The Family Filmgoer

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything -- A VeggieTales Movie (G, 84 minutes)

Kids 6 and older and their parents will find the same reassuring mix of silliness and parable in this computer-animated fantasy as they find in the popular faith-based VeggieTales videos. Talking cucumbers, tomatoes, asparagus, leeks, peas, grapes and gourds go hopping about, armless and legless, having funny, moralistic adventures. This feature exhibits neither great animation nor supremely witty writing, but it entertains gently. Unlike the first VeggieTales feature ("Jonah -- A VeggieTales Movie," G, 2002), which had a Christian tone, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" feels more nonsectarian.

The story opens with 17th-century pirates led by the evil gourd Robert the Terrible (voice of Cam Clarke), the king's wayward brother. On the high seas, he kidnaps Prince Alexander (Yuri Lowenthal). Princess Eloise (Laura Gerow) sends out a magical "Helpseeker" device to find heroes to rescue her brother. Meanwhile, in the here-and-now, we meet three busboys dressed as pirates because they work at a dinner theater where the show is a pirate musical. Veggie star Mr. Lunt the gourd plays Sedgewick (screenwriter Phil Vischer). Larry the Cucumber plays Elliot (director Mike Nawrocki), and Pa Grape plays George (Vischer again). The Helpseeker transports the three timid veggies to the 17th century to rescue Alexander.

The film's clearest message is about friendship and courage. There are mildly scary scenes of pirate ships firing cannons, "Rock Monsters" lumbering about, a sea serpent that turns out to be mechanical, an ocean storm, nasty cheese curls with teeth and toilet humor.

ALSO PLAYING

6 and Older

"Alvin and the Chipmunks" (PG). A genial, occasionally very funny update of the nearly 50-year-old franchise, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" mixes live-action and computer animation to tell a farcical tale that aims most of its wit at little kids and not grown-ups, for a change. The PG covers chipmunk poop and "smelly behind" gags, mild human sexual innuendo and the chipmunks' briefly wired on coffee. Okay for under-6s.

10 and Older

"The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" (PG). A welcome throwback to an older kind of storytelling and ideal for kids 10 and older, this movie gracefully blends adventure, understated special effects, atmosphere and character. Based in part on the book by Dick King-Smith, it makes clever use of the Loch Ness Monster legend in the tale of a lonely boy, Angus (wonderful Alex Etel), living near the loch during World War II. He finds an egg that hatches into a bumptious mix of dragon and dolphin -- a mythical Celtic sea horse -- and grows huge. Angus is struggling with the idea that his dad may not come home from the war, but in the creature he finds a living being to bond with. The film deals with death in war and loss of a parent and includes scary thunderstorms, a dead deer, subtle sexual innuendo and mild profanity.

"National Treasure: Book of Secrets" (PG). This sequel is an overlong scavenger hunt that waters down history, but good actors in neat locations lend credibility to the silliness. Kids 10 and older should be entertained. Armed with factoids and ciphers, the heroes nose around Buckingham Palace, the Library of Congress, Mount Rushmore and the Oval Office. Treasure hunter Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) and his dad (Jon Voight) receive evidence that an ancestor was involved in the assassination of Lincoln. Ben and his cohorts aim to disprove it. The film reenacts the assassination understatedly and includes another gun death, floods, sexual innuendo and toilet humor.

PG-13s

"The Bucket List." Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman lend their wit and star power to this sentimental, slapdash bit of moviemaking, somehow nudging its flaws into the background. Billionaire curmudgeon/playboy Edward (Nicholson) and auto mechanic/family man Carter (Freeman) share a hospital room and realize they've each been given a death sentence. Carter shows Edward a list he made in college of things he wanted to do before he kicked the bucket, and the two impulsively go off to do them -- skydiving, drag racing, the Taj Mahal -- until fate catches up with them. The movie contains midrange profanity (most of it scatological), rude gestures, frisky but non-explicit sexual innuendo, drinking, smoking, toilet humor, illness and themes of divorce and infidelity.

"One Missed Call." A grad student, Beth (Shannyn Sossamon), is horrified when her friends start dying in freak accidents after receiving cellphone calls in which they hear their own voices at the moment of their deaths. Beth and a cop (Edward Burns) try to unravel the mystery. This remake of a 2003 Japanese film gives off a convincing sense of dread and inescapable fate but lacks all internal logic and becomes a train wreck of foreboding and death. It shows a severely burned corpse that comes back to life and characters hit by vehicles, impaled on steel, stabbed in the eye. There is also mild profanity, smoking, drinking and non-graphic sexual content.

"The Great Debaters." A dedicat ed debate team from a tiny, historically black college in 1930s Texas eventually takes on Harvard in this inspiring tale -- fictionalized, but based on real events and people. Denzel Washington (who directed) plays Mel Tolson, debate coach, poet and activist. Forest Whitaker plays James Farmer Sr., a famous preacher whose son (Denzel Whitaker, no relation to Forest ) is on the team. Tolson and his debaters see the charred body of a lynching victim hanging from a tree, as a crowd of white people watch. This fine dramatization of history may be too much for some middle schoolers.