CAPSULES
By Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The following is a capsule review of a movies recently
reviewed by Catholic News Service.
Ramona and Beezus (Fox)
Gentle, winning comedy about a good-hearted but accident-prone nine-year-old
(Joey King) whose antics annoy her more conventional teen sister (Selena
Gomez) as their happy existence in an idyllic Portland, Ore., suburb is
temporarily overshadowed by their accountant dad's (John Corbett) loss
of his job, and the resulting mild tensions between him and their mom
(Bridget Moynahan), but brightened again by the rekindled romance between
a favourite aunt (Ginnifer Goodwin) and her high school sweetheart (Josh
Duhamel). Traditional values and close-knit family relationships reign
in director Elizabeth Allen's squeaky-clean, nostalgia-tinted adaptation
of Beverly Cleary's best-selling series of children's books and, though
nothing very momentous happens, what does take place transpires in the
nicest possible way. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I --
general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is
G -- general audiences. All ages admitted.
Inception (Warner Bros.)
Ingenious sci-fi brainteaser in which, at the behest of a powerful CEO
(Ken Watanabe), a corporate spy (Leonardo DiCaprio) who uses "shared
dreaming" to extract secrets from the minds of sleeping executives
leads a team of skilled collaborators (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page,
Tom Hardy and Dileep Rao) on a raid into the subconscious of the heir
(Cillian Murphy) to a rival business. Writer-director Christopher Nolan
achieves a tour de force of spectacle and suspense that eventually involves
four adventures unfolding simultaneously at different levels of consciousness,
though his crafty action tale is rife with explosions and gunplay and
engages the imagination more than the heart. Much violence, some of it
bloody, several uses of profanity, a few crude and crass terms. The Catholic
News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association
of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material
may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Salt
(Columbia/Relativity)
Well-acted but thoroughly violent action thriller in which, after being
accused by a Russian intelligence officer (Daniel Olbrychski) of being
a double agent, a highly skilled CIA operative (Angelina Jolie) goes on
the run, leaving her colleagues (principally Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel
Ejiofor) scrambling to uncover whether she is friend or foe, even as they
try to track her down. As directed by Phillip Noyce, Jolie makes a weak
script reasonably compelling, and her character displays strong marital
loyalty; yet, as an all-but-superhuman killing machine, her path is littered
with corpses. Frequent violence, some of it bloody, at least 10 uses of
profanity, one instance of the F-word, six crude terms. The Catholic News
Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic
content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association
of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material
may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Cats &
Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (Warner Bros.)
Entertaining and inventive 3-D spy adventure -- seamless blending live
action, puppetry, and computer animation -- in which rogue feline agent
Kitty Galore (voice of Bette Midler) threatens to make the world her "personal
scratching post" by unleashing the "Call of the Wild,"
a screech that serves as a weapon of mass destruction. Led by Diggs (voice
of James Marsden), a police K-9 German shepherd who hates cats, and Catherine
(voice of Christina Applegate), a feline agent who puts her nine lives
on the line, the covert pet intelligence agencies DOG and MEOWS must put
differences aside and work together to bring Kitty down. Plenty of excitement,
gizmos, and cute-as-a-button moments will charm and enthrall the youngsters,
while their parents will enjoy the inside jokes referencing James Bond
films. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I -- general patronage.
The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance
suggested.
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops
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