A guide to movies from a family perspective:
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1”
Rated: PG-13.
Best for: High school students and older.
What you should know: This is the most adult of the four movies and may be too sexual and violent for tweens. It returns the key characters of Bella, Edward and Jacob played by, respectively, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
Language: Mild, maybe two four-letter words that easily turn up on TV.
Sexual situations and nudity: Bella and Edward go on their honeymoon and skinny-dip — you see their bare backs in the water — and consummate their relationship. You see them kissing and in intimate embraces in bed.
Violence, scary situations: Lots, starting with a dream in which corpses of wedding guests are stacked like a towering cake and blood stains the clothes of the bride and groom. Flashbacks show a vampire attacking strangers and killing them.
Bella, a human, gets pregnant by her vampire husband, and the child begins to drain away her energy and life. To restore her strength, she drinks human blood (through a straw).
A birth scene is bloody, chaotic and wrenching. Snarling, angry wolves roam and fight among themselves and attack vampires. A key character dies but comes back to life.
Alcohol and drug use: Wedding guests drink champagne.
“Happy Feet Two”
Rated: PG.
Best for: Children who can sit attentively through a 99-minute movie and, if need be, while wearing 3-D glasses. The animated film is also being shown in 2-D, meaning lower ticket prices and no glasses.
What you should know: Rating is for some rude humor and mild peril.
Language: None.
Sexual situations and nudity: None although penguins look for mates.
Violence, scary situations: An elephant seal is trapped in ice under the ocean surface, penguins are caught in an oil spill in flashbacks (but rescued and scrubbed clean) or find themselves marooned and without access to food.
Alcohol and drug use: None.
“Tower Heist”
Rated: PG-13.
Best for: Teens and older.
What you should know: This action comedy stars Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy as part of a ragtag band of blue-collar robbers looking for revenge on a Wall Street swindler who wiped out pension plans and lifetime savings accounts.
Language: Some profanity and use of the N-word, along with steady use of the stronger version of “shoot” and other three- or four-letter words that merit the PG-13 rating.
Sexual situations and nudity: No nudity, but suggestive wordplay and lewd comments about lesbians and breasts.
Violence, scary situations: There is an unsuccessful suicide attempt, a golf club used as a weapon on an inanimate object, wild car chases and heavy-duty stunts along with some generally harmless gunplay and shoplifting, done on a dare.
Alcohol and drug use: A key scene is set in a bar where one character, in particular, gets nearly falling-down drunk.
“Anonymous”
Rated: PG-13.
Best for: High school students with at least a passing knowledge of Shakespeare and older.
What you should know: This drama pivots on the idea that William Shakespeare lucked into the body of work that bears his name. It was actually written by Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, played by Rhys Ifans.
Language: Nothing objectionable.
Sexual situations and nudity: A flash of a bare bottom, discreet scenes conveying sex, talk about illegitimate children given up for adoption and Queen Elizabeth I is anything but a “virgin queen.”
Violence, scary situations: Swordplay turns fatal at one point, fires blaze, a body is discovered and a man is tortured because he won’t give up information. Also, lots of behind-the-scenes threats and machinations.
Alcohol and drug use: Characters consume what appears to be wine.
“Puss in Boots”
Rated: PG.
Best for: Kindergarten-age and up.
What you should know: The cat from the “Shrek” series gets his own animated movie that shows his earliest days at an orphanage and friendship with Humpty Dumpty. These characters, along with a second cat, end up looking for the magic beans that could lead them to golden eggs.
Language: None.
Sexual situations and nudity: None.
Violence, scary situations: Swordfights, chases, perilous falls and betrayal by a friend.
Alcohol and drug use: There’s a joke about catnip and a scene is set in a bar, but there’s nothing that comes close to this.
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