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Family Film Guide: 'Australia,' 'Four Christmases'
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviews movies from a family perspective:
'Australia'

Rated: PG-13.

Suitable for: Tweens and above.

What you should know: Baz Luhrmann directs Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman in a sweeping, old-fashioned movie set in Australia in the late 1930s and early '40s.

Language: One crisply delivered f-word and a few stronger versions of darn and heck.

Sexual situations and nudity: The most explicit and yet PG-13 scene involves a couple who start kissing, begin to undress each other and end up in bed before the camera cuts away.

Violence/scary situations: Men are killed by spears, a woman drowns, a man is trampled during a cattle drive and a prolonged attack by the Japanese leaves a city in fiery ruins and imperils children exiled on an island.

Drug or alcohol use: Rum is a favorite, and drinks are tossed back in rowdy bars and served at society functions.


'Four Christmases'

Rated: PG-13.

Suitable for: Teens and above.

What you should know: Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn play an unmarried couple whose vacation plans are short-circuited and they end up visiting their families instead.

Language: About a dozen mild expletives or vulgarities.

Sexual situations and nudity: A couple is shown leaving a bar bathroom after a romantic interlude, kisses are exchanged, a grandmother talks about "pleasuring" her partner, a man describes his much-older girlfriend as a "very sexual being" and a woman says her husband "knows I slept with the entire water polo team just like I know he experimented with men." Also, a home pregnancy test is the focus of a game of keepaway.

Violence/scary situations: Childish men punch, jump on and otherwise physically abuse their brother. An attempt to install a satellite dish ends badly, with a fall from the roof and destruction, inside. A baby's head is accidentally banged against a cabinet, and children and an adult are tossed around in a backyard inflatable playroom.

Drug or alcohol use: Adults consume a variety of alcoholic drinks, although mainly beer and wine.

First published on November 26, 2008 at 12:00 am