‘The Spy Next Door’
Rating: PG for sequences of action violence and some mild rude humor
What it’s about: Jackie Chan is a spy who baby-sits the neighbor kids while defending the world from an arch villain.
The kid-attractor factor: Martial arts fights and gags, spyware, smart-mouthed kids
Good lessons/bad lessons: “Family isn’t whose blood you carry. It’s who you love and who loves you.”
Violence: Gunplay, comic martial arts brawls
Language: No profanity
Sex: Jackie Chan does a little smooching.
Drugs: None
Parents’ advisory: Jackie Chan is always kid-safe, unless Chris Tucker is in the movie with him.
‘The Lovely Bones’
Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language
What it’s about: A murdered teen narrates the tale of her death and her family’s life after it.
The kid-attractor factor: It’s about kids, and it’s by fantasy director Peter Jackson (“King Kong” and “Lord of the Rings”).
Good lessons/bad lessons: “You’re not supposed to look back. You’re supposed to go forward.”
Violence: A girl is lured on camera, and murdered off camera.
Language: Some profanity
Sex: Young romance, and the crime itself has a sexual nature
Drugs: Alcohol and cigarettes
Parents’ advisory: Entirely too creepy and intense for very young children, and kids under 12 might be bored by this afterlife thriller and fairy-tale.
‘Youth in Revolt’
Rating: R for sexual content, language and drug use
What it’s about: Wimpy teen grows an alter ego to try and make time with a girl.
The kid-attractor factor: Michael Cera, playing both a pushover and a ladies’ man
Good lessons/bad lessons: If you have to change who you are to win somebody over, she or he isn’t worth it.
Violence: Slapstick stuff, vandalism
Language: Some profanity, more than a little
Sex: Well, that’s the goal.
Drugs: Yes
Parents’ advisory: Pretty far out there to qualify as “good clean fun,” but decent messages make this sometimes off-color romp suitable for anybody 15 and up.
‘Leap Year’
Rating: PG for sensuality and language
What it’s about: A go-getter businesswoman travels to Ireland to use a loophole in “the rules” to propose to her boyfriend on Feb. 29.
The kid-attractor factor: Amy Adams and Matthew Goode
Good lessons/bad lessons: If the guy hasn’t proposed (to Amy Adams, no less) in four years, he’s got issues.
Violence: A fistfight
Language: Pretty mild, and the wee cursing is mostly done with an Irish accent.
Sex: Not really
Drugs: A number of scenes are set in bars.
Parents’ advisory: A bit timid and chaste for a romantic comedy, but certainly family-friendly.
‘Nine’
Rating: PG for some mild sensuality, a scene of violence, and brief incidental language and smoking.
What it’s about: A legendary Italian filmmaker flees to a spa to hide from his wife, his mistress and writer’s block. But the women of his life haunt his dreams.
The kid-attractor factor: Singing and swinging, ’60s dancing.
Good lessons/bad lessons: Burn the candle at both ends and you’re going to get scorched
Violence: None
Language: A little profanity
Sex: Bumping and grinding
Drugs: Cigarettes
Parents’ advisory: More challenging than the light musicals that have been recent hits, this one is sure to confuse the 12-and-unders.
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