Family Filmgoer
Watching With Kids in Mind

By Jane Horwitz
Friday, June 27, 2008

WALL·E (G, 98 minutes)

WALL·E, a lonely garbage-compacting robot in Manhattan some 700 years in the future, collects trash, saves knickknacks, has a cockroach as a pal (it likes to sleep in a Twinkie) and watches an ancient video of "Hello, Dolly!" Then a spaceship lands and offloads a sleek robot named Eve. WALL·E is smitten, and so is she. The spaceship picks her up, and WALL·E hitches a ride as it shoots through rings of space junk and galaxies, docking at an enormous star cruiser where humans have lived since Earth became uninhabitable and where robots do all the work. WALL·E and Eve must lead an uprising of robots to save humankind.

This computer-animated feature from the geniuses at Pixar breaks brilliant new ground in its astounding cinematic look, its surprisingly deep sci-fi story and its humor. However, the mild existential dread inherent in its central idea (a desolate, trash-covered Earth abandoned by all but robots) and the way the narrative meanders in the middle could mean trouble for younger audiences. Although it is funny and exciting, with vivid characters, albeit robotic, some kids might fidget at times and be upset by some parts. Scary bits include roaring dust storms, explosive lasers and fiery spaceship landings. The movie is preceded by "Presto," a breathlessly funny animated short, also rated G, about a magician and his rabbit. The bunny, when deprived of a carrot, wreaks riotous revenge during a performance.

Also Playing
6 and Older

"Kung Fu Panda" (PG). In ancient China, a pudgy panda dreams of being a kung fu fighter in this funny, artfully animated tale. The movie doesn't rely on easy pop-culture jokes or double-entendres. It unfolds as a classic hero's journey, with wildly inventive humor and delicately spun messages about overcoming self-doubt and being "your own hero." Po the panda (voice of Jack Black) lives with his dad, a goose (James Hong), and works in their noodle shop, but he imagines himself a hero. At the local palace, kung fu master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), a red panda, holds a contest among his star pupils. The winner will fulfill a prophecy and defeat the evil snow leopard (Ian McShane). Flinging himself over the palace walls to see the contest, Po crash-lands into the middle of it. A wise old turtle (Randall Duk Kim) says Po is the one destined to fulfill the prophecy. Master Shifu, though doubtful, trains Po in a riotous sequence. Fine for kids 6 and older and many younger. The fights are intense but stylized. The yellow-eyed snow leopard might scare tots. Po yowls about getting hit in "the tenders."

PG-13s

"Get Smart." Eureka! Filmmakers have reimagined the 1960s sitcom of the same name and yet retained its charms: bad jokes, bad accents and a goofy blend of slapstick and spy shtick, executed in high deadpan. The movie will get laughs from teens who don't know the old show and parents and grandparents who do. Steve Carell plays Maxwell Smart as a brighter bulb than Don Adams did on TV. Carell's Max is a klutz and a bit of a bonehead but also a gifted analyst at CONTROL, the secret agency that exists only to foil KAOS, a cabal bent on world domination. The film uses Arab stereotypes in one scene and includes comic shootouts, fights, chases and other mostly mild mayhem, rare profanity, toilet humor, fat jokes and sexual innuendo. There are rats, too.

"The Love Guru." Mike Myers offers another dizzy caricature as an American-born, India-trained guru who longs to be a bigger star than author/wise man Deepak Chopra. But Myers insists on tarting up his idea (he co-wrote and co-produced) with endless penis jokes, sexual puns and gross toilet humor. Such gags get laughs, but they don't enrich the film so much as pad its flimsy plot. It is not for middle schoolers because of its raunchy sex jokes. It also depicts elephants mating and contains profanity, jokes about dwarfism, a bar brawl and beer drinking.

"The Incredible Hulk." Although not as cool as "Iron Man" (PG-13), "The Incredible Hulk" is an entertaining ride, with stunning (and deafening) but non-graphic mayhem. This new take on the Marvel Comics antihero has the frenetic energy of a good chase thriller, but its dialogue and quiet scenes don't crackle much. There is semi-crude language, a brief, nonexplicit sexual situation and cigar smoking.

Rs

"Wanted." The visual effects in this sci-fi thriller (based on the comic books by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones) are spectacular. James McAvoy plays anxiety-ridden office worker Wesley. The film needed an actor with McAvoy's skills because Wesley transforms from a wimp to a powerhouse. He is taken by the gun-wielding Fox (Angelina Jolie, in tattooed dominant mode) and brought into the Fraternity, a secret thousand-year-old club of assassins led by Sloan (Morgan Freeman). They train their bodies to reach superhuman speeds and to curve bullet trajectories. Their targets are chosen by the mystical Loom of Fate, which weaves clues in binary code. "Wanted" shows point-blank, blood-spattering shootings, bone-cracking beatings and target practice with animal and human corpses on meat hooks. Yet it is all just surreal enough to be watchable. There is an explicit sexual situation, rear-view nudity, strong profanity and swarming rats. Okay for age 16 and older.

"Finding Amanda." This dreary comedy suffers from an uneven script that veers between glibness and sermonizing, flavorless direction and a pale turn by star Matthew Broderick. He plays Taylor, a TV writer who has kicked drinking and drugs but can't stop betting on horses. In an effort to redeem himself in his wife's (Maura Tierney) eyes, he goes to Las Vegas to rescue their 20-year-old niece, Amanda (Brittany Snow), who is working as a prostitute and living with an awful guy (Peter Facinelli). In between his efforts to talk Amanda out of Vegas and into rehab, Taylor bets and loses big bucks and falls off the wagon. The movie contains a briefly explicit sexual situation, explicit sexual language, topless dancing, drug use, drinking, strong profanity and brief violence. It is too slow and clunky to appeal to high schoolers and isn't appropriate for those younger than 17.

"The Happening." In this cautionary thriller, an airborne toxin wafts through New York's Central Park, disorienting people and causing them to commit suicide as if in a trance. The phenomenon spreads. This fable is not writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's best work ("The Sixth Sense," PG-13, 1999), but the movie's understated creepiness casts a real spell. Although a mostly understated R, "The Happening" does depict two graphic gun murders and a video of a lion tearing off a man's arms. There are strongly implied but non-graphic hangings and gun suicides, people jumping off buildings, mild profanity and sexual innuendo. Okay for most high schoolers.