Movie reviews

The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by Catholic News Service.

Brave (Disney)
A teenage Scottish princess goes to extreme lengths to break free of custom and convention in this 3-D animated adventure. A king and queen rule a peaceable version of medieval Caledonia. When it comes time to arrange the marriage of their rambunctious daughter, however, she rebels and runs off to the forest. Determined to change her destiny, she persuades a witch she encounters there to cast a spell, with disastrous consequences. Her adventure teaches the royal miss the hard way that selfishness and revenge are wrong, and family, duty and honor paramount. Intense action and scenes of peril, the use of sorcery, brief rear animated nudity, some rude humor. (A-II, PG)

Madagascar3: Europe's Most Wanted (DreamWorks)
Fast-moving, intensely silly 3-D adventure picks up where the last film in the Madagascar franchise left off, with Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, and pals Melman the giraffe and Gloria the hippo trying to return to New York City by refurbishing a European circus. Co-directors Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath and Conrad Vernon, with a script co-written by Darnell and Noah Baumbach, fill their story with a rich vein of European circus lore, combined with an uplifting message about believing in one's special abilities. (A-I, PG)

Prometheus (Fox)
In this prequel to 1979's "Alien," two scientists travel to a desolate planet in 2093 seeking evidence to prove their theory about the origins of mankind. A heretical answer to mankind's biggest question emerges, along with death and destruction courtesy of creatures dubbed "engineers" and reptilian parasites familiar from earlier "Alien" movies. The visual spectacle is first-rate but the muddled script is too profound by half. Its rejection of a fundamental tenet of theism, namely, that God created mankind — combined with violence and offensive language — renders the movie extremely problematic from a faith perspective. Considerable grisly sci-fi violence, several instances of rough language, much crude and crass language, significant profanity, some sexual references and innuendo, nonexplicit relations between an unmarried man and woman, one use of marijuana, and some alcohol consumption. (O, R)

Rock of Ages" (Warner Bros.)
Heavy-metal musical romance — set in 1987 — in which an aspiring singer finds work as a waitress in a headbangers' nightclub and falls for a bartender in the same establishment. Plot complications involve the bar owner's efforts to keep the place open, the struggle of a puritanical politician's wife to shut it down and the headlining appearance of a debauched megastar whose increasingly distant relationship with reality is being exploited by his unscrupulous manager. Director Adam Shankman mixes shameless sentimentality with cheerful, consequence-free debauchery and drives home the message that religiously motivated moral conservatives are all repressed hypocrites. Negative treatment of religion, a frivolous view of homosexuality, acceptance of premarital sex, comic portrayal of aberrant sexual behavior, rear and partial nudity, a couple of uses of profanity, some crude and crass language. (O, PG-13)
 
Snow White and the Huntsman (Universal)
The latest take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, directed by newcomer Rupert Sanders, is a classic good-vs.-evil fable with splashes of gothic horror and extreme violence, but some welcome religious imagery. Snow White (Kristen Stewart), the "Fairest One of All," is imprisoned by her stepmother, the wicked queen (Charlize Theron). The princess escapes, joins forces with her erstwhile assassin (Chris Hemsworth) and a band of dwarfs, learns how to handle a sword, and musters an army to retake her kingdom. Intense action violence and brutality, scenes of sorcery, and some mild sensuality. (A-III, PG-13)

That's My Boy (Columbia)
Repellant Adam Sandler comedy in which his obsession with body functions and bodily fluids is given full rein under Sean Anders' direction. But potty humor constitutes no more than the tip of a noisome iceberg here. Fundamentally immoral values, a vile representation of the priesthood, strong sexual content — including the sexual abuse of a child, an incest theme, masturbation, and upper female and rear nudity — drug use, frequent scatological humor, pervasive rough, crude and crass language. (O, R)

—CNS

Catholic News Service classifications: A-I — general patronage; A-II — adults and adolescents; A-III — adults; L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; O — morally offensive. Full-length reviews: www.catholicnews.com/movies.htm.