A guide to movies from a family perspective:
“Fanboys”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Sci-fi fans who can laugh at themselves and enjoy crude, sometimes homophobic humor.
What you should know: Four friends travel from Ohio to San Francisco in 1998 to break into George Lucas’ ranch to see “Star Wars: Episode I” before it’s released. One member of their group is dying of cancer.
Language: The movie contains some profanity. Middle fingers are extended.
Sexual situations and nudity: The geeks try to get women to remove their tops without success, but the guys do moon their enemies.
Violence/scary situations: “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” fans rumble, but it’s played for laughs.
Alcohol and drug use: The geeks get high, visit a house party, gay bar and casino.
“Confessions of a Shopaholic”
Rated: PG.
Suitable for: Tweens and above.
What you should know: Movie stars Isla Fisher as a writer up to her eyeballs in debt but advising magazine readers about finance.
Language: Mild .
Sexual situations and nudity: Kisses are exchanged.
Violence/scary situations: Played for laughs.
Drug or alcohol use: Adults knock back champagne and frothy alcoholic drinks.
“Push”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: 15-year-olds and up.
What you should know: Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning in a world of psychic espionage where people can see the future.
Language: Some profanity and expletives.
Sexual situations and nudity: Kissing, and a scene where a husband learns his wife has been unfaithful.
Violence/scary situations: Nonstop, with references to Nazi experiments, people being shot at or killing themselves, being injected with experimental drugs, and slugging it out with fists.
Drug or alcohol use: To sharpen her powers, Fanning’s character gets drunk. Adults are shown drinking.
“The Pink Panther 2”
Rated: PG.
Suitable for: 9- or 10-year-olds and up.
What you should know: This is a sequel to the 2006 film.
Language: Generally clean.
Sexual situations and nudity: Some hugs and flirtations, all mild, and a lecture about how it is inappropriate to stare at a woman’s cleavage and buttocks.
Violence/scary situations: Guns are fired but most of the violence is played for laughs, with pratfalls, karate face-offs, accidental fires, head-banging, reckless car driving and the like.
Drug or alcohol use: Adults drink wine and champagne.
“Coraline”
Rated: PG.
Suitable for: Children, especially those familiar with the book, age 8 and up.
What you should know: This animated movie is about an 11-year-old who discovers a secret passageway in her new apartment that leads to a world where her “other” mother and father live. It seems perfect until the other parents reveal their true selves.
Language: Nothing notable.
Sexual situations and nudity: An elderly actress appears in pasties and bikini bottom — until she unzips her lumpy body and steps out as a younger, thinner version of herself.
Violence/scary situations: Coraline and others are in danger, a boy loses his ability to talk, we see the spirits of children who disappeared and the “other” parents.
Drug or alcohol use: Nothing, other than some circus rats that appear to be drunk.
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