STAR TREK: NEMESIS
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Marisa Sirtis, Tom Hardy, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Dina Meyer, and Ron Perlman
DIRECTOR: Stuart Baird
PRODUCER: Rick Berman
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Marty Hornstein
WRITER: John Logan
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures
GENRE: Science Fiction
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
SUMMARY: In Star Trek: Nemesis, the Enterprise is diverted to the planet Romulus, supposedly to negotiate a truce with old enemies, but the Federation soon finds out that there’s been a coup, led by a clone of Captain Picard’s. The Enterprise crew tackles these challenges in their own indomitable fashion.
Nemesis is generally a very exciting science fiction adventure about good and evil that challenges audiences with its biblical parallels and moral premise, but it contains much action violence and some humanist thinking, political correctness and a bedroom scene with honeymooners that’s interrupted by the villains in a demonic way. Regrettably, however, the movie contains several objectionable elements that prevent it from being completely acceptable, especially for children.
CONTENT: Light humanist worldview with evolution references and very strong, but flawed, moral elements, strong redemptive and very brief Christian content with a New Testament reference (Captain Picard refers to the love chapter in First Corinthians by saying during important scene, "We see through a glass darkly," major plot point where people risk their lives to the point of sacrifice for other people, and characters display willingness to examine their own hearts and better themselves) as well as a couple of politically correct elements displaying moral and cultural relativism elements; subtle homosexual allusions; about four or five light obscenities; strong, sometimes scary science fiction action violence including hand-to-hand combat, space battles, explosions, laser fire, and impaling; no nudity.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, and James Brolin
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
PRODUCERS: Steven Spielberg and Walter F. Parkes
WRITER: Jeff Nathanson
BASED ON THE BOOK BY: Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding
DISTRIBUTOR: DreamWorks
GENRE: Comic Thriller
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
SUMMARY: Catch Me If You Can, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio, is an entertaining comic thriller about a con man named Frank Abagnale, Jr., who impersonates an airline pilot, doctor and a lawyer and who is pursued by a relentless FBI agent.
Catch Me If You Can will keep most viewers on the edge of their seats. Steven Spielberg is a master storyteller who has a great sense of visual design. Leonardo DiCaprio and especially Tom Hanks each do a superb job. Though very well-made and highly entertaining, Catch Me If You Can manifests a cheap grace because the soft ending to the movie seems to condone Frank’s adolescent behavior. The real Frank Abagnale, Jr. repented of his crimes and feels ashamed for what he did, something that this movie fails to depict.
CONTENT: Pagan "anything goes" adolescent worldview mitigated by a Christmas service and a lead character who exhibits selflessness; man dying in isolation cell, police point gun at man’s head, police rough up young man, doctor gets sick after seeing boy’s injured leg, and daring escapes; scene of depicted fornication, scenes of implied fornication, woman climbs on fake doctor sitting on chair, sexual talk, prostitution, abortion discussed as having ruined a woman’s life, implied adultery, mother runs away from family and marries father’s best friend; upper female side nudity; alcohol use; smoking and reference to drugs; and, tax evasion, check kiting, forgery, deception, impersonation, fraud, and misrepresentation.
