Parental Guidance: Pacific Rim and Grown Ups 2
We give you what you need to know about the family-friendliness of this week's new releases.
In Theaters This Week:
Pacific Rim
72%
Rating: PG-13, for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence through, and brief language.
Monsters wreak spectacular havoc on major cities across the globe, and giant robots battle them for the future of humanity: It's a fantastically fun, marvelously mounted summer escape. For younger kids, the underwater monsters who've burst from the deep to destroy us -- the kaiju, as they're called -- might be a little too scary. Director Guillermo del Toro does not mess around when it comes to his creatures, so the beasts here have clever, vividly detailed features. And there is one sequence that's absolutely terrifying for viewers of any age: a flashback in which a young girl runs through the ravaged Japanese streets, sobbing in fear as she tries to escape the monster that has just killed her parents.
Grown Ups 2
8%
Rating: PG-13, for crude and suggestive content, language and male rear nudity.
Fart jokes. Pee jokes. Poop jokes. Vomit jokes. Jokes about boobs. Jokes about butts. Jokes about stoned, bi-polar school bus drivers. If you are not shocked or offended by any of these de rigueur elements of an Adam Sandler comedy, and you think your older kids will get a mindless kick out of such puerile humor, then sure, Grown Ups 2 is suitable. They may giggle at the gross-out gags, but the alleged "meat" of the film -- the midlife crisis that Sandler and his pals Chris Rock, Kevin James and David Spade are experiencing -- will probably go over their heads. Still, if you truly love your kids, you won't subject them to such lazy, cynical trash.
New On DVD:
Admission
38%
Rating: PG-13 for language and some sexual material.
Tina Fey and Paul Rudd team up for the first time ever in a comedy that sadly squanders their immense likability. Fey plays an uptight admissions officer at Princeton University; Rudd is a former classmate of hers who now runs a crunchy-granola alternative high school, who's pushing her to consider one of his top students. Besides some profanity, nothing really shocking occurs, but there are a few mature plot points that may prompt some awkward questions from younger kids. There's a subplot involving an affair that leads to a pregnancy. Fey and Rudd share a shower scene but there's no real visible nudity. And Lily Tomlin enjoys some risqué moments as Fey's maverick-feminist mother.
The Host
9%
Rating: PG-13, for some sensuality and violence.
Since it's based on a book by Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, this sci-fi thriller would seem tailor-made for her same core fan base of tween and teen girls. Yes, the content is suitable for them; young people find themselves in danger here, but no more or less so than in a fevered girl-vampire-werewolf love triangle. Saoirse Ronan plays a headstrong 17-year-old in a post-apocalyptic future (is there any other kind?) who refuses to let her body be taken over by a nomadic Soul. There is some gun violence and a bit of bloodshed, but the real offense is just how silly it all feels.
Val Mordas
Ugh Pacific Rim. s it big, loud and cool looking? Yep. But it's also got a sophomoric plot and some of the most corniest lines you'll hear all summer. At times it's almost Michael Bay bad, but you'll have your eyes glued to the screen for the majority of fights between monster and robot. The bits betwixt and the hokey conclusion will be difficult to stomach, however.
Jul 12 - 04:38 PM
Bradly Martin
Woa woa woa wait a second. Didn't you defend Man of Steel?
"We have a child Zod...A BOY CHILD!"
I could have sword you were one of it's defending champions.
Jul 12 - 06:14 PM
Val Mordas
You would be wrong. I never said it was perfect, nor did I rave about the wonderful dialogue. What I did defend was that the back story was adequate seeing as we know it already (a seemingly common complaint), and that the CGI was fine and necessary in a film such as 'Man of Steel'.
Jul 12 - 07:15 PM
Max Patterson
You don't seem to get what Pacific Rim was. It wasn't meant to be this dark, serious story with deep characters, it's a movie about robots fighting giant monsters. It's meant to be a homage to the old Japanese mecha and kaiju films and anime of del Toro's childhood and back then people didn't go to the movies to see deep plots they went there to see mechs beat the crap out of the monsters. Also the characters were 3 dimensional and the story was simple and to the point just as it should be. Honestly I'm sick and tired of movies taking themselves so seriously, why not have some fun for once?
Jul 13 - 04:47 PM
Val Mordas
Oh I get what it was, and it succeeded. I enjoyed the film for what it was, but at the same time I couldn't completely enjoy it for the same reason. Hard to explain.
Jul 13 - 05:36 PM
Bradly Martin
That's right..I actually like your points about Man of Steel. Max I really like your points about Pacific Rim. I just got out of a 3-D showing and it was fan freaking tastic. We don't need 45 minute backstory about the Rift!? Well Hell freaking Yeah! It's about time I wasn't bored to death with exposition from characters I could care less about! Loved IT! ironically enough, the less they explained about things THE MORE I LOVED THEM! FOREIGN CONCEPT FOR MODERN FILM MAKERS!
Jul 13 - 07:05 PM
Damian Batista
I saw Pacific Rim and it was really great it wasn't like those micheal bay films where there's a lot of explosion and no emotions Pacific Rim has some emotions but the movie was great 9/10 stars and it's better than Iron Man
Jul 12 - 11:22 PM
Val Mordas
Not as sappy as a Bay film, there are no slow motion crying scenes at least, but the cheese is definitely there. Also agree with it being better than Iron Man, but this movie is made for kids, and is somewhat difficult for mature adults to sit through without the feeling they are watching a two hour cartoon.
Jul 13 - 03:42 AM
Walter Trush
Correction it's made for kids and the inner kids of adults, or at least ones that grew up and have a soft side for giant monsters or power rangers, the movie gets bonus points for that
Jul 13 - 10:48 PM