Family Filmgoer: 'Amelia,' 'Astro Boy' 'Wild Things'

Amelia (PG, 111 minutes). Unlike its fascinating subject, the legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart, "Amelia" never quite gets off the ground. Even so, preteens on up with a taste for history and heroes may be transported by the movie's rich 1920s and '30s look and its flying scenes. Hilary Swank's portrayal comes off as highly accurate -- she gets the voice, the stance, everything from the old newsreels -- yet academic and a little bloodless. Director Mira Nair ("The Namesake," PG-13, 2006; "Vanity Fair," PG-13, 2004) has taken a rather staid approach here.

Were she and her navigator, Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), up to the task during that final, tragic round-the-world flight, when they disappeared while trying to locate a tiny island in the South Pacific to land and refuel?

This question and personal issues about Earhart's up-and-down marriage to publicist George Putnam (Richard Gere), her affair with aristocratic West Point flying instructor Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) are posed in the film, but dryly.

There are some briefly scary aviation sequences, including a non-fatal crash. The final flight is woven piecemeal throughout the film. There is rare mild profanity, and characters smoke and drink. There are gently implied premarital and extramarital trysts, and a club singer moves suggestively.

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8 and Older

"Astro Boy" (PG). "Astro Boy" starts slowly but is great fun once it gets going. However, the level of mayhem and the theme of parental rejection in this computer-animated sci-fi fable make it more appropriate for kids 8 and older. Young Toby (voice of Freddie Highmore) lives among the lucky humans who have fled a trash-filled Earth (shades of "WALL·E," G, 2008) to futuristic Metro City, floating above the planet. Toby's father, Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage), is a scientist who works for evil Gen. Stone (Donald Sutherland). When a robot goes out of control and kills Toby early on, a heartbroken Tenma creates a robotic Toby but then rejects the artificial "boy." Gen. Stone, seeing the robotic Toby is outfitted with advanced weaponry, sends his military to destroy him. Toby crashes onto Earth, where he's befriended by orphans and a lone adult, Ham Egg (Nathan Lane). Gen. Stone sends forces after Toby -- now Astro Boy -- and his new friends. The fighting includes gunfire and much mechanical destruction.

10 and Older

"Where the Wild Things Are" (PG). Some parents may decide that this moody, unusual adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beloved 1963 picture book is too emotional and intense to be a family film. But they'll be surprised at how easily kids 10 and older (and many who are younger) will get director Spike Jonze's unique take. Young Max (terrific Max Records) and his tantrums and unhappiness seem urgently authentic. After a fight with his mom (Catherine Keener), Max runs away. Realism becomes fantasy as he sails through a storm and lands on an island where he meets the huge, furry Wild Things. This film is not for kids who have short attention spans, who find strong, realistically portrayed emotions hard to deal with, or who could be scared into nightmares by the idea of stuffed animals becoming enormous monsters in an alternate world. The Wild Things fight and hurt one another at times and say mean things.

PG-13

"Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant." A small-town teen becomes a "half-vampire" and goes to live with members of a traveling freak show in this humorous, offbeat fable, which takes the idea of feeling like a "freak" during tricky teenage years and runs with it in a smart, inventive way. Honor student Darren Shan and his rebellious friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) go to see the "Cirque du Freak" show. Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) and his trained spider fascinate them both. A student of vampires, Steve recognizes Crepsley as one. Through a series of tortured plot twists, the boys become involved in the vampires' world and Crepsley demands that Darren "die" and become his assistant. The film includes vampire-vs.-vampire mayhem that is more supernatural than graphic, but there is moderate bloodletting, a snapped neck, a couple of stabbings, not to mention the stylishly gross Cirque du Freak woman (Jane Krakowski) who can tear off her limbs and grow them back. Okay for most teens with strong stomachs.

"The Stepfather." A psycopath poses as a sensitive widower, courts single women with kids, then murders them in this predictable but effectively creepy remake of the R-rated 1987 film. Dylan Walsh plays the insidious David, and Sela Ward his latest prey, a divorcee with three kids. The movie shows David throwing an old woman downstairs and asphyxiating her. He drowns one victim and bludgeons another. There are make-out scenes that hint at an intimate teen sexual relationship. Characters drink beer and wine, and a teen drinks liquor at an adult's urging. There is occasional profanity. Not for middle-schoolers.

R

"Paranormal Activity." A young couple, Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat), try to get rid of a ghost -- or demon -- that has begun to disturb their slumbers in this entertaining, if derivative, low-budget hit. There is no on-screen violence, only disturbing noises and an invisible force that moves doors and leaves other evidence of its presence. Micah decides to record their sleep on video to capture the supernatural visits, and what they see when they play it back each day becomes more and more eerie. Micah insists on trying to contact the spirit with a Ouija board. Bad move. The R rating reflects profanity and understated innuendo about the unwed couple's sex life. Characters drink wine. Okay for high-schoolers and even some middle-schoolers.

Horwitz is a freelance reviewer.