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"Fred Claus" (PG, 1 hr., 54 min.)
"Fred Claus" is an amusing confection that will entertain almost anyone 8 and older, despite -- or possibly because of -- its odd mix of inventive humor and cheesy holiday film cliches (with cheesier special effects). Somehow, star Vince Vaughn bridges the gap between sarcastic hipness and real feeling as Fred, a ne'er-do-well repo man in Chicago who just happens to be the older brother of saintly Nick Claus, aka Santa Claus (Paul Giamatti). Even for a fantasy, the script papers over mountains of illogic, but never mind. Audiences will forgive much because Vaughn's banter with Giamatti's stressed-out Santa and others is so droll.
The movie contains occasional semi-crude language and suggestive humor that is pretty mild and likely to go over the heads of kids under 10. There is a Santa's workshop urinal joke, with tall Fred Claus and short elf Willie (John Michael Higgins) standing side-by-side. Santa's assistant Charlene (Elizabeth Banks), of non-elf stature, wears inexplicably low-cut sweaters for North Pole weather and is the object of the diminutive Willie's affections. Fred gets into a couple of dust-ups, all with minimal injuries. A silly restaurant scene shows men doing kung-fu and hurling blades, and there are ninja elves guarding Santa. Two subplots deal with serious issues: Slam (Bobb'e J. Thompson), a parentless Chicago boy whom Fred befriends, winds up in an orphanage. And the Claus boys' mom (Kathy Bates) has clearly played favorites in a damaging way.
Always one check behind and making excuses to his girlfriend (Rachel Weisz), Fred gets into trouble with the Chicago cops -- something about posing as a Salvation Army Santa. He calls his little brother at the North Pole. Santa sends bail money, but insists that Fred come up (via the supersonic sleigh he sends down). He wants Fred to help with the Christmas rush at Santa's workshop and prove he can be responsible. Of course Fred is lazy and an instigator. Then the villain appears in the form of icy efficiency expert Clyde Northcutt (Kevin Spacey, having fun and looking like Jack Benny), determined to shut down Santa's Workshop and outsource the toy-making. It's time for Fred to be a man.
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"Lions for Lambs" (R, 1 hr., 28 min.)
Great cinema it isn't, but "Lions for Lambs" will spark great conversations. It is more of a dialectic than a film. Yet preachy and stagey though it is, the movie sticks in the brain. The presence of Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (who also directed) helps, but except for Cruise, those are not names to draw young audiences. What may well impress the more thoughtful high-schoolers who see it is the urgent message, spoken late in the film by a college professor to a promising but lazy student. "Rome is burning, son," says the professor. Screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan uses the voices of that professor and a Washington journalist to argue his case that America's actions in the world today are misguided and that the reason is apathy among voters, news media and young people. The R rating reflects strong profanity and a crude sexual phrase. There is also understated combat footage with injuries.
The story intercuts three narratives that unfold simultaneously over a few hours: A veteran network TV reporter (Streep) spends an hour interviewing a charismatic conservative senator (Cruise) who gives her an exclusive about a new strategy in the war on terror. While they talk, we see soldiers trying that new strategy on a mission in Afghanistan. Two of them, patriotic pals from South Central Los Angeles, Finch (Derek Luke) and Rodriguez (Michael Pena), get stuck in enemy territory. And on a California college campus, a political science professor (Redford) tries to inspire a gifted student (Andrew Garfield) from a privileged background to set aside his cynicism and get involved in the body politic before that body wastes away.
P.S. FOR HIGH-SCHOOLERS: In "Lions for Lambs" they note how so celebrity gossip and "reality" shows divert people from thinking about big national issues. A movie called "Network" (R, 1976) dealt with the same idea. It was a brilliant satire about the way television news was starting to go for the lowest common denominator. People thought it was a wild exaggeration then. Now it looks like a prophecy.
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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME
-- OK FOR KIDS 8 AND OLDER:
"Fred Claus" PG (NEW) (Vince Vaughn is a hoot mixing sarcasm, hipness and warmth as Santa's ne'er-do-well older sibling in this entertaining but odd blend of clever comedy and cheesy holiday film cliches. A Chicago repo man, Fred gets arrested and Santa ("Nick") bails him out, but makes him come to the North Pole to help with the Christmas rush. Then a sinister efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) appears, aiming to close down Santa's workshop. The movie uses occasional semi-crude language and mildly suggestive humor, likely to go over the heads of kids under 10. Tall Fred and short elf Willie (John Michael Higgins) stand side-by-side at a urinal. Santa's assistant Charlene (Elizabeth Banks) wears low-cut sweaters at the North Pole. Fred gets into a couple of dust-ups with minimal injuries. Men do kung-fu and blade fighting in a restaurant scene and there are ninja elves. A parentless boy (Bobb'e J. Thompson) whom Fred befriends lands in an orphanage and we learn the Claus boys' mother (Kathy Bates) plays favorites in a damaging way.)
"Bee Movie" PG (A restless worker bee, Barry B. Benson (voice of Jerry Seinfeld) ventures out of his utopian hive into the human world, befriends a florist (Renee Zellweger) and sues humanity over the right to make honey in this colorfully imagined but narratively weak computer-animated 'toon. The odd blend of Seinfeldian irony and innocent whimsy may not fully delight 8- to 13-year-olds, though there's nothing they can't handle. The film could be alternately scary or dull (that lawsuit gets old) to under-8s. There is mild sexual innuendo in the stinger jokes. Barry gets slammed around on a tennis ball, sucked into car engines, caught on a windshield. A human tries to kill him by igniting an aerosol spray. Bees testing new helmets get smacked down by shoes and swatters, and a scary scene unfolds on an out-of-control airplane. Humans smoke. "Bee Movie" themes: keep your temper, remember life is short, follow your bliss.)
-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:
"Martian Child" PG (Star John Cusack and a strong cast bring weight and credibility to this affecting, refreshingly unsentimental (mostly) story (based on David Gerrold's autobiographical novella) in which David (Cusack), a recently widowed science-fiction writer, adopts a troubled little boy, Dennis (Bobby Coleman), who has to be coaxed out of a cardboard box, insists he is a Martian, and steals. We learn Dennis was emotionally abused and abandoned, but get few details. Adults remark jokingly about being "great in bed," share an understated kiss and use mild profanity. We hear the slur "retard." The boy's fear of being sent away when David gets angry is intense. A beloved pet dies off-camera, sparking an emotional scene. Issues of grief and mental illness make this heavy fare for under-10s.)
-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:
"Dan in Real Life" (This treat of a movie offers many of the delights of classic romantic comedy, even if it slathers on the preciousness a bit thick at times. Likably loopy Steve Carell plays Dan, an advice columnist who has lived "like a monk" since the death of his wife. At a family gathering he falls shatteringly in love with his brother's (Dane Cook) girlfriend (Juliette Binoche) and spends a delightful weekend trying to not hurt him, lose her, or alienate his three mortified daughters. The film deals with such issues as grief and pubescent teen sexual longing as seen by a petrified parent. There is sexual innuendo about adults -- suggestive dancing, references to masturbation, side-view shower toplessness -- and drinking. A little too sexually charged for middle-schoolers.)
"Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?" (A solid cast lends weight and elegance to this sudsy adult melodrama, based on a play by writer/director/actor Perry. It is just as preachy, but less free and funny than his earlier films (all PG-13s). Four African-American couples on a luxurious therapeutic retreat led by a psychologist (Janet Jackson) and her husband (Malik Yoba) unpack emotional baggage that wrecks the gathering. References to venereal disease, to having one's tubes tied; adultery theme; sexual innuendo; marital bedroom cuddles; mild profanity; talk of the death of a child; drinking. Not for middle-schoolers.)
-- R's:
"Lions for Lambs" (NEW) (The moral State of the Union is the subject of this film, which starts as a dialectic and becomes a call to action. Yes, it is uncinematic and stagey, but it sticks in the brain. Three simultaneous stories intercut: A TV journalist (Meryl Streep) interviews a conservative senator (Tom Cruise) who clues her into a new strategy in the war on terror, being tested in Afghanistan. While they talk, two soldiers (Derek Luke and Michael Pena), friends since their blue-collar Los Angeles childhoods, get stranded in enemy territory. And a college professor (Robert Redford, who also directed) tries to convince a blase student (Andrew Garfield) to emerge from the bubble of his privileged life and get involved. The film includes profanity, a crude sexual phrase, and understated combat footage with injuries. Ideal for high-schoolers with an interest in national and world affairs.)
"American Gangster" (NEW) (Based on real-life 1970s Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and the police detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) who got him, this stunning cops-and-gangsters saga leaves us breathless, not just from its nervous energy, but because it develops the complex lead characters so well, that amid director Ridley Scott's atmospherics, we still get inside their heads. The film tracks how Lucas began importing heroin from Vietnam with U.S. military connections as the war raged. Police corruption (Josh Brolin as a dirty cop) and drug lust on the streets make Lucas and his family rich -- for a time. The film includes bloody, graphic gunplay, a gun suicide, vicious beatings, graphic drug use, nudity, suggestive dancing, strong profanity, racial slurs, drinking, and smoking. It also shows military coffins being searched. Not for under-17s.)
"No Country for Old Men" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) (Simultaneously droll and gruesome, this adaptation by the eccentric Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan) of Cormac McCarthy's novel about men of honor vs. drug violence on the Texas-Mexico border runs out of steam near the end, but on the way gives us a satisfying, even poetic roller-coaster ride that is not for the faint of heart. Josh Brolin is great as a trailer-dwelling good old boy, Llewelyn Moss, who comes upon a scene of carnage in the desert -- a drug deal gone bad -- and grabs a case packed with millions. Soon a psychopathic hit man, Chigurh (Javier Bardem), is after him and Sheriff Bell is (Tommy Lee Jones) on both their trails. There are bloody, deafening shootouts and graphic wounds, as well as strong profanity, drinking and much smoking. Not for under-17s.)
"Saw IV" (NEW) (One can only hope this is the end of the grisly, sadistic "Saw" series, which began as a gross-but-clever horror fest for those with a taste for "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"-style cinematic mayhem. (What is wrong with us?) "Saw IV" relies heavily on flashbacks to pad out its repetitive tale of a police detective (Lyriq Bent) obsessed with finding accomplices and possible survivors of now-deceased serial killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), a moralistic murderer who put victims in puzzle-like death traps. The film starts with a graphic autopsy and proceeds to skull smashing, flaying, scalping, and more. It contains nudity, profanity and references to child molestation and drug abuse. Not for anyone under 17.)
"30 Days of Night" (Chalk-faced vampires chomp necks in this smart, strikingly designed horror film, based on graphic novels by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. It is not for under-16s, or anyone whose stomach churns at cinematic blood-sucking, decapitations, ax-killings or point-blank gun deaths. A vampire child is killed off-camera, and we see the bodies after a man has killed his family to spare them a worse fate. Josh Hartnett plays the sheriff of Barrow, Alaska, faced with a vampire gang (led by a creepy Danny Huston; Ben Foster as his advance scout) that invades as the frontier town battens down for a month of no sun. Strong profanity, milder sexual innuendo, drinking. Horror buffs 16 and older.)
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