A guide to movies from a family perspective:
“The Eagle”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Teens and older.
What you should know: Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell star in an adaptation of the novel “The Eagle of the Ninth.” Second-century Britain provides the backdrop for this tale about a master and a slave who venture beyond the known world on an obsessive quest.
Language: A couple of mildly naughty words.
Sexual situations and nudity: None.
Violence/scary situations: This is where the movie earns its rating, with fights to the death, beheadings — you see the before and the aftermath — shots of corpses, abuse of slaves and preparations for primitive surgery.
There is also talk about 5,000 Romans who ventured into unconquered territory in northern Britain and were never seen again.
Drug or alcohol use: Adults consume what appears to be wine.
“Just Go With It”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Teens and older.
What you should know: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston and Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl Brooklyn Decker star in a rom-com about a plastic surgeon who pretends to be on the brink of divorcing his assistant to win over a young single teacher.
Language: Pretty mild, a couple of four-letter words and crude term for “derriere.”
Sexual situations and nudity: A couple wake up on the beach after apparently having sex. Sandler is a plastic surgeon who has to correct a woman’s deflated breast implant and there are lots of jokes about a man’s penile enlargement.
A woman with her back to the camera opens her towel to show off her nude body, but the scene is relatively discreet. There is talk about sex and erectile dysfunction along with suggestive gestures.
Violence/scary situations: Played for laughs. Includes a man being hit in the crotch, some falls into mud or water or onto the floor, a few slaps or hits, plus kicks from an ailing animal.
Drug or alcohol use: Adults drink beer, wine and martinis.
“Rabbit Hole”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Mature teens and up.
What you should know: The play of the same name has been turned into a movie starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as parents whose 4-year-old son died in a traffic accident.
We meet them eight months later in this superbly acted movie with lessons for anyone coping with devastating loss.
Language: One f-word and a half-dozen uses of profanity.
Sexual situations and nudity: The husband and wife haven’t had sex in months, and she wonders if he’s trying to seduce her one night.
Violence/scary situations: The boy’s death is not shown, but you see the reactions immediately after and months later. Parents sob with grief. A subplot mentions a bar fight.
Drug or alcohol use: Adults smoke some pot and also drink beer and other alcoholic beverages. Kidman’s character lost a brother to a drug overdose.
“The Rite”
Rated: PG-13.
Suitable for: Mature high-school students who don’t scare easily and older moviegoers.
What you should know: A seminarian goes to Rome to study to become an exorcist and meets an experienced priest (Anthony Hopkins) there.
The American witnesses attempts to cast the devil out of a 16-year-old pregnant girl and a young boy, and then finds himself in the role of exorcist and rethinking his long-held beliefs. It’s scary, but not as much as “The Exorcist.”
Language: One f-word and a couple of milder expletives.
Sexual situations and nudity: Turns out the pregnant girl was raped by her father, and she says, “Rape me,” to the younger priest when the devil apparently is speaking through her.
Violence/scary situations: Lots, including shots of corpses in a funeral home, a traffic accident proves fatal, there is talk about deaths in the family, a character bleeds to death, and a boy bears marks on his body that he claims came from the devil.
Adults and others exhibit very disturbing signs of possession, from a darkening of the skin and thrashing about to trash-talking and, in one instance, slapping a child to the ground.
Drug or alcohol use: Nothing notable.
Scripps Howard News Service
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