SPY KIDS 3D: GAME OVER
RATING: PG
STARRING: Daryl Sabara, Alexa Vega, Ricardo Montalban, Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Carla Cugino, Salma Hayek, and Courtney Jines
DIRECTOR: Robert Rodriguez
PRODUCERS: Elizabeth Avellan and Robert Rodriguez
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein
WRITER: Robert Rodriguez
DISTRIBUTOR: Dimension Films/Miramax (Buena Vista)
GENRE: Spy Thriller/Comedy
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older children to adults
SUMMARY: In Spy Kids 3d: Game Over, Juni Cortez must rescue his sister, Carmen, trapped in a video game controlled by the evil Toymaker. Spy Kids 3d: Game Over opens with Juni Cortez telling viewers that he’s left the OSS spy agency and become a private detective. When his sister, Carmen, is trapped inside a video game designed by an evil genius named "The Toymaker," the OSS recruits Juni to save her.
Director Robert Rodriguez imagines a complete fantasy world filled with amazing robots, creatures, surrealistic images, and other computer graphics. It is full of heart, moral virtues and strong Christian principles. Rodriguez has gone one step further in the third Spy Kids movie. It has many spiritual parallels, including a magnificent speech about forgiveness, humility, patience, and other virtues by Ricardo Montalban. His speech gives the movie its strong Christian premise at the end-that forgiveness conquers sin and brings redemption. Bravo!
CONTENT: Very strong Christian worldview plus strong moral elements regarding family, humility, and love; no foul language; non-threatening action violence, but some of the monsters might be a little scary for younger children, including two children use robots to fight each other in video game setting, video game race with crashes, monsters chase children in video game, lava threatens children and adult, and people fight video game robots that have entered the real world; and, nothing else objectionable.
NORTHFORK
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: James Woods, Nick Nolte, Daryl Hannah, Mark Polish, Anthony Edwards, and Peter Coyote
DIRECTOR: Michael Polish
PRODUCERS: Mark and Michael Polish
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Paul F. Mayersohn, James Woods, and Damon Martin
WRITER: Mark and Michael Polish
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Classics
GENRE: Fantasy/Allegory
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Adults
SUMMARY: Northfork is a weird, sometimes pretentious, allegorical fantasy about a Midwest town being evacuated because the government is building a new dam. In addition to some foul language and brief passionate kissing, Northfork’s cryptic references to the Bible and Jesus Christ provoke a cautious attitude toward its ultimate worth.
Set in 1955, Northfork stars James Woods as Walter O’Brien, a black-garbed government agent who’s traveling with his son, Willis, to convince the remaining townsfolk to leave. Nick Nolte also stars as Farther Harlan, a kindly but irascible cleric who’s taking care of Irwin, a dying, bedridden orphan boy abandoned by his adoptive parents.
Despite its heavy symbolism, which also includes references to non-religious things, Northfork lacks much point to its story. Although the movie, which contains some foul language, has a lot to do with the subject of death, it’s hard to know what exactly the movie is trying to say about the subject.
CONTENT: An apparently Romantic worldview, with some cryptic Christian and biblical symbolism, including cleric prays to God to take dying, suffering child and quotes biblical passage about Noah and the Flood as well as some possible false religious notions about angels and dying and one angel’s name, Cod, sounds like "God," which may confuse viewers; nine obscenities and two strong profanities; man fires shotgun several times at government agents, image of construction explosion on dirt in order to build dam, and man falls; brief partial rear nudity.
