SEABISCUIT
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Gary Stevens, and William H. Macy
DIRECTOR: Gary Ross
PRODUCERS: Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Gary Ross, and Jane Sindell
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Tobey Maguire, Allison Thomas, and Robin Bissell
WRITER: Gary Ross
DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures
GENRE: Drama
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Adults
SUMMARY: The movie Seabiscuit is a story of three wounded men, and a hurting nation, who find an unlikely healer in a small, crooked-legged racehorse. The good feelings generated by the movie’s moral, redemptive, and patriotic worldview are spoiled by foul language, sexual content, and a brief socialist element or two.
Seabiscuit is an excellent movie on so many levels, it would be difficult to recount them all. Perhaps the most surprising element in the movie is the fact that, though it would appear to be a vehicle for rugged individualism, it actually goes out of its way to show that typical American grit isn’t enough to truly live. Despite the amazing feat of turning an abused, obstinate, no name horse into 1938’s Horse of the Year, and the even more amazing feat of bringing the same horse back from a career-ending injury, this movie shows that success is an empty goal. The true importance in these events is the effect they have on the lives of three men.
CONTENT: Strong moral worldview extols giving second chances to people and contains brief Christian elements with very strong patriotic themes; 19 obscenities, 11 strong profanities, and one light profanity; mild violence during races, jockey participates in rough boxing matches, jockey thrown and dragged from a horse and slams into a barn wall, shot of Pollard with leg at awkward angle; no depicted sex but jockeys visit prostitutes; alcohol use and drunkenness.
LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciaran Hinds, and Chris Barrie
DIRECTOR: Jan De Bont
PRODUCERS: Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Jeremy Heath-Smith
WRITER: Dean Georgaris
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures
GENRE: Action-Adventure Fantasy
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
SUMMARY: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life stars Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, who uses a cool, underwater jet ski and some scuba gear to locate a glowing mythical orb hidden in a submerged, long-lost temple dedicated to Alexander the Great. The orb is the map to the legendary Pandora's Box, which is located deep in an African mountain known as "The Cradle of Life." Pandora's Box is said to have wiped out an army and is still capable of unleashing mass destruction to this day. However, the henchmen of Chen Lo, a Chinese crime lord, promptly steal the orb from Lara, planning to sell it to Dr. Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds), a former Nobel Prize-winning scientist turned bio-terrorist.
CONTENT: Mixed pagan worldview with elements of New Age, Eastern thinking when heroine talks about "balance" in nature and "ying and yang," combined with Greek mythology, evolutionary elements regarding the beginning of life being in Africa, and positive references to God (in a general sense) and "ideals" of heroine, but a personal conflict is not resolved in an unqualified positive manner; offensive language includes about six obscenities and two light profanities; strong violence includes shootouts, martial arts fighting, stabbings, shootings, and villain poisons man, who spits up some blood; couple kisses and embraces passionately while lying down but their tryst is interrupted; no nudity but woman in tight wetsuit and scantily clothed during passionate scene where her thighs are revealed; no alcohol or smoking; and, lying and betrayal.
