| Jane Horwitz "Tooth Fairy" (PG, 1 hr., 41 min.)
An adult character's loss of faith in his own dreams and those of the children in his life sets this comic fantasy in motion. That's why its mildly dramatic elements may be a little beyond kids younger than 8. There is also ice hockey mayhem and very mild sexual innuendo. The special effects look rather cheesy and the earthbound part of the plot is less than special, but the magical tooth fairy stuff is pretty amusing and likely to make kids 8-to-12 or so not mind the lesser stuff. Many of this unevenly wrought film's cleverest moments are geared to adults by way of ironic humor, but not laced with profanity or any lewdness.
The muscle-bound, always amiable -- if not comedically nimble -- Dwayne Johnson plays Derek, a professional hockey player known as the Tooth Fairy because he has knocked out so many opponents' teeth. His career is on a downward slope and he's stuck in a minor league team in Lansing, Mich. He's disillusioned, immature, and seemingly unready to marry his girlfriend (Ashley Judd) and be a dad to her kids. She gets really angry when he starts to tell her little daughter Tess (Destiny Grace Whitlock) that there is no such thing as a tooth fairy who puts money under kids' pillows when they lose baby teeth. Later that night, and much to his chagrin, Derek sprouts wings and finds himself transported to the magical tooth fairy headquarters, called before the big boss (Julie Andrews). His sentence, for being a deflater of kids' tooth fairy dreams, is to work for three weeks as a tooth fairy himself. He'll be on call day and night. He'll get a text message with an address, his wings will sprout, and he'll have to head over to any house where a child with a new gap in his/her mouth has fallen asleep to retrieve the lost tooth and leave a dollar under the pillow.
Derek's tooth fairy "caseworker" is a very droll wingless bureaucrat named Tracy (Stephen Merchant, who partnered with Ricky Gervais on "The Office" and other projects). Derek's supply of magical shrinking paste and invisibility dust comes from a wisecracking oldster fairy (Billy Crystal in an unbilled cameo). Trying to hide his temporary magical identity, Derek gets into all kinds of trouble. At one point, he swallows some bad shrinking paste and his head briefly morphs into bizarre shapes.
Beyond the Ratings Game: Movie Reviews for various ages
-- OK FOR MANY KIDS 6 AND OLDER:
"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" PG -- Kids 6 and older (but not much older) will likely have fun watching this "Squeakquel" (to "Alvin and the Chipmunks," PG, 2007). Again a mix of live-action and animation, it is, alas, nothing special -- just a lot of movie cliches about high school cobbled together to resemble a plot. Alvin's mischief during a concert in Paris lands the Chipmunks' guardian, Dave (Jason Lee) in the hospital. He stops the boys' concert tour and sends them back to Los Angeles to enroll in high school. Dave's slacker cousin Toby (Zachary Levi of TV's "Chuck") is supposed to keep Alvin (voice of Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) safe.The nasty music promoter from the first film (David Cross) returns with a sister act, the Chipettes, to compete with the boys. There is toilet humor, very mild sexual innuendo and a few crude expressions. A Chipmunk is menaced by a bird of prey. A lady's wheelchair bumps down stairs, injuring her.
-- OK FOR MOST KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
"Tooth Fairy" PG (NEW) -- An adult character's loss of faith in his dreams sets this comic fantasy in motion. That's why its mildly dramatic elements may be a little beyond kids younger than 8. There is also ice hockey mayhem and very mild sexual innuendo. Much of this unevenly amusing movie's best moments are geared to adults by way of ironic humor. The always amiable, if not comedically nimble, Dwayne Johnson plays Derek, a professional hockey player known as the Tooth Fairy because he has knocked out so many opponents' teeth. His career is on a downward slope and he's disillusioned and immature about it. His girlfriend (Ashley Judd), a single mom, gets angry when he nearly tells her youngest (Destiny Grace Whitlock) there is no tooth fairy who puts money under her pillow. Later that night, Derek sprouts wings and finds himself standing before the boss (Julie Andrews) of all tooth fairies in magical tooth fairy central. His sentence for being a debunker of tooth fairy dreams is to work for three weeks as a tooth fairy. His "caseworker" is a droll, wingless, very tall fairy named Tracy (Stephen Merchant). His supply of magical shrinking paste and invisibility dust comes from a wisecracking oldster fairy (Billy Crystal). Trying to hide his temporary identity, Derek gets into lots of trouble. The special effects look cheap and the earthbound part of the plot is old hat, but the tooth fairy stuff is funny enough keep the film afloat.
"The Spy Next Door" PG -- Kids between 8 and 12 may glean enjoyment from this mix of slapstick and derring-do, which does put child characters in danger. With so much focus on them, it's too bad the film's youngest actors lack the skills to make their painfully arch lines sound more natural. Also, a pre-adolescent boy uses mild verbal sexual innuendo inappropriate to his age. Meanwhile, a torturous plot and labored attempts at charm and humor make "The Spy Next Door" painful for adults. Jackie Chan plays Bob Ho, a secret agent on loan from China to the U.S. When he's not foiling Russian criminals, Bob lives as a bespectacled milquetoast next door to beautiful single mom Gillian (Amber Valletta), who thinks he's a salesman. Gillian and Bob have been dating, but her children (Madeline Carroll, Will Shadley and Alina Foley) think Bob's a dork. Bob watches the kids while Gillian goes to visit her ailing father. Then the Russian criminal he caught during the prologue escapes, ending Bob's brief retirement as a spy. There are numerous martial-arts stunts (which finally impress Gillian's kids), as well as rare mild profanity.
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY, PLUS TWO PGs MORE FOR TEENS:
"Extraordinary Measures" PG (NEW) -- Serious issues about children with a life-threatening genetic disease and scenes showing them struggling to breathe or going into cardiac arrest, while not graphic, could make this already lumbering docudrama heavy going, even for teens. Still, it may intrigue those interested in science or medicine. The story is probably too complex, disjointed and sad for preteens. Despite the PG rating, there is a lot of barnyard profanity and other epithets, plus a nongraphic, but strongly implied marital sexual situation and beer-drinking. "Extraordinary Measures" dramatizes the real-life labors of John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) to fund research to save two of his three children who suffer from a rare genetic disorder, Pompe Disease -- a "cousin" of muscular dystrophy that could prove fatal by age 9. John and Aileen (Keri Russell) Crowley's afflicted kids, Megan (Meredith Droeger) and Patrick (Diego Velazquez) need wheelchairs and breathing assistance. Desperate for the pharmaceutical industry to develop a treatment, John quits his executive job to partner with a cantankerous academic researcher (Harrison Ford as a composite character). They join, not always comfortably, with a big pharmaceutical company. The ending is hopeful and happy.
"The Lovely Bones" -- In his film adaptation, director Peter Jackson only implies the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, depicted graphically in Alice Sebold's novel. Even so, the way in which the killer (a terrifically creepy Stanley Tucci) lures Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) to his lair, recaptures her when she tries to escape, then disposes of bloody evidence is chilling enough to upset many middle-schoolers. Jackson's flawed film is wildly uneven in tone, veering between an emotional tale of parental love and a crime thriller. It is thrown off-balance repeatedly by a cloying special-effects depiction of heaven (or its waiting room) as some picture-book landscape. Susie narrates her story from there. She observes her stricken father (Mark Wahlberg), defeated mother (Rachel Weisz), angry sister (Rose McIver), and the undetected killer, who is a neighbor. Susan Sarandon drinks and smokes through it all as Susie's swingin' grandmother. There is a beating unrelated to the murder and some profanity.
"Leap Year" PG -- Teen girls may bask in the frothy emotions and sunny mood of "Leap Year" and be inspired, albeit briefly, by its message about not being impressed by wealth and possessions. This slow-to-percolate romantic comedy is totally derivative, but its light touch and the breathtaking Irish landscapes make it fresh. Amy Adams plays Anna. Her surgeon boyfriend (Adam Scott) is, like her, into status. Frustrated that he didn't propose before going to Ireland on business, Anna follows him there. She plans to act out a folk tradition and propose to him on Leap Day, Feb. 29. Bad weather diverts her plane to Wales. She gets to rural Ireland by boat, where Declan (Matthew Goode), a grumpy-but-cute chef/owner of a tiny inn, agrees to drive her to Dublin. They're meant for each other. There is rare, largely muffled, mild profanity, understated sexual innuendo (as when they must share a hotel bed) and drinking. Declan rings a chicken's neck off-camera.
"Sherlock Holmes" -- Wildly exaggerated head-banging fights and other mayhem in this new "Sherlock Holmes" could be too much for some middle-schoolers. In British director Guy Ritchie's kicky take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved Victorian detective, Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. Watson execute droll repartee and emotional nuance with panache, but the movie threatens now and then to drown in its own cuteness. The original story pits Holmes against a satanic aristocrat (Mark Strong). Holmes is not happy with Watson's plans to marry (their relationship remains subtly ambiguous), and is distracted when his own ex-love (Rachel McAdams) appears. He sometimes mutes his overpowering mental gifts with drugs and liquor -- and tests sedatives on his bulldog. There is gun and knife play, electrocution, a hanging, explosions, abductions, sexual innuendo, implied nudity, dissected animals, and a maggoty corpse.
"Avatar" -- Teens may find the premise in James Cameron's "Avatar" -- that Western exploitation of indigenous peoples would continue even with alien creatures beyond Earth -- an eye-opening view and worth debating. OK for most teens, the film includes intense, but fairly bloodless mayhem, an implied sexual tryst, remarks that recall racial slurs, and some profanity. Try to see it in 3-D, because this futuristic sci-fi epic mixes live-action with digital animation in wondrous ways, though the story and dialogue are leaden. "Avatar" is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a mineral-rich moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. The indigenous Na'vi are semi-naked (but modestly so) blue humanoids with tails who bond with all of nature. Jake (Sam Worthington), a former Marine whose legs are paralyzed, comes to Pandora to work for Grace (Sigourney Weaver), a scientist. She lets Jake walk again by transferring his consciousness into a manufactured Na'vi body -- his avatar. Jake meets a Na'vi warrior, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and their romance begins just as a macho security officer (Stephen Lang) for a mining firm is eager to start killing Na'vi.
-- R's:
"The Book of Eli" -- Co-directors/siblings Albert and Allen Hughes undermine their intended spiritual message here with ultraviolent fights and shootouts, making "The Book of Eli" only intermittently arresting as a parable. It's also an iffy proposition for kids younger than 16. Still, Denzel Washington is a powerful, mysterious presence as Eli, a hero/prophet in a blasted post-apocalyptic world who carries on his westward trek a book of great import (it is left unnamed until near the end, but we can guess), which he salvaged after "the last war." In a ruined city, he meets a power player, Carnegie (Gary Oldman), who rules with thugs. Carnegie wants Eli's book. He thinks it will increase his own power. His mistress (Jennifer Beals) and her daughter (Mila Kunis) try to help Eli. The mayhem earns the R rating, as do scenes that imply intended sexual assaults (which are stopped or never seen), other milder sexual innuendo, and some strong profanity. OK for high-schoolers 16 and older.
"Youth in Revolt" -- Not for under-17s, with its explicitly implied sexual situations, graphic sexual language and graphic animated drawings of sexual activity, "Youth in Revolt" is a pallid portrait of a Holden Caulfield-ish teen. Forced archness and deadpan humor aren't enough to make this 90-minute film (based on C.D. Payne's 1993 novel, the first in a series) more than mildly diverting. Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is precocious, sexually obsessed and too smart for his divorced mom (Jean Smart) and her variously stupid (Zach Galifianakis) and macho (Ray Liotta) boyfriends. Nick falls in love with Sheeni (Portia Doubleday) and risks everything to bed her and free her from her ultrareligious parents (Mary Kay Place and M. Emmet Walsh). He invents an amoral alter-ego (also Cera) who encourages him to act out. The film shows drug use, drinking, smoking, and profanity.
"Daybreakers" -- This very gory, futuristic vampire saga is not for middle-schoolers or the weak of stomach. It is, though, an arresting mix of style and substance. High-schoolers who appreciate the horror genre overlaid with artistic pretensions will take to its palette of black-and-white tones with splashes of red. A pandemic has turned most humans into vampires. Ordinary humans have become an endangered species -- hunted, rounded up and farmed for blood. Some vampires are mutating into crazed, batlike creatures. Ethan Hawke plays Edward, a vampire hematologist with ethics who's trying to invent a blood substitute. He falls in with a band of human survivors. Battles between factions are graphic -- beheadings, explosions of blood, entrails and heads, shootings, impalings. There is strong profanity and near-nudity.
(c) 2010, Washington Post Writers Group.
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