"The Secret World of Arrietty" (G)

Children 7 and older will delight in this charmer -- a stunning, artful adaptation of Mary Norton's popular children's book, "The Borrowers," a tale about tiny people who live below in floorboards and "borrow" everything they need from humans.

It was made at the great Japanese animation house, Studio Ghibli, which has brought us "Ponyo" (G, released here in 2009) and "Spirited Away" (PG, released here in 2002), among other masterworks, and it has the same hand-drawn quality with even more delicious detail. American actors dubbed in the dialogue.

Young Shawn (voice of David Henrie), an adolescent boy with a heart problem, comes to stay at a country cottage while he awaits surgery. He's shocked and thrilled to see tiny teenage Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) in a bush and later tries to make friends with the salt-shaker-sized girl. But her parents Pod (Will Arnett) and Homily (Amy Poehler) have told her never to trust humans. Eventually, Shawn earns that trust by helping retrieve supplies for her family's cozy home under the floorboards. When Haru (Carol Burnett), the eccentric housekeeper at the cottage, suspects Shawn has discovered those little people she's always heard about, she tries to capture them. Shawn and a woods-dwelling Borrower named Spiller (Moises Arias) help Arietty and her parents to safety.

THE BOTTOM LINE: There are moments of suspense when you fear that one or more of the Borrowers will fall in their climbing adventures or be caught by humans as they "borrow" supplies. Kids under 7 or so may be upset to see Arrietty's mother imprisoned in a jar. A recurring theme about the human boy Shawn having a possibly terminal heart ailment could worry some children. And the ending, while it is basically happy, has a slightly bittersweet tone not common to Hollywood animated features.

"Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" (PG)

Well, the verdict is in: Jar Jar Binks is still an obnoxious character 13 years later in 3-D, speaking in a bizarre, pigeon dialect that insults a range of ethnic and racial groups. And this is the most endless and dullest of the "Star Wars" episodes, though perfectly OK for kids 8 and older.

The film looks good in 3-D -- not dark, and most enhanced during battle scenes and light-saber fights. This prequel introduces the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) as a young Jedi knight and his master, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). Qui-Gon meets a boy named Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) on the planet of Tatooine. We know that Anakin becomes the father of Luke Skywalker and later goes to the Dark Side of the Force to become Darth Vader. But at this point, Gui-Gon sees only potential in the boy. The two Jedi try to rescue the planet Naboo and its queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) from an invasion by the evil Trade Federation. The Galactic Republic's senate may be infiltrated by an evil Sith agent. Jabba the Hutt, the droids C-3PO (voice of Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) are on hand, too, as is Samuel L. Jackson as Jedi knight Mace Windu.

The feature is preceded by "Scrat's Continental Crack-up Part 2," starring the manic prehistoric squirrel from the "Ice Age" animated films. He's still chasing that darn acorn. At one point, he sees a disturbingly dead, skeleton, member of his species. THE BOTTOM LINE: The action sequences and some of the weirder looking intergalactic beings may disturb kids under 8 on a big screen in 3-D, but the battles and fights are all very stylized and non-gory.

"This Means War" (PG-13)

Too crass in its sexual slang and innuendo for middle-schoolers, "This Means War" may amuse high-schoolers looking for a bit of mindless entertainment.

In this movie, cutesy wins out over coherent every time, and the film is the ultimate loser. Even three good lead actors can't make a dumb script smart. Two hunky CIA agents in the Los Angeles branch fall in love with the same woman, unbeknownst to them or to her. They are working partners and best buds. When Tuck (Tom Hardy) and FDR (Chris Pine) discover they've both fallen for Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) in separate meet-cute encounters, they don't tell her. Instead, they compete ferociously to win her. They bug her home and trick each other. Lauren is clueless. She deals with her angst over dating two guys by talking to her foul-mouthed, envious married friend (Chelsea Handler) and decides she must sleep with each guy in order to make a final choice. Of course, the truth comes out eventually. The mix of labored rom-com antics and cliched spy-guy action (something about an angry rogue Russian) makes the movie feel like a cartoon -- an unfunny one.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The film is replete with sexual innuendo, some of it awfully crude. Sexual situations are not explicit, but occasionally steamy for a PG-13. The script includes frequent midrange profanity, including the F-word, and a drug reference. Characters also drink. The understated violence includes fighting, a car chase and gunplay.

"The Vow" (PG-13)

Teens can get out the Kleenex and have a good time at this soapy, but handsome and well-acted tale of love that's found, lost, and then found again. There's nothing in it, really, that should exclude middle-schoolers.

A fictionalized version of a true story, "The Vow" traces the love of Chicago singles Paige (Rachel McAdams), an up-and-coming sculptor, and Leo (Channing Tatum), who has his own recording studio. They meet, fall in love and get married in an unconventional wedding. Their life is arty, urban and loving. Four years later, they're in a bad car accident and Paige is thrown through the windshield. She recovers, but has lost all memory of their relationship and marriage. She remembers being in law school, living with her parents, and being engaged to another guy from her upscale suburban background. Leo tries desperately to get Paige to remember. She tries living with him platonically in hopes her memory will kick in, but it doesn't. Her ultra-controlling parents (Jessica Lange and Sam Neill) urge her to come home, which she does. It seems to be up to Leo to make Paige fall in love with him all over again. Sniff. Sigh.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The car accident that triggers the story is shown in slow-motion and is disturbing, but not bloody. We see the start of a sexual situation, but it's nongraphic and the scene cuts to the next morning. There is brief nonsexual backview nudity. The script includes occasional midrange profanity and discussion of an extramarital affair. Characters drink wine and engage in a fist fight.

"Coriolanus" (R)

High-school seniors and college students may find this adaptation of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," set in what looks like Bosnia during the 1990s civil war, gripping and modern, even if some of the language is obscure to them.

It is too realistically violent for under-17s. However, compressed into two hours, and directed by actor Ralph Fiennes, who also plays the lead, the story is crystal clear: A military hero of aristocratic lineage, Caius Martius (Fiennes) has no problem representing his country, "Rome," in war. But when he's named Consul and given the title Coriolanus, he is unable to humble himself before the common people and ask for their support. Even his ambitious mother, Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave), cannot convince him to swallow his pride in pursuit of power. He so offends the people with his arrogance that he is stripped of his title and banished. Embittered, he joins forces with Rome's enemy, Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler). The camera work and action are frenetic, but the story and the abridged Shakespearean text, while not easy, are sharply to the point.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The street-by-street warfare scenes are violent and bloody, with bombings, gun battles and fighting with knives and fists. The bombed-out urban scenery and hollow-eyed inhabitants are highly reminiscent of the 1990s Bosnian war. Characters drink and occasionally smoke.

"Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" (PG)

Fast-moving, funny and imaginative, this movie is too brightly colored and silly to be very scary, even though it's in 3-D. Most kids 8 and older, and even some a little younger, will have fun with it.

This is a sequel that's actually more amusing than its predecessor ("Journey to the Center of the Earth," PG, 2008). Teenager Sean (Josh Hutcherson) has become a devout "Vernian" since his trip to the Earth's core, believing all of Jules Verne's science-fiction fantasies to be provable fact. (This may encourage kids to read the classic books.) Sean has grown sullen since his widowed mom (Kristin Davis) married Hank (Dwayne Johnson). Yet it's Hank who gets Sean out of trouble when he rides a motorbike into a neighbor's pool. And it's Hank who helps Sean decode a radio message from his adventurer grandfather (Michael Caine) sending map coordinates for the Mysterious Island Verne described in his 1874 novel.

Hank offers to take Sean to the South Pacific to check it out. In Palau, they hire an eccentric helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman), whose pretty teenage daughter (Vanessa Hudgens) makes Sean tongue-tied with awe. The chopper flies straight into a hurricane (a little scary) and crashes (not shown) onto an island paradise where elephants are tiny and hummingbirds are huge. Sean's grandfather meets up with them and they have a series of adventures until they realize the island is sinking. They use Verne's stories to find a way out. The movie is preceded by an amusing Looney Tunes short in 3-D, "Daffy's Rhapsody." Elmer Fudd walks into a theater and is infuriated to see Daffy singing onstage. He tries and of course fails to shoot him dead.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Some of Elmer's gunshots are a little daunting in a 3-D cartoon. In the movie, kids 8 and younger may be scared when the protagonists are chased by giant lizards and hummingbirds. The helicopter flying into the hurricane is also a little frightening. Underwater scenes are tense: Can they hold their breath long enough? A volcano erupts, too. There is very mild toilet humor and sexual innuendo.

"Big Miracle" (PG)

What a nice surprise. This true story, based on news accounts and a 1989 book, "Freeing the Whales," by Thomas Rose, could have been a treacly, unchallenging "family film." Instead, director Ken Kwapis and his team have created a sharply defined, lightly comic slice of Americana for anyone 10 and older to enjoy.

It's about people who came together to rescue three gray whales in 1988. The leviathans are trapped under expanding winter ice off the coast of Barrow, Alaska, and the film drolly examines the political and philosophical fault lines of the Reagan era as different people collaborate to save them. It shines a particularly welcome light on native Alaskans. John Krasinski plays Adam Carlson, an ambitious Anchorage-based TV reporter whose story gets picked up by the network and seen in the White House. Soon there's tremendous pressure to save the whales. Adam's ex-girlfriend Rachel (Drew Barrymore) is a tireless activist with Greenpeace and makes a major fuss. An oil man (Ted Danson) seeking good PR pays for fuel so the Alaska National Guard can haul an ice-breaking barge to the site. Even a nearby Soviet ship gets into the act. A TV reporter from Los Angeles (Kristen Bell) thinks the story is her ticket to the networks. Everyone has an agenda, yet the people bridge their differences. What a concept.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The strongest element for kids under 10 will be the sheer suspense about whether the whales will survive and make it to the open sea. The script contains some salty language, and adults drink. SPOILER ALERT: Though it isn't shown, there is one whale death. We don't see it happen, but we do see the creature's injured snout and hear its labored breathing.

"We Bought a Zoo" (PG)

Certainly the most family-friendly and mildest holiday movie of the season, "We Bought a Zoo" offers kids 10 and up and their parents a heartwarming story, good acting and cool critters. Never mind that the filmmaking under director Cameron Crowe is a bit sloppy.

Based on British writer Benjamin Mee's memoir, but set in the United States, the movie follows the adventures in zookeeping of single dad Benjamin (Matt Damon), a journalist grieving over his late wife. He decides to change his and his kids' lives dramatically. He quits his job and moves the family to a house in the country -- even (BEG ITAL)after(END ITAL) he learns that a financially struggling private zoo comes with it. His sad adolescent son Dylan (Colin Ford) hates the idea, but his little girl Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones) loves it. The kids' uncle (Thomas Haden Church) thinks they've gone crazy. Benjamin puts his personal fortune and physical labor into helping the zoo staff make repairs so the place can reopen. Scarlett Johansson gives a really nice, unglamorous, no-nonsense performance as the dedicated head zookeeper.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The script includes rare barnyard profanity and mild sexual innuendo, including a slightly steamy kiss. A sick animal must eventually be put down. This is discussed, but happens off-screen. A bear and a lion roar and threaten people, and the bear gets loose, briefly. Young Dylan draws disturbing images that reflect his grief and alienation. Adult characters drink.

"The Woman in Black" (PG-13)

Based on a novel by Susan Hill, this movie is a well-made throwback -- a handsome rendering of a ghost story set, of course, in Victorian England. Many high-schoolers will revel in its rich atmosphere and shriek-inducing ghostly visits. That overall spookiness may be too much for middle-schoolers.

In a chilling prologue, we see three little girls jump to their deaths from their playroom windows, seemingly hypnotized by the veiled, black-clad spirit of the title. Years later, mild-mannered attorney Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe, of "Harry Potter" fame) checks into that same room, now the attic of an inn, knowing nothing of what happened there. A grieving widower with a young son, Arthur has come to the village to go through the papers of a deceased dowager. Working in her musty manor, he glimpses the Woman in Black that the townsfolk fear. They believe whenever someone sees her, a child dies. This time a little girl succumbs after drinking lye, and the people blame Arthur. He is determined to get to the bottom of the ghostly mystery and is aided by the local rich man (Ciaran Hinds). The washed-out color and gorgeous settings lend great atmosphere, and Radcliffe is appropriately haunted by grief.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The film depicts ghostly and occasionally skeletal spirits -- many of them dead children. In several scenes children are led to their deaths by the Woman in Black. A spirit re-enacts a hanging suicide and other flashbacks show a child drowned in a marsh. We see bloodied sheets where Arthur's wife died in childbirth. Characters drink.

"Chronicle" (PG-13)

On a whim, three high-school guys explore an unusual cave in this cleverly made science fiction saga, and the telekinetic powers they develop after their exposure to the unearthly material they find there leads them first to fun and then to tragedy. A strong cast of young actors and clever visual effects created on a budget make "Chronicle" a totally absorbing adventure, but perhaps too violent and emotionally tortured for middle-schoolers, despite the PG-13 rating.

Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is a friendless, introverted kid whose unemployed father (Michael Kelly) drinks and beats him up, and whose mother (Bo Petersen) lies terminally ill. After Andrew explores the cave with his thoughtful cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and popular high-school celeb Steve (Michael B. Jordan), he reacts to their newly acquired powers differently. While Steve and Matt enjoy making Legos float in the air, or moving a lady's car from one parking spot to another, Andrew can't stop himself from using telekinesis to express his anger. Once the three guys realize they can fly into the clouds, the action takes a darker turn.

THE BOTTOM LINE: As Andrew's unhappiness at home increases, he lashes out violently and the results are bloody injuries and eventually mayhem and death. The violence -- people thrown to their deaths, explosions, buildings wrecked -- is not graphic, but loud, fast and upsetting. One incident involves an impalement. Characters use occasional profanity, and it's implied that teens drink beer at a party. Andrew's dad is usually drunk, with bottles all around. His mother is on oxygen and looks very ill.

"One for the Money" (PG-13)

Katherine Heigl stars as bumbling bounty hunter Stephanie Plum in this comedy/crime thriller based on the first book in Janet Evanovich's popular 18-novel series about the blue-collar, New Jersy heroine. Though rated PG-13, the movie contains a lot of crudely implied sexual humor and some rough gun violence, which nears R range, so it's not for middle-schoolers. High-schoolers may find the "One for the Money" puzzling, as it never locks onto a particular tone.

Director Julie Anne Robinson begins in a sort of offbeat Coen Brothers style, then lets it wander all over the place, into farce and back again. Heigl is fun as Stephanie, who's broke, jobless and dateless. She goes to work for a cousin as a bail bondsman/bounty hunter, though she has no training. A macho colleague (Daniel Sunjata) gives her some tips. Her target is handsome former vice cop Joe Morelli (Jason O'Mara), who's wanted for murder. Morelli and Stephanie have a history and Stephanie can't seem to decide whether to nab him or kiss him. Her nosy grandmother (Debbie Reynolds) has her own opinions, as does Stephanie's extended family. Had the film been directed with a surer sense of style it could've been a hoot instead of a dud, which is what it is.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The script includes a lot of midrange profanity, some occasionally stronger stuff, and considerable playful sexual innuendo with briefly implied nudity. The gunplay gets intense in a couple of scenes. Characters drink, and handle a shipment of heroin.

"Red Tails" (PG-13)

Teens will absorb a slice of history about World War II and the pre-civil rights era in this unsubtle but highly involving action picture.

Some of the dialogue is awfully clunky and full of pedantic exposition, but a strong cast and thrilling aerial-dogfight sequences largely overcome this. Though fictionalized, "Red Tails" is based on the fabled Tuskegee Airmen -- African- American pilots recruited from the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama during World War II, who were trained to fly fighters and protect American bomber squadrons on missions over Europe. The film follows the struggle of the pilots and their commanding officers to be taken seriously in a military stymied by racist attitudes. The title refers to the paint job on the P-51 Mustangs the Airmen flew. The leader of the squadron, Marty "Easy" Julian (Nate Parker), is a by-the-book guy in the air, but he tamps down his anxieties with drink. His buddy is a risk-taking hotdog of a pilot, Joe "Lightning" Little (David Oyelowo), who falls for a girl (Daniela Ruah) in the Italian town near their base. Their superior officers, Maj. Emanuelle Stance (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Col. A.J. Bullard (Terrence Howard), work to get their pilots respect and better assignments.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Injuries and crashes during the aerial dogfights are not overly graphic. The script includes rare midrange profanity, racial slurs in a bar fight -- including a use of the N-word -- and crude language. There is an implied overnight tryst between an airman and a local Italian girl.

"Safe House" (R)

High-school-age movie fans 15 and older will be carried along by sheer adrenaline in this deliberately convoluted, breathlessly nonstop spy saga.

"Safe House" spits out tiny bits of plot amid head-spinning mayhem. The story isn't all that original, once it's parsed out, but the presentation is fresh. And the film works on more than just an action level because stars Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds bring great nuance to their characters. Matt (Reynolds), a young CIA operative, runs a "safe house" in Cape Town, South Africa. His French girlfriend (Nora Arnezeder) thinks he runs a health research facility. Nothing ever happens there, and the idealistic Matt longs to prove himself to his superiors (Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga and Sam Shepard) back at CIA headquarters. His life changes with drastic speed when an "extraction team" brings in Tobin Frost (Washington), a notorious former agent who has been selling state secrets for cash. Frost has turned himself in for an unknown reason, but there's a cadre of unidentified assassins close on his tail. After a massacre at the safe house, Matt takes Frost on the run, never knowing whether Frost will try to kill him, or infect him with bitterness.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The violence in "Safe House" is a constant -- thunderous gunplay, neck-snapping fights, property-wrecking chases, plus the occasional stabbing. In one scene, agents use waterboarding on Frost. The level of on-screen gore is somewhat understated for the R rating, but there's still plenty of blood. The script also contains rare barnyard profanity. Early in the film we see Matt in the shower with his girlfriend, but there is no sexual situation or nudity. Characters drink wine. All the mayhem is underlaid with a dark sense of betrayal and disillusionment.

"The Grey" (R)

Based on a short story by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, who co-wrote the script with director Joe Carnahan, "The Grey" feels like a throwback to a Jack London adventure in which men test their mettle against whatever nature throws at them. High-schoolers 15 and up with strong stomachs will find it mighty enthralling.

Terrifically acted and handsomely made, "The Grey" is both a thriller and a dark night of the soul involving a tough group of men, led by Liam Neeson. He's Ottway, a sharpshooter who protects the crews at an oil drilling station in a remote part of Alaska from marauding packs of huge wolves. Ottway himself is suicidal, alone in the world without his ex- (or late?) wife. When he and a group of the boisterous oil workers are flying south from their remote site, their plane crashes (a truly intense sequence). Ottway is thrown clear and begins finding survivors. He becomes their de facto leader, though some of the criminally inclined among them push back. The wolf attacks start right away and Ottway organizes the men to defend themselves. The wolves pick some of them off and others lose the will to live. It becomes clear that Ottway has a Capt. Ahab-like obsession with the beasts. "The Grey" isn't for kids under high-school age, but it's an unusually cool piece of work.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The wolf attacks themselves are not highly graphic, but the foreboding leading up to them and the size of the animatronic and computer-animated creatures -- yellow eyes, huge teeth -- make the attacks (BEG ITAL)feel(END ITAL) graphic. And the views of the mutilated victims after the attacks (BEG ITAL)are(END ITAL) graphic. There are severed limbs and a lot of blood. The action includes a harrowing plane crash, gunplay, fist fights. Characters drink and use strong profanity. Themes of suicide, loss of faith and an existential sense of nothingness weave throughout the story.

"Underworld: Awakening" (R)

High-schoolers who enjoy vampire sagas of a more violent strain than the PG-13-rated "Twlight Saga" films will have plenty to chew on in "Underworld: Awakening." The melding of live-action and special effects, subtly intensified in 3-D, works handsomely in this instance, but the violence is too gory for middle-schoolers.

In a prologue, the three previous films are quickly summarized, but the new film is still tough to follow. The vampire heroine Selene (Kate Beckinsale) recalls in voice-over narration how she was captured while trying to save her hybrid human/Lycan (werewolf) lover from the humans bent on killing all "non-human" species. She learns that she was frozen for 12 years and allowed to escape from a lab run by a nefarious human doctor (Stephen Rea). A new, even more deadly form of werewolf, or Lycan, has somehow evolved and escaped annihilation. Selene impales, beheads, kicks and chops her way to the truth of what occurred while she was out of commission. She is helped by David (Theo James), the son of a vampire coven leader (Charles Dance), a human cop (Michael Ealy), and a mysterious hybrid girl (India Eisley).

THE BOTTOM LINE: The special-effects-enhanced violence includes multiple beheadings, impalings, bone-splinterings, and hands thrust into abdominal organs, as well as head-bashing, high-flying fights. The references to genocidal "cleansing" of the "non-humans" are intentionally disturbing references to recent human history. One scene includes implied nudity, and there is very occasional profanity.