Family Film: New movies, including '500 Days of Summer'

ShareThis

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"500 Days of Summer"

-- Rated: PG-13

-- Suitable for: Mature high-school students and older

-- What you should know: "500 Days of Summer" follows Tom, a hopeless romantic, and Summer, a free-spirited commitment-phobe, as they fall in and out of love during the year-and-a-half duration of their relationship.

-- Language: Tom and his lowbrow friends curse a couple times, using the f-word or a reference to female genitalia. They also use several pejorative terms to describe the women in their lives, though it is clear that those words are only an angry reaction to the pain of unrequited love. There are a couple of tasteless jokes about homosexuality.

-- Sexual situations and nudity: A few depictions of the moments leading up to sex. In one short, humorous scene, Tom and Summer watch a porn video together and attempt to copy the actors, though they never show anyone actually engaging in sex. Almost every character cracks a joke or two involving sexual innuendo.

-- Violence/scary situations: Tom engages in a quick bar fight that consists of a couple of punches to the face.

-- Drug or alcohol use: Many parts of the movie involve situations where characters drink wine, beer or hard liquor, especially as a post-breakup coping mechanism. There are two scenes where a character gets completely wasted in a karaoke bar.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"

-- Rated: PG

-- Suitable for: 10 and up, or younger children familiar with the book.

-- What you should know: The franchise's sixth movie, based on the sixth book, finds 16-year-old Harry, Ron and Hermione dealing with the evil Lord Voledemort's legion of Death Eaters, who are becoming brazen in attacks on wizards and Muggles alike. At Hogwarts school, headmaster Dumbledore has a mission for Harry, while the teen wizard and his friends are in the throes of coming-of-age turmoil. Jim Broadbent joins the all-star cast as Professor Horace Slughorn.

-- Language: None.

-- Sexual situations and nudity: Love and lust are in the air for the teens at Hogwarts. There's suggestive talk and one particularly crass boy, but mostly, passion is expressed with silliness (a smothering, lovestruck girl; a potion that renders Ron goofy). There's also the occasional "snogging" (heavy smooching), and one sweet kiss between Harry and the new girl in his life.

-- Violence/scary situations: The opening scene shows Death Eaters on the loose, destroying a pedestrian bridge in London. Harry and his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, have a wands-out, bloody encounter; a female student is attacked via a curse; and nasty creatures give the audience and Harry a jolt as he and Dumbledore face a fight for their lives. Voldemort appears in flashbacks as his younger self, the creepy Tom Riddle. A home is destroyed, and a beloved character dies.

-- Drug or alcohol use: There is the social and medicinal drinking of beer (not to be confused with butterbeer) and wine.

"I Love You, Beth Cooper"

-- Rated: PG-13.

-- Best for: Mature high-school students (ideally, juniors or seniors) and older moviegoers.

-- What you should know: This is based on a popular novel about a dorky valedictorian who declares his love for a popular cheerleader during his graduation speech.

-- Language: One f-word, a couple of uses of profanity and at least a half-dozen mild expletives.

-- Sexual situations and nudity: A married couple neck in a car and are caught partially clothed. Teen-age girls are shown from behind, naked from the waist up. A boy and two girls share a bed after an (unseen) experimental threesome. A girl blows up a condom, like a balloon, and another trades an extended kiss, also not shown, for beer.

-- Violence/scary situations: Lots of punches, falls, fights, attempts to choke or stomp someone, and reckless driving.

-- Alcohol and drug use: A man in the midst of a violent outburst is asked, "Have you been doing coke?," and teens buy beer and drink it and other alcoholic beverages.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

Must credit Pittsburgh Post-Gazette