NEW YORK (CNS) -- The following are classifications of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.
Things go bump in the night -- and during the day -- in first-time director Nick Murphy's old-fashioned but stylish horror movie set in a remote country manse-turned-boys'-boarding-school in the early 1920s. At the behest of one of its teachers (Dominic West), a professional ghost hunter (Rebecca Hall) who denies the existence of the supernatural in any form investigates the mysterious death of a student there -- a tragedy his frightened classmates blame on a specter. She is assisted by the establishment's sympathetic matron (Imelda Staunton) and by a pale, withdrawn lad (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) who, unlike all his peers, has not gone home for vacation. What ensues is a mildly scary game of cat and mouse during which the skeptic uncovers her own personal demons. Some bloody violence, an attempted rape, a nongraphic nonmarital sexual encounter, brief upper female and rear nudity in a nonsexual context. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Pretentiously droll and ostentatiously vulgar road-trip comedy. Dax Shepard, who wrote the screenplay and co-directed with David Palmer, plays a sensitive former getaway car driver for a group of bank robbers who is now in the witness protection program. When his girlfriend (Kristen Bell) lands a job teaching college, she has just two days to travel the 500 miles to Los Angeles so she can accept. The pair is eventually pursued on their high-speed journey by her possessive ex-boyfriend (Michael Rosenbaum), the ex's brother (Jess Rowland), a lovelorn gay sheriff's deputy, a bumbling federal marshal (Tom Arnold) and the thieves (led by Bradley Cooper) with whom Shepard's character used to work. Bloody violence and gunplay, strong sexual content -- including implied aberrant behavior and cohabitation, full male and female nudity and references to rape and homosexual activity -- marijuana use, a few instances of profanity, pervasive rough language. The Catholic News Service classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
This horror-themed animated adventure sees an 11-year-old boy (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee) -- whose ability to communicate with ghosts has caused him to be shunned and bullied by his unbelieving peers -- called on by his eccentric great-uncle (voice of John Goodman) to save their Salem-like hometown from the apocalyptic fulfillment of an 18th-century witch's (voice of Jodelle Ferland) curse. He's helped along the way by his best friend (voice of Tucker Albrizzi), his cheerleader sister (voice of Anna Kendrick), the school quarterback (voice of Casey Affleck) and even a reformed bully (voice of Christopher Mintz-Plasse). The basic message of co-directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler's frequently witty stop-motion celebration of the macabre -- that evil acts are often motivated by fear and that the vengeful desire to retaliate in kind only makes things worse -- is a valuable one for adults and kids alike. But Butler's screenplay, which occasionally dabbles in sexual humor throughout, concludes with the ironic revelation that a seemingly he-man male character has a boyfriend. However brief and however humorously intended, the scene nonetheless clearly sends a signal that such a relationship ought to be as nonchalantly accepted as it is matter-of-factly announced. As such, it is grievously out of place in a film directed at children. Acceptance of homosexual acts, some sexual and scatological jokes, potentially frightening scenes of peril. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
A daredevil Manhattan bicycle messenger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets more than he bargained for when he picks up an envelope his girlfriend's (Dania Ramirez) roommate (Jamie Chung) wants to have delivered to Chinatown post haste and finds that -- for reasons he can't initially fathom -- its contents have him on the run from a half-crazed rogue cop (Michael Shannon). Director and co-writer David Koepp serves up some fluid and suspenseful chase scenes. But the recklessness of the couriers' lifestyle is irresponsibly glamorized as a thrilling alternative to the boredom of office work -- our hero is dodging a legal career -- while the gritty dialogue catches viewers in a slipstream of unrelieved vulgarity. Scenes of violence, including beatings and torture, about 20 instances of profanity, at least one use of the F-word, pervasive crude and crass language, obscene gestures. The Catholic News Service classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.