Rating: PG, for some action and mild rude humor.
The latest Disney animated musical is beautiful and lively and a good pick for the whole family this holiday weekend. It’s vividly tactile in wondrous 3-D and features some catchy, clever tunes. Inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story The Snow Queen, Frozen depicts what happens when a newly crowned queen with the power to turn everything to ice (voiced by Broadway veteran Idina Menzel) loses control and plunges her idyllic kingdom into perpetual winter. Her younger sister (Kristen Bell), the princess, must go on a trek with some new friends to retrieve her from her self-imposed exile high in the mountains. If there’s anything scary here, it’s the giant snow monster the queen creates to protect her fortress from intruders, but it’s on screen for a just few moments and might frighten only the littlest viewers.
Rating: PG-13, for pervasive action and violence including frenetic gunplay, and for some language and drug material.
The MPAA rating pretty much says it all: This is a very hard PG-13. There’s a staggering amount of gunfire and violence in this sequel, in which the aging special agents from Red — played by Bruce Willis, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren — are dragged out of retirement, again, to save the world, again. It’s intentionally cartoonish and over-the-top, given that the original source material is a graphic novel. Countless rounds fly through the air but there’s barely a drop of blood when they hit their targets. Mirren’s character takes out one villain in a bathtub full of acid, but the carnage is merely implied. Oh, and a nuclear weapon goes off — but that’s no big deal, right?
Rating: PG-13, for some drug content and brief strong language.
Ashton Kutcher stars as Steve Jobs, the pioneering co-founder of Apple Computers, in a rather formulaic and superficial biopic. It’s ironic that, in telling the story of a man who was so innovative and obsessed with creating sleek and stylish products, the film itself is so bloated and bland. There’s not much here that’s potentially troubling for younger viewers; Jobs is probably appropriate for tweens and up. The film features a flashback to Jobs’ college days, when he had a spiritual breakthrough while dropping acid in a meadow. There’s a healthy amount of profanity throughout. And Jobs challenges his girlfriend’s assertion that he’s the father of her child, a question that’s raised but eventually dropped.
Rating: PG-13, for intense action, violence and mayhem throughout, some rude gestures, and language.
Like Red 2, this is a very hard PG-13. Countless cars get smashed in the name of mindless, escapist entertainment. Innocent bystanders get knocked around, property is destroyed and general mayhem rules the streets. In the center of it all, causing this damage on command in hopes of saving his kidnapped wife, is Ethan Hawke. As the awesomely named Brent Magna, Hawke plays a washed-up racecar driver who must scurry about in a stolen, souped-up car following the sadistic instructions of a disembodied voice (Jon Voight) who has carefully crafted his wife’s abduction. Selena Gomez shows up as the car’s owner and becomes his hostage, then his unwitting partner. The two squabble and exchange profanities.
