New family films, including 'Not Easily Broken' and 'Bride Wars'

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"Not Easily Broken"

-- Rated: PG-13.
-- Suitable for: Mature tweens and up.
-- What you should know: Morris Chestnut and Taraji P. Henson star in an adaptation of the book of the same name by pastor-author Bishop T.D. Jakes. They play a married couple whose relationship is tested by an accident, disappointments and temptations.
-- Language: One use of "Jesus" and a stream of mild four-letter words.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: Couples kiss, the passage of time spent in the bedroom is discreetly conveyed and a man has a steamy dream about someone who is not his wife.
-- Violence/scary situations: A violent car crash is dramatized, an accident claims a child's life and a basketball game nearly ends in fisticuffs.
-- Drug or alcohol use: Adults drink beer or wine, and a reference is made to someone "slinging crack" in the past.

"Bride Wars"

-- Rated: PG.
-- Suitable for: Tweens and older.
-- What you should know: Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson play childhood friends turned enemies when their weddings are mistakenly booked for the same day at their dream location of the Plaza Hotel.
-- Language: An abbreviated version of an objectionable 12-letter word and one mild profanity.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: A bachelorette party is staged in a bar where suggestive dancing takes place.
-- Violence/scary situations: A few, played for laughs.
-- Drug or alcohol use: Lots of imbibing of wine, champagne and other drinks.

"Bedtime Stories"

-- Rated: PG.
-- Suitable for: School-age children and up.
-- What you should know: Adam Sandler is a hotel handyman who tells his young niece and nephew fanciful bedtime stories that start to come true and are the comedy's highlight.
-- Language: Mild.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: Clean; just some kisses exchanged.
-- Violence/scary situations: Children unwittingly go into a building about to be leveled, but it all turns out OK. Other scary scenes are played for laughs.
Drug or alcohol use: Champagne and wine are served at adult functions.

"Marley & Me"

-- Rated: PG.
-- Suitable for: School-age children and up.
-- What you should know: This is a movie version of the best-selling book about a couple who adopt a rambunctious, badly behaved dog. He becomes an integral part of the family, which grows to include three children.
-- Language: In keeping with the PG rating, about a half-dozen mild expletives.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: A married couple kiss, shed some clothes and canoodle in a pool, and squeaky bedsprings are a source of humor. There is talk about "fixing" Marley.
-- Violence/scary situations: A pregnancy does not come to term, and scenes in which Marley grows old and infirm are tearful.
-- Drug or alcohol use: A joke is made about "bong hits" and adults drink beer, champagne, wine and other alcohol.

"The Spirit"

-- Rated: PG-13.
-- Suitable for: Middle school and older.
-- What you should know: A back-from-the-dead cop returns as The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) to protect Central City from the villainous Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) in Frank Miller's darkly noir, highly stylized version of the 1940s comic by Will Eisner.
-- Language: Crude and rude at times, but nothing hard-core.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: The Spirit is irresistible to women, but there's nothing more than flirtations, innuendo and a kiss. Several women are scantily clad, and a nude Eva Mendes is seen briefly from behind.
-- Violence/scary situations: The violence is pervasive but comic-bookish, although there's a high body count and the immortal Spirit takes a clobbering but keeps on crime-fighting. The Octopus' henchman clones are the subjects of ghoulish experiments who are treated like slaves and meet grisly ends. In an apparent torture scene, characters are dressed as Nazis.
-- Drug or alcohol use: Nothing along traditional lines.

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