As we learn later on in the movie, Gru wants most to please his mother (Julie Andrews) who has been a force of negativity and criticism since he was a child.  He does this by making plans to capture the moon.  

With all his little one and two-eyed yellow assembly line minions, he begins his work.  He goes to the top banker Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) to get a loan to fund the operation.  When Mr. Perkins refuses, it’s up to Gru and his supporting cast to make the dream of stealing the moon a reality.   Gru’s nemesis is a nerdy, orange sweats-wearing, intellectual genius named Vector (Jason Segel) .  To help with his plan, Gru adopts three little girls Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) from an orphanage run by Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig).  Despite his determination to be despicable, his interaction with the three girls begins to soften him.  Their developing friendship is the heart of the movie.

Profanity:  There are jokes about bodily functions with words such as f**t and p**p.  If my memory serves me right, there is no more that 2 instances of the Lord’s name taken in vain.  There is also a lot of name-calling and put-downs, especially from Gru’s mother.

Violence:  Exploding objects (usually accompanied by huge balls of fire), Destruction by Gru’s monstrous land vehicle, air travel vehicles shooting missiles and so on, some minions getting hurt, people being frozen in ice by a gun designed for such purposes, etc.  It is my opinion that the heaviness of the violence for a “kid’s” movie is pretty high.

Immorality/Sex:  None

I recommend this movie for children 10 years and up.  If you are concerned about the impact of violence on children seeing it in various forms of media, especially those who developmentally have not yet been able to distinguish between reality and fantasy, I would avoid this movie for now.

Moral of the Story:  Don’t judge others too quickly.  When you find out a little more about their background, you’ll wish you hadn’t.

Batteries Not Included is a fun, intelligent movie I saw more than 2 decades ago.  It was released on videotape in 1987.  It stars Jessica Tandy as an old woman with dementia, living with her husband in a delapidated apartment building awaiting demolition.  There are a few other tenants.  Some take settlement money and move while others refuse the money and insist on staying determined to keep the building standing.  One night, the husband of the old woman in frustration in a sort of prayer pleads, “Somebody, please help us.”  That night, miniature UFOs show up during the night and repair the husband’s restaurant which was vandalized by men ordered to offer the settlement money, but do it with great threats and breaking the tenants’ possessions and property.  The UFOs also repair the damage to the apartments. When the couple wakes up to survey the damage in their restaurant, they are shocked.

The movie is very sentimental and encourages all of us to never give up hope even against seeming impossibilities AND to always stand up for what you believe.

Content Breakdown

Profanity:

Several profanities are present–around 6-8 including “son of a *****,” the Lord’s name taken in vain two or three times, “he**,”bas****(s)”–literally means son without a known father, “a**” once or twice, etc.

Violence:

There is no physical violence to a person’s body from another person, but there are several instances of verbal sparring, a man using an axe to destroy property and break water pipes, a man who pours gasoline and prepares to detonate explosives, a building on fire, several instances of destroying people’s possessions,  one of the UFOs is partially sliced through by the axe, several pieces of glass are broken.

Immorality:

Using a pregnant woman who is fully clothed as a live model, a bearded man paints a painting of her showing her with her shirt fully unbuttoned, which reveals the middle of her chest and navel.  The canvas is shown about 3-5 seconds at a time in 3 different shots.  (I recommend closing your eyes and plugging your ears as soon as you see the woman posing and see the back of the canvas and the pregnant woman says something like, “That’s supposed to be me?”)

Originally, there are the gunny sack characters–one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.  About 4 are destroyed early on, but I will not tell you who they are.  (My 5th grader did.  But I pleaded with him to not give away the ending. He did not.)  He told me about the spark of life and characters trading their souls and getting them sucked out through their eyes, something like that.  I really love the concept of the spark of life.  For most of the world, the idea that something or someone (God)  greater than ourselves gave us breath, life, and animation is fairly universal.

From what I saw of the trailer and what my 5th grader told me, the idea of playing with life forces, especially those that were created by a higher power and manipulating and tampering with it seems like a futuristic progressive concept.  You see it proposed as possible in cloning cells and so forth.  It totally reminds me of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and all the moral implications of that.

The one thing to realize is that humankind may be able to modify plants and animals making hybrids and cloning sheep.  However, there is one thing humans cannot do. They cannot put breath into these organisms or as Nine terms it: the spark of life.

Only God who created them can do that. I hope to see the show within the month so I can give a content breakdown. Oh, by the way, I have admired a lot of Tim Burton’s work.  Some of you are old enough that you remember as I did one of the first movies, if not the first movie he ever directed–Edward Scissorshands starring Johnny Depp. I like Burton, because even though his movies tend to be dark, he manages to play into the sensitivities of the human spirit and condition.  Did I mention Burton’s movies are extremely entertaining, too? I hope this movie is a financial blockbuster.  If not, the moral message needs to be heard and reheard, even if only by 100,000 people.  Hopefully, those that do experience the movie Nine will be touched by a spark and share the light of the message with others.

After you watch<em> Nine</em>, I would like to hear what you thought of it.  Simply click the link “LEAVE A COMMENT” and reply.  (It’s located on the line above the tags on the right just below the post if you are having difficulty finding it.)

I watched “Hook” (starring Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts as “Tinkerbell” and Bob Hoskins as “Smee”) yesterday at my home on DVD.  There was some mild profanity I hadn’t remembered the previous times I have watched before.  I have a sentimental connection to the film because it was one of the few theatrical releases my parents watched (at the theater) in the last 2 to 3 decades that they actually liked.

The real reason, though, is that my parents saw that within a year that my mother passed away in September of 1992.

Profanity:

Peter (Robin Williams) says H*** about 2 times and D*** about 2 times feeling frustrated at his family members.  The Lost Boys have a dinner scene where some very crude comments and insults like “slime,” “maggots” and “side of flies”  are exchanged, without resorting to cuss words.

Violence:

Several acts of violence, related to pirates and others on a pirate ship including verbal threats take place. (As far as I remember blood is not drawn more than once, if at all.)  One pirate who wrongs Captain Hook has to deal with a box of scorpions (suggested momentarily).  A baseball hits Peter on his head knocking him back out his I-can’t-remember-that-I’m-Peter-Pan mode.

Immorality:

There are a lot of men and boys in this movie, so female immodesty is minimum, if not non-existent.  The men and boys are always wearing trousers, at least.  Most, if not all,  are wearing shirts. Even Tinkerbell is wearing a full-leather outfit.

Summary:

This film is great fun to watch and has a message about the importance of families.  To miss that message, you’d have to fall asleep during much of it.

I highly recommend “Hook” because of its adventure, but mostly because of its focus on how dads should protect and support their wives and children.  Because of the violent content, it might be too intense for small children.  (Hook is rated PG.)

Contentment

With love and sincerity,

The LDSreviews4movies Family