "pecker face"); subtle comic reference to masturbation will be caught by adults, older teens; Cody and others are nearly drowned in briefly scary wipeouts; sub-theme about losing a parent -- "photo" of Cody's dad as a whale is about to swallow him.

8 and Older

"Evan Almighty" (PG). Milder sequel to "Bruce Almighty" is corny and preachy in updating the Noah story, but its droll use of adults acting silly and wild animals acting tame will tickle kids. Steve Carell plays new congressman Evan Baxter, who moves his family to a McMansion near Washington; a big-shot congressman (John Goodman) pressures him to back a dubious land bill; he starts to get odd deliveries of tools and wood; then God (Morgan Freeman) appears and tells Evan to build an ark and warn people of the coming flood; film's mix of "green" and biblical themes will put off some on political or theological grounds. Bird-doo gags; rare, mildly off-color references; kid describes a duck's penis; drug reference; implied nudity; scene of houses swept away flood recalls Hurricane Katrina; mild, partly muffled profanity.

"Nancy Drew" (PG). Emma Roberts (Julia's niece) as prim, perky (to the point of parody) teen sleuth Nancy Drew, sporting chic retro duds; she seems younger, more goody-goody than in the books and too middle schoolish to drive; in Los Angeles while her lawyer dad (Tate Donovan) argues a case, she pursues a mystery about the dead actress (Laura Harring) who owned the mansion they rent; girls at Hollywood High diss Nancy, but a pudgy 12-year-old (Josh Flitter) worships her; her sort-of boyfriend, Ned (Max Thieriot), gets jealous. Rare semi-crude words; mystery involves mild talk of unwed motherhood, suicide, murder; kids younger than 8 may flinch when Nancy explores a hidden passage or when she's abducted.

"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" (PG). Harmless but dull sequel to "Fantastic Four." It is filled with lame repartee and fake-looking effects. Fantastic Four boss, scientist Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Mr. Fantastic; Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), the Invisible Woman; Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), a.k.a. the Thing; and Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), the Human Torch, face down the Silver Surfer (voice of Laurence Fishburne), advance man for planet-killer Galactus. Rare crass language; mild sexual innuendo; beer; implied nudity; bloodless violence; kids younger than 8 may quail at cloud-like Galactus engulfing Earth.

PG-13s

"Live Free or Die Hard." Bruce Willis returns after a 12-year break as tough New York cop John McClane, drolly paired with a young computer hacker (Justin Long) to save America from a cyber villain (Timothy Olyphant) who plans to destroy all computer networks, creating nationwide chaos; smart-aleck dialogue and spectacular stunts help dilute film's simplistic jingoism. PG-13 rating (previous "Die Hard" films were Rs) reflects coarsening of the rating more than softening of "Die Hard" brand. Deafening gunplay approaches R range despite muted gore; head-banging fights; explosions; property-destroying, citizen-endangering car, truck, helicopter and fighter jet stunts; profanity goes beyond PG-13 level (McClane calls people "jerk-off"); racially insensitive remarks; McClane's grown daughter (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) rebuffs a date who tries to grope her. Okay for most teens.

"Sicko." Michael Moore's highly galvanizing, often moving, sometimes funny, proudly one-sided polemic about the state of American health care entertains as it crystallizes the issues; as usual, Moore is not super careful with his facts and figures, singing the praises and ignoring the negatives of government-run health care in Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Cuba (where he takes 9/11 first-responders with lung problems for treatment); yet on the bigger question of why America doesn't provide free health care for its citizens and allows a broken for-profit system to continue, he hits a philosophical bull's-eye that demands debate. Someone's bare derriere gets an injection; rare profanity; sad stories of unnecessary deaths due to rejected claims.

"Evening." Star-studded but tiresome soaper is based on, but also changes, Susan Minot's novel; film loops between the 1950s and the present in a saga of romance, tragedy and disappointment. Claire Danes as Ann, a 1950s bridesmaid at her aristocratic pal Lila's (Mamie Gummer) wedding; Ann has a fling with Lila's family friend (Patrick Wilson), whom Lila secretly loves, and disappoints Lila's hard-drinking brother (Hugh Dancy); in the present, Vanessa Redgrave as the dying Ann mumbles about a lost love; Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson (Redgrave's daughter) as her daughters; Meryl Streep visits as the old Lila (Streep is Gummer's mom). Muted start of a sexual situation; heavy drinking; smoking; profanity; out-of-wedlock pregnancy; sexual orientation subtext; back-view nudity; hit-and-run accident. Mature teens.

"1408." John Cusack carries this nifty, low-tech spook-fest (based on a Stephen King tale) as a writer who debunks ghost stories; a tip about Room 1408 in a Manhattan hotel draws him in; the grim manager (Samuel L. Jackson) warns him, to no avail; he checks in and weird happenings start, the horror eventually focusing on his grief over a dead child; nightmare images include flashbacks to her illness, her body crumbling to ash, suicide spirits jumping out windows; murderous figures lunging at him; nongraphic but bloody photos of past victims of 1408; scenes of room breaking up, bursting into flame; strongish profanity; drinking; rare smoking; strong suicide theme. May upset some middle schoolers; not really for preteens.

R

"A Mighty Heart." Involving story of the ordeal of Mariane Pearl, widow of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and murdered by Islamist jihadists in 2002; based on her memoir and shot in Pakistan, India and France, the film recounts how the pregnant Mariane (Angelina Jolie), a journalist herself, worked with colleagues and U.S. Embassy people to aide the search for Daniel. Intense scene of implied torture during Pakistani interrogation -- a man hanging by his arms, torture not graphically shown; gunplay; police breaking into homes; characters react to video of Pearl's beheading, but it is not shown; drinking; smoking. Mature high schoolers.