Posted on: Friday, July 11, 2008
'Kittredge' a clean, sweet film
By Roger Moore
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
'KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL'
Rating: G.
What it's about: A plucky girl who longs to become a reporter finds the most compelling stories she could tell right under her own roof when the Great Depression hits home.
The kid attractor factor: Abigail Breslin starring as a character inspired by a popular and pricey doll.
Good lessons/bad lessons: There's no shame in being unemployed, having to go to a soup kitchen or being homeless. And people should stick together, help each other out, especially when hard times hit.
Violence: Not really.
Language: Squeaky clean.
Sex: Not even hinted at.
Drugs: None.
Parents' advisory: The family-friendliest movie of the summer that isn't a cartoon, custom-built for 10-and-unders.
'HANCOCK'
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and crude language.
What it's about: A drunken superhero with a terrible attitude has his image burnished by a do-gooder public relations guy and finds himself caring about life, the world and the human race again.
The kid attractor factor: Will Smith, superhero chases, brawls, cute kids.
Good lessons/bad lessons: "Fate doesn't decide everything. People get to choose." And being stronger than everybody else doesn't make you right.
Violence: Gunfire, gunshot wounds, deaths, blood, and a lot of cars get crunched.
Language: A lot more profanity than you'd expect from Will Smith.
Sex: More PG-13-worthy sexual attraction than anything overt.
Drugs: Lots of alcohol.
Parents' advisory: More violent and more coarse than the usual Will Smith fare. Take the PG-13 seriously.
