SCHOOL OF ROCK
RATING: PG-13
STARRING: Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack, Sarah Silverman, Kevin Alexander Clark, and Miranda Cosgrove
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
PRODUCER: Scott Rudin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Steve Nicholaides
WRITER: Mike White
DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures
GENRE: Comedy
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
SUMMARY: In School Of Rock, down and out rock star Dewey Finn decides to make some money by pretending to be a substitute teacher at an exclusive preparatory school, but he soon decides that the fourth "r" will be "rock band." Though marred by some obscenities and the whole theme of loving rock music, School Of Rock is portrayed with a light, fun tone extolling life over legalism.
In School Of Rock, rock star Dewey Finn gets fired from his own band and now faces big debt, so he pretends to be a teacher and gets a 3-week job at an uptight private school. Hoping to do a lot of sleeping, he quickly finds that he has talented students whom he actually likes. Wanting to win the prize money in a local "Battle of the Bands" contest, he forms a secret rock band with the fifth graders. Dewey smuggles in instruments and teaches the kids rock appreciation, sending them home at night with CDs of rock bands. He tells them that rock music is simply a way of expressing oneself.
CONTENT: Light humanist worldview with love of rock n' roll and all its corresponding rebellious, skuzzy groups countered by some moral, biblical themes espousing relationship over rules, life over legalism and elitism, and rebuke of lying at end, but scattered moments of politically correct, environmentalist language; about 14 obscenities and four "Oh, my God's"; violence includes the smashing of guitars and falling off rock stages; and, miscellaneous immorality includes deception, which is rebuked at end.
RUNDOWN
RATING: PG-13 for adventure violence and some crude dialog
STARRING: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson, Christopher Walken, Ewen Bremmer, Jon Gries, William Lucking, and Ernie Reyes, Jr.
DIRECTOR: Peter Berg
PRODUCERS: Marc Abraham, Karen Glasser, and Kevin Misher
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Ric Kidney, and Vince McMahon
WRITERS: R. J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt
DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures
GENRE: Action-Adventure
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older teenagers and adults
SUMMARY: In Rundown, The Rock attempts to square a debt by heading to the Amazon jungle to capture a kid, but instead finds himself also dealing with a tyrant, a love interest and some powerful freedom fighters. With incredible cinematography, writing and acting, Rundown is marred by the excessive violence and language typical of high-action films.
In Rundown, Mr. Beck is a bounty hunter who must find a mob boss's son, Travis Walker, in the Amazon. Meanwhile, Walker believes he's found an important artifact and tries to persuade his girlfriend, Mariana, to lend him a boat. Beck gets to the Amazon, where the ruthless Mr. Hatcher is running the town. Hatcher tells Beck that young Walker may be released from employment for $15,000. Beck pays the money and captures Walker, only to have his exit prevented by Hatcher's desire for the artifact. After a fistfight with Hatcher's henchmen, Beck escapes with Walker.
CONTENT: Humanistic, heroic worldview with strength, weaponry, and the current reasoning of man being the end all to end all, with some moral, redemptive elements including self-sacrifice, and some lightly anti-Christian elements may be implied through a Scripture-spouting character who is a jungle pilot; 33 obscenities and a couple of obscene gestures; violence, fist fights, gunfights, man shot to death, man's head blown off, and bulls stampeding townsfolk; sex, crude humor about sexually aggressive monkeys, and wet T-shirt depictions.
