film

Robert Zemeckis may just be the father of the performance-capture, 3-D mania sweeping through Hollywood.

His "Polar Express" inspired DreamWorks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg to declare, "It was the most exciting experience I'd had in a movie theater."

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"A Christmas Carol"

-- Rated: PG.

-- Suitable for: Children 6 or 7 and up, keeping younger in mind. It will help if they're familiar with the story and know it will end happily.

"That's funny." (Man at prairie crossing)

"What?" (Roger Thornhill, played by Cary Grant)

"That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops." (Man)

TORONTO - A playful note at the end of "A Serious Man" affirms: "No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture."

Actress Sari Lennick, however, did sacrifice her long blond hair and Richard Kind, his waistline and vanity.

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"This Is It"

-- Rated: PG.

-- Suitable for: School-age children who can sit attentively through a 112-minute movie and appreciate its subject matter.

Filed under the category "You Can't Go Home Again," Al Attles, the coach of the Golden State Warriors' lone championship team, once found himself back at his alma mater, Weequahic High School in Newark, N.J.

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"Astro Boy"

-- Rated: PG.

-- Suitable for: First-graders and up.

-- What you should know: Set in the future, this is an animated story about a scientist who creates Astro Boy to replace the son, Toby, who has died. He has Toby's memories, plus superpowers.

In film after film in the 1930s, from "Frankenstein" to "The Mummy" to "The Ghoul" and on and on, actor Boris Karloff functioned as a sort of wanderer -- an explorer -- in the shadow land between life and death.

If the movies he inhabited sometimes were considered juvenile, the subject matter that motivated them couldn't have been more adult, more profound.

Oren Peli is Red Bull in human form. His movie, "Paranormal Activity," is causing more sleepless nights than the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime on "Monday Night Football."

A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"Where the Wild Things Are"

-- Rated: PG.

-- Suitable for: First- or second-graders and up, keeping your child and the following in mind.

-- What you should know: This was inspired by Max Sendak's popular book, and while there is no single scene that will make you want to shield your child's eyes, it's dark overall.