ShareThisA guide to movies from a family perspective:"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"-- Rated: PG.-- Suitable for: 9- or 10-year-olds and up.-- What you should know: This is the sequel to the popular "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." It is darker and more intense, and many critics have complained that it's closer to a PG-13 than PG.-- Language: Nothing notable.-- Sexual situations and nudity: A kiss.-- Violence/scary situations: The rating is for epic battle action and violence, and while you don't see much blood, you know injuries or deaths occur. School children tussle, a character escapes an assassination attempt ordered by a family member and another is rescued after being bound and tossed into the water. The most intense scenes involve a castle raid -- some outsiders are trapped and left behind -- and a violent, protracted, big-scale battle.-- Drug or alcohol use: Negligible."Speed Racer"-- Rated: PG.-- Suitable for: Ages 7 and up.-- What you should know: Based on the Japanese-animated 1960s cartoon, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) tears up the track in his Mach 5 race car, rendered by glittering, colorful computer-generated effects.-- Language: More "jeepers" and "cool beans," but a few mild expletives creep in along with a boy giving the bad guy the middle finger.-- Sexual situations and nudity: Not much. Speed and girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) don't even get a full kiss until the end of the film, and Speed's little brother warns the audience for the sake of "more cootie-sensitive viewers."-- Violence/scary situations: Cars hang from and eventually topple over cliffs; cars crash and explode, although the occupants survive thanks to Kwiksave Foam, which encases them in a rubber ball as they're ejected from the vehicle; a bad guy beats a racer and threatens him with flesh-eating piranhas; ninjas attack the heroes.-- Drug or alcohol use: Negligible."What Happens in Vegas"-- Rated: PG-13.-- Suitable for: Teens and older.-- What you should know: Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher play New York strangers who go to Vegas to nurse their wounds and end up drunk and married. Plans for a quickie divorce go awry when he wins $3 million.-- Language: Characters almost use the f-word a couple of times, and other milder expletives are employed.-- Sexual situations and nudity: A quick montage of a couple ends with a woman in bed the next morning. Adults are shown in their underwear, some of it skimpy.-- Violence/scary situations: Punches are thrown and fruit tossed, and hotel guests overreact when they find themselves sharing a room with strangers.-- Drug or alcohol use: You name it -- champagne, beer, shots -- and it's consumed, often to excess."Iron Man"-- Rated: PG-13.-- Suitable for: 9- or 10-year-olds, due to scary material.-- What you should know: This movie skews slightly older than the first "Spider-Man," particularly because it's about a man rather than a teen-ager. Robert Downey Jr. plays the comic-book character Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor who constructs his alter ego, Iron Man.-- Language: A handful of expletives, including at least one use of God's name.-- Sexual situations and nudity: Stark is a ladies' man who invites a woman back to his home. We watch them kiss and see the woman in his bed the next morning and then wandering around in a man's shirt.-- Violence/scary situations: This is where the movie earns its rating. Stark is kidnapped amid a fiery display and held captive and tortured (dunked in water, forced to undergo surgery) overseas. A minor character is shot to death, another person appears to die and there are explosions, fires, falls, chases and deadly exchanges of weapons. Tony and many others are put in potentially fatal danger.-- Drug or alcohol use: A fair amount of everything, from champagne to martinis and sake, is ordered or consumed."Made of Honor"-- Rated: PG-13.-- Suitable for: Mature high-school students and older.-- What you should know: Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan play decade-long best friends. When she goes to Scotland and returns with a fiance in tow, he agrees to be her "maid of honor," even as he realizes he's in love with her.-- Language: One f-word, at least one use of "Christ" and a half-dozen milder curses.-- Sexual situations and nudity: Lots. References to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, a college-age lothario, unmarried couples in bed, premarital negotiations about frequency of sex, a man's presumed bedroom prowess and racy sex toys.-- Violence/scary situations: A waiter and a customer collide and there are some punches and pratfalls.-- Drug or alcohol use: Plenty of alcohol served, consumed or, in one case, regurgitated.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)
New films from a family perspective
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