A guide to movies from a family perspective:"The Dark Knight"-- Rated: PG-13.-- Suitable for: Children roughly 9 or 10 years old and up.-- What you should know: This is the second Batman movie with Christian Bale. It features Heath Ledger, who died in January of an accidental overdose, as the Joker and is a dark movie that could be too long (2-1/2 hours), intense and scary for younger, sensitive moviegoers.-- Language: A harsher version of "darn" and a couple of cruder words referring to the backside.-- Sexual situations and nudity: A few kisses are exchanged.-- Violence/scary situations: This is where the movie earns its rating, with people shot, injured or killed in fiery explosions, poisoned, beaten and, in one case, disfigured. A woman and her two children are kidnapped and a gun is held to her head and to her son's. Although the Joker's makeup and stories about how his face was scarred are unsettling, it's Harvey Two-Face who may be the most disturbing. Part of his cheek and lips have been burned or gouged away, one of his eyes pops and his skin bears the marks of fire damage.-- Drug or alcohol use: Adults briefly are shown with champagne and other alcoholic beverages."Hellboy II: The Golden Army"-- Rated: PG-13.-- Suitable for: 13 years old and up.-- What you should know: This is the second movie based on the Dark Horse comic book character Hellboy (Ron Perlman), an affectionate demon who smokes cigars and shoots monsters who threaten humanity. In this installment by Guillermo del Toro, he fights a mechanical army designed to destroy the human race.-- Language: Crude with some mild expletives.-- Sexual situations and nudity: All implied.-- Violence/scary situations: That's for sure -- for example, humans are consumed by creatures called Tooth Fairies that leave nothing but blood and calcium behind. Also, epic battle scenes with swordplay, beheadings and explosions. Creatures are very intense -- the monsters that nightmares are made of.-- Drug or alcohol use: Hellboy likes his beer."Journey to the Center of the Earth"-- Rated: PG.-- Suitable for: 8 and up.-- What you should know: The latest film version of the popular 19th-century Jules Verne science-fiction novel, about a trio looking for a lost explorer and finding a lost world in the middle of the Earth.-- Language: Nothing objectionable.-- Sexual situations and nudity: One kiss, but nothing more than that.-- Violence/scary situations: Many harrowing plunges and narrow escapes from various prehistoric reptiles and flying fish with big teeth. The 3-D effects are more ornamental than frightening.-- Drugs or alcohol use: None."Hancock"-- Rated: PG-13.-- Suitable for: 9-year-olds and up.-- What you should know: Will Smith plays an unhappy superhero -- surly, often drunk and sad -- who gets an image makeover after he meets a public-relations specialist played by Jason Bateman.-- Language: Adults and children typically call him an offensive seven-letter word that starts with "a." One f-word and other less harsh expletives are used throughout, and people give the finger. The word "homo" is also used to describe traditional comic-book characters.-- Sexual situations and nudity: A quick partial shot of Hancock's behind after his clothes are burned.-- Violence/scary situations: Lots of both, including car chases, an exchange of gunfire, a hostage-taking, a super-size fight, the slicing off of a hand and the near-deaths of key characters.-- Drug or alcohol use: At the beginning, Hancock is drinking or drunk, lugging around a whiskey bottle with him."Get Smart"-- Rated: PG-13.-- Suitable for: 8 and older.-- What you should know: The 1960s TV series, a spy spoof starring Don Adams, has been turned into a big-screen movie with "The Office" star Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway as Agent 99.-- Language: About a dozen uses of generally mild four-letter words.-- Sexual situations and nudity: Hathaway is seen, briefly, in lingerie, a reference is made to an affair and a couple of kisses are exchanged.-- Violence/scary situations: A steady stream of both, some played for laughs. There are explosions, fires, airplane mishaps, weapons planted in public places, exchanges of gunfire, a car-train collision and other scary stunts.-- Drug or alcohol use: Champagne is served at a party.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)
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