A guide to movies from a family perspective:
'This Is It'
Rated: PG.
Suitable for: School-age children who can sit attentively through a 112-minute movie and appreciate its subject matter.
What you should know: This is a documentary showing rehearsals for Michael Jackson's sold-out tour, canceled after his June 25 death. It celebrates what would have been a spectacular show.
Language: None.
Sexual situations and nudity: Some suggestive dancing and a bit of crotch grabbing, kept to a minimum here.
Violence/scary situations: We see ghostly brides and grooms - props - that would have moved through the aisles during "Thriller." New footage being shot for "Thriller" has creepy costumed characters rising or roaming through a cemetery.
Drug or alcohol use: None.
'Astro Boy'
Rated: PG.
Suitable for: First-graders and up.
What you should know: Set in the future, this is an animated story about a scientist who creates Astro Boy to replace the son, Toby, who has died. He has Toby's memories, plus superpowers.
Language: A little bit of menacing talk, but certainly nothing obscene or profane.
Sexual situations and nudity: None.
Violence/scary situations: Toby dies in an accident, although that is handled as delicately as possible. It's disturbing when his robotic replacement, Astro Boy, is rejected by his father. Lots of action-fueled peril and a girl separated from her parents feels abandoned, but that ends happily.
Drug or alcohol use: None.
'Amelia'
Rated: PG.
Suitable for: Tweens and older.
What you should know: Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank is Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. In summer 1937, she set off on a flight around the world that ended in tragedy. Richard Gere plays her husband, publisher George P. Putnam, and Ewan McGregor is her lover, pilot Gene Vidal.
Language: A couple of uses of profanity and a few mild four-letter words.
Sexual situations and nudity: An unmarried couple kiss and it's obvious they later spent the night together. A woman and man, married to others, kiss passionately and references are made to their affair.
Violence/scary situations: A plane is caught in a lightning-charged thunderstorm, a takeoff attempt ends in an accident and, most disturbing of all, is the prelude to the disappearance of Earhart and her navigator.
Drug or alcohol use: Adults are shown drinking or with glasses of champagne, beer and stronger alcohol.
'Where the Wild Things Are'
Rated: PG.
Suitable for: First- or second-graders and up, keeping your child and the following in mind.
What you should know: This was inspired by Max Sendak's popular book, and while there is no single scene that will make you want to shield your child's eyes, it's dark overall.
Language: One stronger version of "darn."
Sexual situations and nudity: None.
Violence/scary situations: A boy runs away and sails, through choppy waters, to an island and arrives after nightfall and meets the creatures who live there. Also has a school lesson about the sun burning out some day, snowball and dirt-clod fights, destructive tantrums, talk (only) about bashing in brains and the accidental loss of a monster's arm.
Drug or alcohol use: Adults briefly are shown with wine glasses.
— Scripps Howard News Service
