Rating: PG, for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images.
It’s Sleeping Beauty from the villain’s perspective — an origin story that explains what could turn someone so evil that she’d curse a newborn baby. Angelina Jolie is ravishing in the title role — Those lips! Those cheekbones! Those horns! — and she cuts quite an intimidating figure. But the creatures and surroundings in director Robert Stromberg’s film might potentially be even more frightening. Maleficent features gnarled, talking trees, odd-looking woodland creatures, a fire-breathing dragon and a dark forest full of thorns. It’s also got a couple of big battle sequences, because what movie doesn’t this time of year? I took my 4 1/2-year-old son to see it and he wasn’t frightened at all, but I’d also shown him Sleeping Beauty recently so he knew what to expect, somewhat. This is probably fine for kids around age 6 and up.
Rating: PG-13, for sexual content, brief partial nudity, some language and teen partying.
This remake of the 1981 drama that helped make Brooke Shields a star is pretty much completely different. The names and some details are the same, but writer-director Shana Feste taken out all the crazy that marked Franco Zeffirelli’s film. Feste’s take on this tale of forbidden teen love plays more like an extended Abercrombie & Fitch ad, with its gorgeous lead actors frolicking in idyllic settings. Alex Pettyfer stars as the smart, decent-hearted mechanic’s son who dares to fall for Gabriella Wilde’s character, a wealthy, sheltered cardiologist’s daughter. They make out everywhere, have sex on the carpet in front of a fireplace and engage in partying that’s alluded to but never shown. Despite his hunky dreaminess, Pettyfer’s character also has a temper — he punches a couple of guys and gets arrested. This is probably fine for older tweens/young teens and up.
