“HOTEL
TRANSYLVANIA
"
Rating: PG for some rude humor, action and scary images.
What it’s about: An overprotective Dracula tries to keep his vampire daughter out of the clutches of a cute human boy who visits their hotel for monsters.
The kid attractor factor: It’s animated, it’s got vampires and toilet jokes and teens flirting, and it’s in 3-D.
Good lessons/bad lessons: If they’re old enough to make their own choices, you need to let them make their own choices.
Violence: Corpses, cadavers and zombies oh my.
Language: The occasional toilet/tush or gas-passing gag.
Sex: None.
Drugs: None at all.
Parents’ advisory: The cleanest Adam Sandler movie in history. Suitable for all ages.
“HOUSE AT THE
END OF THE ROAD"
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, thematic elements, language, some teen partying and brief drug material.
What it’s about: A teen in a new house is attracted to the only survivor of a massacre that happened right next door.
The kid attractor factor: Jennifer Lawrence, young love, teen partying and bursts of bad parenting.
Good lessons/bad lessons: Never fall for a guy or girl you see as a “project."
Violence: Stabbings, shootings, neck-snappings, hammer-hitting.
Language: Some profanity.
Sex: Joked about, and flirted with.
Drugs: Yes, and teen partying.
Parents’ advisory: Too complex and intense for the very young, OK for 12 and older.
‘TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE’
Rating: PG-13 for language, sexual references, some thematic material and smoking
What it’s about: An aged baseball scout’s reluctant daughter comes to help him through one last draft.
The kid attractor factor: Clint Eastwood, plus Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake as the love interest.
Good lessons/ bad lessons: “Don’t be afraid to walk away" and “It’s just a game."
Violence: Punches are thrown.
Language: Curses are thrown.
Sex: Justin is thrown — at Amy.
Drugs: Alcohol and cigars.
Parents’ advisory: A genial baseball comedy that meanders, rather like the game itself. Suitable for 10 and older.
