Posted on: Friday, September 19, 2008
Family fare
By Roger Moore
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
'THE WOMEN'
Rating: PG-13 for sex-related material, language, drug use and brief smoking.
What it's about: Affluent, successful female friends cope in different ways when one of their number discovers her husband is cheating.
The kid attractor factor: Eva Mendes is the too-hot "other woman."
Good lessons/bad lessons: Sisterhood is great, among friends. But there are plenty of back-stabbing Jezebels out there out to steal your man.
Violence: None.
Language: Ladies who lunch can also curse, when the need arises.
Sex: Nothing the least bit overt.
Drugs: Pot, cocktails, cigarettes
Parents' advisory: Kind of a "Sex and the City Lite," it's perfectly suitable for mother-daughter "chick picture" bonding, as long as the daughter is 13 or older.
'BURN AFTER READING'
Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content and violence.
What it's about: A CIA agent's misplaced autobiography draws a world of wacky characters together in this comic thriller.
The kid attractor factor: Cool kids like the filmmaking Coen brothers. And Clooney. And Pitt, Swinton, McDormand and Malkovich.
Good lessons/bad lessons: If you forget to log off your computer, bad people can do bad things with your data.
Violence: It's a Coen brothers movie, so somebody is sure to get shot in the forehead.
Language: Plenty of profanity.
Sex: Suggested, with a sex toy on vivid display.
Drugs: Alcohol is abused.
Parents' advisory: Not for 14-and-youngers, but more sophisticated teens — 15 and older — may find it smart and amusing.