Family Filmgoer

Watching With Kids in Mind

The Dark Knight (PG-13, 152 minutes)

In "The Dark Knight," Batman (Christian Bale), a.k.a. Gotham City billionaire Bruce Wayne, is haunted by his role as vigilante and decides to test the mettle of the new idealistic district attorney, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), thinking he might be able to retire his bat suit. Enter Batman's nemesis, the Joker (Heath Ledger), who starts robbing banks and is in league with the mob. Bruce Wayne's former love, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), is now Dent's girlfriend.

Ledger walks away with the movie. His Joker is insane, evil, scary, funny and even pathetic in his psychopathic lack of feeling. He could give younger kids nightmares. This is not a movie for teens younger than high school age, let alone grade schoolers. Directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan, "The Dark Knight" oozes post-9/11 paranoia. The Joker describes himself as an agent of chaos, and his random acts of violence are pure terror. It's bizarre that the movie is rated PG-13. Although "Batman" films have always been grimmer than other comic book adaptations, this one avoids an R rating only by limiting the flow of blood during the graphic violence. The movie depicts hostage situations with children in danger, point-blank shootouts and assassinations. A character loses half his face in an explosion and becomes the gruesome Two-Face. There is rare crude language.

Mamma Mia! (PG-13, 103 minutes)

A buoyant starburst of energy, romance and eye candy, "Mamma Mia!" should lift teen and adult audiences (especially of the female persuasion) into a zone of dizzy good humor, even if younger people giggle when middle-aged characters burst into song. Based on the successful stage show built around hits of the pop group Abba, "Mamma Mia!" is, to quote another lyric of yore, simply irresistible.

Set on a gorgeous Greek Island, circa 1999, the movie tells the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a young woman about to be married, who invites to her wedding the three men she knows her mother had affairs with about the time she was conceived. Sophie's mother, Donna (Meryl Streep, in a bubbly, revelatory star turn), who owns a struggling hotel on the island, has no idea how her daughter yearns to know who her father is. Nor do Donna's ex-lovers, Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), Sam (Pierce Brosnan) and Harry (Colin Firth), know why they've been invited. The rest of the story is a blur of song, dance and discoveries amid great scenery. The movie is a very mild PG-13 but does include drinking, discussion of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and youthful promiscuity, mild sexual innuendo, rare semi-crude language and one briefly bare behind.

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6 and Older

"WALL·E" (G). This computer-animated robot romance from the geniuses at Pixar breaks enchanting new ground, artistically, comically and technically. WALL·E is a trash-compacting robot in Manhattan some 700 years hence. He's squat and grungy, with binocular "eyes," collects knickknacks, has a cockroach for a pal and watches an ancient tape of "Hello Dolly!" (G, 1969). One day he finds a living plant. A spaceship lands and offloads a sleek white robot, EVE. WALL·E is smitten, but when he shows EVE his plant, she grabs it and the spaceship scoops her back up. WALL·E hitches a ride. They fly to a starship where humans now live. Although the movie is funny and exciting, the mild existential dread inherent in its central idea -- a trash-covered Earth abandoned by all but robots -- and the way the narrative slows in the middle could mean occasional fidgets or upset for tots. Slightly scary bits include roaring dust storms and fiery spaceship landings.

8 and Older

"Meet Dave" (PG). This science-fiction comedy geared to grade-schoolers is half-baked conceptually but is an amiable enough diversion. Eddie Murphy turns his physical comedy skills to playing a space alien. As part of a race of brainy humanlike creatures who are minute compared with the "primitive" people of Earth, he captains a spaceship designed to look like an Earthling, created in his own image. His mission is to use the humanoid ship to scope out Earth for energy sources and destruction. Eventually, the goodness of people changes the captain's mind about Earth. The movie includes much toilet humor, mild sexual innuendo, mild gay jokes and some drinking.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" (PG). When a prehistoric bug pops out at you in this digital 3-D film, you know it'll be fun, so try to see it in theaters offering that format. Yes, the movie is wildly simplistic and a little cheesy, but it's not a bad amusement park ride in 3-D. Brendan Fraser plays geology professor Trevor Anderson, who studies movements of the Earth's crust. He and his 13-year-old nephew (Josh Hutcherson) become trapped in a cave with a skeptical guide (Anita Briem), then fall into a realm near the Earth's core. Kids younger than 8 might be scared when the characters swoosh through a mine shaft, free-fall down a tunnel and are pursued by a dinosaur, giant piranhas and man-eating plants.

"Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" (G). Kit Kittredge might be kind, perky and enterprising -- a model 1930s tween -- but star Abigail Breslin never lets her become cloying. The movie is overearnest now and then but more often atmospheric and fun. Kit befriends a teenage hobo (Max Thieriot) and the little orphan (Willow Smith) he travels with. Kit follows them around, writes a news story debunking anti-hobo prejudice and tries to get a cranky newspaper editor (Wallace Shawn) to print it. Meanwhile, her dad (Chris O'Donnell) loses his business and leaves to find work while her mom takes in boarders. When money disappears, Kit risks her safety to catch the thief. The script touches gently on the idea of people losing their homes and jobs in tough times. There are chases and threats from bad adults, but no one gets hurt.

PG-13

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army." The goblins, elves, ogres and monsters that populate this extraordinary-looking film often upstage Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his team at the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. A blend of computer effects and gorgeous animatronic puppetry, the visuals are ravishing but overlay a rather dreary narrative and heavy-footed action. Yet teens might like the film's look and Hellboy's tough-with-a-heart-of-gold persona. The mayhem and monsters make the movie too intense for preteens. There are impalings, an implied beheading and an infant in peril, as well as toilet humor, beer, cigars, mild profanity and sexual innuendo.

"Hancock." Will Smith plays a drunk, slovenly, rude, amnesiac superhero in this film, which has a great premise but dismal follow-through. John Hancock (Smith) catches bad guys and saves folks all over Los Angeles, but his flying is sloppy, his flat-footed landings tear up the streets and he wrecks stuff. Then he rescues Ray (Jason Bateman), a PR man who decides to rehabilitate Hancock. But Hancock senses an intense past connection with Ray's wife (Charlize Theron). This angle grows ever more implausible and derails the film. The movie is an iffy choice for middle-schoolers, as it is highly profane. It also contains gross-out humor, sexist and homophobic jokes, mild sexual innuendo, a robbery with terrified hostages wired with explosives, gun battles and perhaps fatal wounds.