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Nowhere TV-MA Overall: C-

Netflix: A young refugee finds herself adrift in a shipping container in the middle of the ocean.

Saw X R Overall: D

Theaters: John Kramer travels to Mexico for an experimental treatment in the hopes of curing his cancer, but soon discovers the treatment is a scam. Wanting revenge, the infamous serial killer devises new traps to teach the scammers a lesson.

The Creator PG-13 Overall: B-

Theaters: While fighting in the war between humans and AI, special forces agent Joshua is tasked with retrieving a super weapon the AI are working on. But what he discovers is not what he expected.

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie PG Overall: A-

Theaters: After a meteor crashes into Adventure City, it gives the PAW Patrol superpowers. As they learn to use these new powers, two new villains arrive and it will take all of the pups' skills and teamwork to defeat them and protect the city.

Love Is in the Air TV-14 Overall: B+

Netflix: Australian bush pilot Dana is devoted to the airline her mother founded. British financier William is tasked with shutting it down but doesn't expect the emotions he experiences on a trip Down Under.

Dumb Money R Overall: C-

Theaters: Based on the true story of how everyday people flipped the script on Wall Street by turning GameStop stocks into a must buy investment.

Spy Kids: Armageddon PG Overall: B

Netflix: Two young children discover that their parents are elite spies that have been captured by an evil game developer. In order to save their parents and the world, they'll have to become spies themselves.

Expend4bles R Overall: D

Theaters: The Expendables, an elite fighting force only used as a last resort, are called in to face off against a dangerous arms dealer.

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The Croods: A New Age PG Overall: A-

Digital on Demand: The Croods have found some new neighbors, a family called the Bettermans, who claim to be more highly evolved than the Croods. And you thought your neighbors were snooty.

Greenland PG-13 Overall: B+

Digital on Demand: A colossal comet is streaking towards Earth, and fragments are doing unspeakable damage across the globe. John, his wife Allison, and son Nathan now have to make a run for safety, while the sky falls around them and society collapses.

Toys of Terror R Overall: D

When kids find a box of toys in a creepy attic, there's no way they can be prepared for what those toys are going to do.

Love and Monsters PG-13 Overall: B

In Theaters: Although the rise of terrifying monsters and the apocalypse drove them apart, Joel was determined not to give up on Aimee. Now separated by an insurmountable 85 miles, every inch of which is crawling with dangerous monsters, Joel embarks on the journey of a lifetime for love.

News & Views

Oscar nominated movies 2023.

Grading the films nominated for the Oscars

Period Romances

Tale as old as time...

Three Family Films for Black History Month

History without nightmares (we hope).

Best Films of 2022: Part 2

Films for families with teenagers

Best Films of 2022: Part 1

Film picks for families with children

Under the Mistletoe

Romantic Christmas Movies

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Kris Kringle, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas - whatever you call him, he's great movie material.

The Spirit of Christmas

Movies to help you feel the spirit of the season.

Upcoming New Movies

The exorcist: believer, a deadly invitation, upcoming blu-ray/streaming, i used to go here, the secret garden (2020), bill & ted face the music.

Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie

This rollicking, heroic sequel teaches kids that even if they feel small and underpowered, they can still bravely help those around them.

In Theaters

The Kill Room

The Creator

Surprised by Oxford

Streaming & dvd.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Flora and Son

Spy Kids: Armageddon

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3

Blue Beetle

Gran Turismo

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

Plugged In Blog

Tech Trends: FOBO, IJBOL, WGA Strikes and a Black Mirror Reality

The Plugged In Show, Episode 201: An Interview With ‘Digital Detox’ Author Molly DeFrank. Plus, ‘Ahsoka’

Same Old Saw: The Problem With Cinematic Gore

Movie Monday: ‘Nun II’ Bests ‘The Expend4bles’ During Slow Weekend

Plugged in tutorials, help us make a difference.

The Continental

Miseducation

The Irrational

Castlevania: Nocturne

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

Youtube channels.

Doctor Mike

Cross Examined

Great Big Story

Drew Binsky

CaptainSparklez

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

Midnights (3am Edition)

(self-titled)

I Remember Everything

Look for Miracles

Used to Be Young

Mortal Kombat 1

Sea of Stars

Disney Illusion Island

One Upside-Downy Day

The Windeby Puzzle

The Kate in Between

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Where Did Benjamin Go?

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Parenting is hectic and time-consuming and keeping up with the fast-paced Internet and the plethora of content available is too much of a job for one person. Our community is designed to ease that burden by providing parents a single place to get peace of mind about the content their kids are consuming. It is easy for a child to be manipulated by an algorithm and it is a parents responsibility to be aware of what their children are seeing.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is the self-regulatory body for the film industry. It is the American branch of the Motion Picture Association, and was actually founded before the MPA, back in 1922. Please click on the image of each movie rating below to learn more.

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Parenting is one of if not the single largest responsibility you can take on in life. It takes time, energy, and dedication. In this world there are many influences you don’t want your kids to have. With entertainers constantly pushing boundaries it would be difficult to go through a day as an adult without coming across at least one thing you wouldn’t want your children exposed to. But how do you keep these influences away from your children? You cannot be there every second of every day; and even if you could, that would hardly be beneficial for your child.

There are many areas of modern technology with snares for the unwary. TV, Movies and video games are clearly something that you as a parent should be involved with your child on. You should know what they are watching and playing; you should know what the ratings for those things are; and you should have a clearly defined boundary between what is acceptable and what is not. For TV, a V chip can help. For movies and video games, there are organizations whose sole purpose is educating parents on the contents of new releases. They have a comprehensive set of ratings for both movies and video games that will let you know whether a given game or movie is suitable for your children.

In addition, we strive to help you sort through the latest family entertainment and  social media . We are your online family resource for  parents movie reviews ,  movie ratings for families ,  video game ratings and parental advisory information.

But in the 21st century, there are many more avenues for malignant influences to reach your children. While both cell phones and the internet are invaluable tools for staying connected; they both have pitfalls for a child. Thankfully, there are internet filters that you can set up on your computer to limit the sites your children can access. That means your fourteen year old son can catch up on the latest sports headlines, but he won’t be looking up centerfolds. The options on these filters include the ability to set up reports on your children’s browsing habits, or send you an email when they try to access a site they aren’t allowed on. They can even be set to shut down internet access after a certain time of night.

Major cell phone companies have robust parental controls on phones as well. You can block numbers from your children’s phones, set them to shut off at a certain time of night, and even activate emergency tracking on the phone to help find a lost child. And that brings us to another great new parenting invention: GPS. You can get a GPS device that your child carries around with them so that you know where they are. This can provide great peace of mind for any parent who takes their children to busy public places. It only takes a moment turned the wrong way for a child to get lost, but with GPS they can be easily found again.

Parenting responsibilities begin long before TV, movies, cell phones, video games, or even the internet are of any interest to your child however. From birth, your child needs to be fed, nurtured, supported, cared for, oh and fed… From the moment they are born, we try to protect our children from harm, and baby safety is at the forefront of any good parent’s mind.

Why do we spend so much time thinking about baby safety? Babies are fragile, that’s why! When they are born, babies can’t even hold their own head up. They weigh a meager handful of pounds, can’t see past 18 inches, and are utterly defenseless. As our children grow, it always seems that their ability to get into trouble constantly outpaces their ability to judge what constitutes a bad idea. Our job as parents is to help steer them away from the worst ideas, the ones that could seriously injure them.

As parents, we want to provide our babies with the best things possible, whether it is food, baby toys, education, or baby bedding. It’s a competitive world, and any edge you can give your children, you want for them. In many cases it goes beyond a simple edge though. High quality baby bedding has been shown to reduce incidence of sleeping problems in infants, including SIDS.

Other pieces of baby gear can be equally important to keeping a young child safe. Humidifiers are invaluable aids if your baby catches a cough (and at some point, they will). Organic toys ensure that your baby isn’t coming into contact with lead based paints or other toxic chemicals. Safety latches and gates keep your baby out of areas of the home that could harm them. We have them all here, at prices that can’t be beat.

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8 Great Movie Review Sites For Parents With Kids In Mind

Fancy an evening watching movies as a family? Let's explore a few of the best movie review sites for kids so that you can choose the best go-to site for your family's needs.

You're ready to put The Wolverine into the DVD player, then suddenly you wonder if this movie will be a problem for your 8-year-old. Well, will it?

If you're a parent with a family who loves movies, you've probably realised that you need to be able to get some reliable information on those movies before you show them to the family. But navigating the various movie sites to find child-friendly titles can be a chore.

Today we'll explore a few of the best movie review sites for kids so that you can choose the best go-to site for your family's needs. We'll also show you the best ways to get drip-fed some useful information about new movie releases too. Then you can line up your Netflix list and get watching!

Common Sense Media

The Common Sense Media site has a unique way of showcasing their film reviews. Latest releases are shown in a list just with a poster, quick one-sentence blurb, age rating, and star rating. If you click through, you get to see a short video review of the film, featuring a few short clips from the film with a voice-over review. This really is great, as you can see for yourself the sorts of characters that are in the film. The reviews are also very comprehensive, letting you know if there is any educational value as well as covering the usual parental worries - and they're not afraid to tell you if they just don't like it much! If you can't watch the video for whatever reason, you can usually click through again to a text version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eQ3UqV4cs4

The site is easy to browse with best of lists and the like. They also cover books, games, music, and more. Common Sense Media can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube , or via their mobile apps .

Plugged In is a family review site for movies, TV series, games, books, and music. It is seriously well worth a visit if you want to be certain about the suitability of any given entertainment for your child.

The reviews are very detailed, and categorised into positive elements, violent content, sexual content, and more. Their summary icons are limited in order to be simple to understand. This site is available to follow on Facebook, Twitter, or via their Focus On The Family apps.

Movie Guide

Movie Guide is focused on movies and reviews in general, and doesn't set out to have family-focused reviews. However, it has summary pages with information that families would need to make a decision. Each review page has an easy-to-read chart showing language, violence, sex, and nudity levels. It also starts the review with a very brief paragraph on potential issues families might have with the film content.

Follow Movie Guide reviews via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, RSS, or on YouTube .

Kids In Mind

Kids In Mind have very wordy reviews, focusing on three major areas of concern for parents: Sex & Nudity, Violence & Gore, and Profanity. Each film has an easy-reference chart showing the severity of content in these areas, but the review proper has a lot more information available.

Follow Kids In Mind on Facebook or via their iPhone or iPad app. Also, iPad users should check out our guide to  watching videos on the iPad  and Android users should read up on our list of  tablets you would let your kids use .

Box Office Mom

The Box Office Mom site appeals to parents as it gets straight to the answers you really want to know. In the full review, each of the following points is also elaborated on, so you can find out more detail if you're still unsure.

Each film has entries for:

• Rating (Her star-rating guide)
• Release Date
• MPAA Rating
• Best Age Group
• Sexual Content
• Violent Content
• Crude or Profane Language
• Drugs and Alcohol Content
• Will it Appeal to Kids/Teens?

She seems to cover any and all movies that teenagers will bug their parents about. So, there are a few R rated movies in the mix, some of which get a big NO, while others could possibly be viewed by mature 17-year-olds.

You can also browse the site by genre, box-office favourites, or DVD favourites. If you want updates on her new reviews, you can subscribe using RSS, Facebook, and Twitter.

Kids Pick Flicks

The Kids Pick Flicks site has a good point: Why should kids care what a 50-year-old man has to say about movies? To turn that around, they offer a site full of reviews by kids and teenagers.

This, I feel, is an awesome way to find out for sure if your kids will even be interested in certain films. It's also a good way to get your kids interested in reading about movies -- or maybe even reviewing them themselves. In fact, many of the teenage writers on this site seem to have a real talent for writing movie reviews, and could easily line up a good career in it later, I'm sure.

The site is searchable or browsable by DVD reviews or more recent movie reviews. It's worth adding to your RSS feeds.

Raising Children Movie Reviews

The Raising Children site has a lot more than movie reviews, but their movie review section is definitely worth a mention. When browsing their list of movies, you can see prominent icons which let you know what sort of movie it is and what age groups it is recommended for.

The symbols make it easy to see:

• Frightening scenes
• Inappropriate language
• Disturbing, upsetting or confusing scenes
• Sexual references or sex scenes
• Violence or scary scenes
• Age recommendations: Not recommended for / parental guidance recommended for / or suitable for.

As Raising children is an Australian site, all recommendations have been made in conjunction with the Australian Council on Children and the Media. Obviously, clicking through to the film will give you more information on the story, themes, violence, disturbing scenes, sex scenes, product placement, coarse language and ideas to discuss with your children. The last section could be really valuable as a learning tool for your family.

The Dove Foundation

The Dove Foundation covers both movies and books, aiming to showcase the sorts of things that are good for family viewing. Each review comes with a small graph that shows the severity of each of the major worry points for parents: Sex, language, violence, drugs, nudity or other issues. The reviews themselves are brief and focus on what may be worrisome for the parents. The site looks a little outdated, but the content is still very good!

Movies With Kids

As a parent, I wholeheartedly recommend using all of these sites to make decisions. Some of them will obviously gel more with your family's needs more than others, but each of them offer great information about the films out today. I suggest downloading all of the apps and following all of the Facebook pages, as this way you'll get a drip-feed of useful information about the latest films and will have an app on hand to check when you need it.

If your kids also like to play Roblox, make sure you help them stay away from free Robux scams , too.

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Unlike the MPAA we do not assign one inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY , VIOLENCE/GORE and LANGUAGE on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest, depending on quantity and context.

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FILTER by RATINGS Did you know you can now filter searches by any combination of ratings? Just go to our search page or use the search bar, with or without a keyword, from the top navigation menu. Move sliders from 0-10 in any combination, check and uncheck MPAA ratings and use keywords to further filter results — please let us know what you think.

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This is what we do: We enable adults to determine whether a movie is appropriate for them or their children, according to their own criteria. Unlike the MPAA we do not assign an inscrutable rating based on age but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY , VIOLENCE/GORE & LANGUAGE, on a scale of 0 to 10, and we explain in detail why a film rates high or low in a specific category; we also include instances of SUBSTANCE USE, a thorough list of DISCUSSION TOPICS that may elicit questions from children, and the MESSAGE the film conveys. Since our system is based on objective standards, not the viewer’s age or the artistic merits of a film, we enable adults to determine whether a movie is appropriate for their own children… | more | 

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Top 10 Family Movie Review Sites that Won’t Steer You Wrong

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With spring break just around the corner, we know many of you will be looking for movies to watch with your kids. Whether you plan on taking the kids to the theater or watching movies at home (or in a hotel room), it’s helpful to know a little something about a film first. Thankfully, there are quite a few movie review sites dedicated to just that purpose. Unlike traditional movie review sites, these are focused on providing information that parents care about when deciding if a movie is appropriate for their family.

Just like mainstream movie review sites, you’ll likely find one in this list that you’ll turn to when you need to make decisions for your family. Deciding which one is right for you depends on your needs. Make a list of the things you want to get out of a review. For example, maybe you just want to know about the sex and violence content in a film and don’t really want a critique. Then think about how you want that information provided. Do you want it as a bulleted list or as a play-by-play of how it appears in the movie? Similarly, would you prefer to read a lengthy review or watch a one-minute video from a fellow parent?

Whatever works for you, one of the sites listed below will help you pick movies that are best for your family. In addition to reviews, some sites even include places where you can rent/buy the movie online so you can start watching the movie right away. We should note that Christian organizations sponsor some of the sites listed in this roundup and, as a result, those reviews tend to be heavy on family values. Still they do provide solid details that will help you make an informed decision. When considering these sites, we were mindful that these sites may help you make decisions for your kids, so we wanted you to know the source and what you can expect.

10 Sites for Family Friendly Movie Reviews

We’ve put together a list of the 10 most popular sites for family movie reviews and listed them in alphabetical order. Many of the sites listed here go into great detail about sexual content, bad language, drug use, and violence. It’s easy to tell from reading the review if the movie is suitable for your kids. Some even provide an age rating, to help you decide if your kids will like. Since every child is different, we recommend taking the time to read or in some cases watch the review. As you’ll see, some sites are more conservative than others.

1. BoxOfficeMom.com – Run by a mom of three, who has a genuine love of the movies, this site offers her take on popular flicks. The reviews aren’t long, but do provide a plot overview. There are also categories for sexual content, violent/disturbing content, crude language, as well as drug and alcohol content. These sections contain bullet points alerting parents of what they can expect to see in the movie. Each movie also gets an overall rating depicted by popcorn buckets, which focuses on if the film is appropriate for kids or teens. While the reviews don’t include trailers embedded on the site, there are links to YouTube if you want to watch the preview. Overall, BoxOfficeMom.com may not feature as many films as other sites, it does a good job and providing the info parents care about in a direct matter.

2. Clubhouse Jr . – As the online site for the Clubhouse magazine for kids, the content is all geared toward kids. In addition to a movie reviews section, it also features games, videos, crafts and other activities. Clubhouse Jr. is part of the Focus on Family network of sites, which includes the PluggedIn (see listing below) family movie review site for parents.

Like everything else on the site, the reviews of the PG movies featured are geared towards kids for PG movies. So you never have to worry that kids will stumble upon a scary movie like The Shining. The reviews on this site tend to be long descriptions of the movies. While they don’t give the entire movie away, they do tell an awful lot about its plot. Reviews will also mention if there’s something in a film to discuss with parents. If you want to get your kids involved in picking movies, this is a safe site where they can read movie reviews.

3. Common Sense Media – Created by an organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology, this is one of the more comprehensive family movie review sites in this roundup. This site also includes reviews of games, books, TV shows, apps, websites, and music. It’s a useful tool for parents looking for reliable reviews on a plethora of media and technology topics.

Movie reviews include all the information parents needs to quickly decide if it is appropriate for their kids including recommended age groups, previews, an overview, and talking points for the family after they watch the film. The overviews focus on what parents should know about the movie. To get more details on the content, there are “What’s the story?” and “Is it any good?” sections that provide more information. If you like to look at ratings in a glance, you’ll appreciate the comprehensive “What parents need to know” checklist that includes ratings for positive messages, positive role models, violence, sex, language, consumerism, and drinking, drugs & smoking. Once you decide on a movie that’s currently available at an online video store, click the Watch button for a list of places where the movie can be streamed or purchased.

In addition to the written reviews, some of the films feature a Common Sense video review. These are roughly one-minute reports that provide a brief summary of the movie and finish with what age group is appropriate. Speaking of reviews, it also offers user reviews from teens, kids and parents. When kids post their opinions, it includes their age, which should help you decide if it’s a movie that will interest your child. Overall, Common Sense Media is a well thought-out movie review site for families with an intuitive design.

4. The Dove Foundation – For over 20 years, this non-profit organization has been dedicated to providing family friendly movie reviews to help parents decide which films are appropriate for their kids. With that in mind, the organization has recently stopped reviewing NC-17 rated movies. There might be a listing for that movie with basic details, but it will simply list it as “Not Recommended for Families.” Movie listings include a synopsis, a family-centric review that doesn’t give too much away, inappropriate content description, and movie details such as actors, director, writers and more.

The Dove Foundation is best known for its scorecard that depicts the severity of sex, language, violence, drugs, nudity, and other inappropriate behavior in a movie. You can find reviews of movies currently in theaters and DVD, as well as TV shows. The site has recently added the ability to purchase family friendly movies for download or streaming directly from the site. As of this writing, there wasn’t a significant selection. Overall, the site is easy to navigate, and it provides a decent selection of family friendly movies though it lacks reviews of movies coming soon (even those due out over the upcoming weekend). There is also a fair share of content available for those looking for faith-based entertainment.

5. Fandango Family Movies – The popular movie ticket-purchasing site has dedicated a section of its site to family movies. It’s designed only to surface family friendly movies. Although it doesn’t provide information on if a film is age appropriate, it does offer an age filter so it will only surface movies geared toward a particular age group (for example, 3 – 6, 7 – 12, etc.). Each movie has a synopsis, cast and crew information, release date, a trailer, movie times and tickets and additional features. The reviews are from users of the site, and those are combined to give a movie an overall star rating.

On this section of the Fandango site, there are some family friendly video content that should help parents decide if they should see the movie. Parents will appreciate the Mom’s Movie Minute, which is a video of a mom discussing a movie’s plot and how her kids felt about the movie. The videos conclude with her rating on positive themes, violence, sex, and bad language. There’s also a Reel Kids video series featuring kids talking about themes in a movie. While this series is geared toward kids, parents will likely find it charming as well.

We should note that while the family friendly section of Fandango has a lot to offer, it’s easy to end up back on the larger Fandango site that displays all current releases. Additionally, you won’t find reviews of DVDs on this site. Overall, if you’re a fan of Fandango and all the content it has to offer, you’ll appreciate the family friendly version of the site. Just be aware that not all movies have a Mom’s Movie Minute, so you’ll need to scroll through reviews to find more information on things like sex, violence, and bad language.

6. Kids in Mind – The sister site to Critics.com is designed to help parents decide if a movie is right for their family. Reviews on this site are really focused on providing detailed information about sex & nudity, violence & gore, profanity, and substance abuse. Reviews begin with a quick synopsis of the movie, which doesn’t give away too much of the plot. Each category section has a rating and a comprehensive list of things parents might find unsuitable for kids. The reviews end with suggested talking points for families to discuss.

Kids in Mind has a ton of useful content, but it lacks style. Each review has one image, and there are no trailers. You can, however, view the trailer by clicking the links to the IMBD listing or the official site. It lists new releases and movies available on DVD, so you can easily see what movies are scheduled to come out in a given week. Plus, you can view a list of films alphabetically if it doesn’t appear in the site’s search results. Other than this information there is little else, but parents that just want the facts will appreciate the straightforwardness of Kids in Mind.

7. Movie Guide – This basic site includes reviews of current releases, DVD, and TV movies. Although it lacks movie trailers, it does occasionally include sites (for example, Amazon and iTunes) where films are available for download. While the site doesn’t offer ratings about age appropriateness, it does rate the language, violence, sex, and nudity that appear in the film. Each review begins with a Content section that provides details about inappropriate content. The actual movie review section is quite long and includes information about the plot, what it’s like to watch the movie, and the reviewer’s opinion. If you don’t want to read all of that, you can skip to the In Brief section, which is a quick summation of plot and the reviewer’s thoughts on the film.

The site is associated with the Christian Film and TV Commission, so occasionally you’ll find reference to Christianity in the reviews. While it does have an extensive database of mainstream movies, you’ll also find some faith-related titles as well. In short, in addition to offering information to help you decide if a movie is family friendly it also includes critic-style reviews of each film.

8. Parent Previews – What started out as a newspaper column with a focus on film reviews from a family perspective has become a full-fledged website that’s been running for 10 years. While the site only reviews movies with a rating of G, PG, or PG-13, you’ll still find some R rating movie listings. Those films just lack the full review, but they do include a list of questionable content such as violence, sexual content, language, and alcohol/drug use. Each review includes a grade card for questionable content along with details of the offenses, talking contents, cast and crew, trailers, a synopsis, trailers, talking points, and Canadian movie ratings. Speaking of reviews there are user reviews, however, you need to login to leave them. One unique feature is the option to hear an abbreviated version of the critique. If you like that, you may be interested in subscribing to the site’s Daily 90 Second Podcast.

The site is well designed making it easy to jump to the section of a review that interests you most. It also features reviews of DVDs, movie extras, and news features. While it doesn’t provide information on what age group would appreciate a certain movie the grade card makes it easy for parents to figure out at a glance if a film is appropriate for their family. Overall, Parent Previews is a well thought out family friendly movie review site that provides critiques as well as grades of what’s in theaters now and DVD releases.

9. Parental Guide – This family-centric shopping site also offers movie reviews. However, if you see a review you like, you won’t be able to purchase the video. That said, the site does offer some helpful tips on technology and kids. The reviews include a trailer, cast & crew, release date and a detailed summary of the movie (but doesn’t give away the plot). The actual reviews are concise, but well thought out. Within the review, it provides a suggestion for what type of audience the movie is appropriate for. It also goes into detail about why the film received the MPAA rating it did and what parents need to know.

Parental Guide mentions on the site that it has coming soon and new releases, the most recent review we could find was for movies released last year. That said, if you’re trying to decide on a movie released in 2014 or 2013 you’ll likely find a review on this site. Unfortunately, the search seems to be restricted to products sold on the site, so you’ll have to scroll manually through the movie listings to find the film you want. In short, Parental Guide’s family movie reviews are useful, but there aren’t as many titles reviewed as can be found on other sites in the list.

10. PluggedIn – This site is part of the Focus on Family network of sites, which includes the Clubhouse Jr. (see listing above) movie review site for kids. As such reviews are heavy on information that parents want to know such as Positive Elements, Spiritual Content, Sexual Content, Violent Content, Profane Language, Drug and Alcohol Content, and Other Negative Elements. Reviews also include a lengthy overview of the plot, a conclusion that sums up some of the film’s themes a Plugged In rating, credits, and icons depicting appropriate age group. While the site doesn’t offer trailers, many reviews feature an online video component that provide a brief preview, story synopsis, and a mention of questionable content which parents should know about it. If you don’t want to watch the video, you can click the listen icon to hear the review.

Navigating the site is fairly straightforward, you can easily search for movie reviews based on the title, MPAA rating, release date, genre, PluggedIn rating, or alphabetically. In addition, to family-friendly movie reviews of films currently in the theater there’s also a section for recently released on video. However, there’s no mention of where to download the movie online. Overall, PluggedIn provides detailed reviews that parents will appreciate and the option to watch or listen to an abbreviated review is a nice touch.

Snap Shot: Comparison of Family Movie Reviews

Looking for an easy way to compare movie review sites for families? This chart will be able to show you at a glance the main features that each site in the roundup offers.

A Family Movie Review Provides Confidence When Choosing Entertainment for Your Kids

At the top of many parents list for spring break is watching movies with their kids. Instead of guessing what movie your family might like or is it appropriate for them take some time to peruse some reviews. As you do this, make a list of movies that you’d like to see with your kids that you know you’ll all enjoy. It’s a great way to avoid all that time trying to decide which movie to see. That can take longer than the 10 previews typically shown before each film in a theater.

Once you find some movies you like, if they’re still in theaters check out showtimes that will work with your schedule. If you prefer to watch them at home, visit a site like IMDB to find out where you can download them online. Even though the site is geared toward movie buffs, it does have a Parents Guide for each movie, which lets you know all the controversial (aka not so family friendly) stuff that happens. For those who are heading out on vacation and aren’t sure about the Wi-Fi connection at your lodging, opt for downloading a rental of the movie before you leave. Just remember you have a limited time (usually 24 to 48 hours) before the movie expires. If you know you’re going to be at a spot with a high-speed Wi-Fi connection that won’t cost you any extra to use, streaming the movie online will work great. Don’t forget to check out the mobile apps for premium channels that you subscribe to and see if the video is available there. Then add it to your watchlist or saved movie queue. We hope you enjoy your family time at the movies.

Related Posts

About The Author

Joni blecher.

Joni Blecher, RealPlayer Blog Editor - Joni started covering technology back when cell phones didn't have color displays and quickly made a name for herself in the mobile industry as CNET's "Cell Phone Diva." In addition to covering everything mobile, she has launched and edited multiple blog sites. When Joni started appearing in product review videos, she fell in love with the story-telling format and honed her video skills to include producing and editing videos. Joni has made appearances on CNN, BBC, CNBC's Bulls Eye, and Good Day New York to discuss the latest in technology. When she's not spending her time writing or shooting video you can find her exploring and tasting the latest food trends. Follow her on Twitter  @JoniBlecher

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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

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Uplifting story-based fantasy has some smoking, death.

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Wes Anderson is a White male filmmaker making a mo

A man has a scar from being hit with a stone. A ma

The film could inspire interest in Roald Dahl's or

Parents need to know that The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is director Wes Anderson's adaptation of the Roald Dahl short story. The 40-minute film has some smoking and deaths, but its messages are overwhelmingly positive, with characters who learn to control their minds and their more selfish impulses. The…

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Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is director Wes Anderson 's adaptation of the Roald Dahl short story. The 40-minute film has some smoking and deaths, but its messages are overwhelmingly positive, with characters who learn to control their minds and their more selfish impulses. The film stars an all-British cast ( Ralph Fiennes , Benedict Cumberbatch , Ben Kinglsey , and Dev Patel ), including two of Gujarati Indian descent and another of Nigerian heritage. The story takes place between London, England, and Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. An Indian yogi teaches the art of concentrating the mind. There are no female characters with spoken lines in the film, and some stereotypes involving a wise yogi levitating in the Indian jungle (and mention of circus acts like snake charmers and sword-swallowers). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• On DVD or streaming : September 27, 2023
• Cast : Benedict Cumberbatch , Ben Kingsley , Ralph Fiennes
• Director : Wes Anderson
• Inclusion Information : Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Book Characters
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• Run time : 40 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : smoking
• Last updated : September 30, 2023

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‘The Kill Room’ Review: A ‘Pulp’ Pairing With No Juice

The “Pulp Fiction” actors Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson reunite in a bloody saga that is past its “best by” date, but includes an all-star supporting cast.

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By Glenn Kenny

As far as “Pulp Fiction” pairings go, the actors Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson in the satirical crime comedy “The Kill Room” generate more pleasure than seeing Bruce Willis and John Travolta in last year’s hackneyed action thriller “ Paradise City .”

This is because “The Kill Room,” directed by Nicol Paone from a script by Jonathan Jacobson, gives them a good deal of scenery to chew on together, at least at the beginning.

Thurman, a producer on the film, plays Patrice, a gallerist in Manhattan who is refusing to crumble as she faces a set of financial shortfalls. Jackson plays Gordon, a bialy craftsman known to his associates as “Black Dreidel,” whose Jersey City bakery is a front for organized crime.

Gordon looks after an assassin, Reggie (Joe Manganiello), whose hits are making them enough cash to potentially alert the authorities. As a cover, he instructs Reggie to start painting and enlists Patrice in a money-laundering scheme in which each canvas represents a murder, and is sold for a respectable amount of money via a respectable check.

But the script’s sendup of the gallery world is stale, as is its depiction of organized crime, which has a group of vulgar Russian guys at the top. The premise rests upon a tired and philistine notion about modern art, here iterated by an indignant criminal’s protest, “My five-year-old makes better paintings than that with his fingers.”

And while the supporting cast is replete with performers we like to see — Debi Mazar, Larry Pine, and Thurman’s daughter, Maya Hawke, as a feminist artist — the script, in the end, does little to support them.

The Kill Room Rated R for violence, language. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters.

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PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie Review

Despite some feature-level fireworks and a pg rating, this is just more distractor cinema for the littlest kids..

For a moment, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie does something genuinely unprecedented in the realm of maddening kid-targeted entertainment: It apologizes to parents and caregivers in the audience. “To all the parents out there, I’m sorry,” a newscaster (Lil Rel Howery) says as an aside after announcing the proliferation of even more PAW Patrol merchandise opportunities during the second feature film starring the preferred animated babysitters of so many under-five children. It’s not a blanket mea culpa for, say, the earwormy and incessantly repeated PAW Patrol theme song, or the continuing prominence of particularly smug police-pup Chase, but at least it acknowledges two key tenets of PAW: It’s a global merchandising phenomenon moreso than it is a vehicle for stories the whole family can enjoy, and unlike some of the better kid-friendly entertainment out there, it’s not something that even attempts to entertain the parents who’ll get dragged along.

If the primary question is whether kids will like it, the answer is “almost certainly.” The pre-K target audience will be rapt, and even younger elementary-school-aged kids may have lived with the pups long enough to generate their own nascent version of earlier-childhood nostalgia. Then again, the most hardcore PAW Patrol fans in that demographic would probably enjoy watching old episodes of the show on Paramount + just as much, so a new movie may or may not even register with them. So perhaps it’s best to ask a secondary question: What degree of parental torture are we talking about here?

Who is the most annoying pup?

The answer is that it’s relatively mild, assuming parents have built up a tolerance for the day-saving pups in the first place. By cribbing from the superhero movie playbook – retelling how the pups acquired various themed superpowers from a meteor – the movie imposes a bit more structure on their second big-screen adventure than we saw in the 2021 movie. Unlike that first movie or the similarly superpowered made-for-TV special PAW Patrol: Supercharged from 2018, The Mighty Movie does not feel like three or four episodes stitched together. It has a clearer premise than the diffuse first film, strategically deployed action sequences, two villains who team up halfway through, and even a couple of montages.

The Mighty Movie gives fan favorite Skye (voiced for the movie only by Ghostbusters: Afterlife star Mckenna Grace) her own traumatic backstory, following Chase’s central role in the first movie. She’s apparently struggled with physical smallness all her life, and one of The Mighty Movie’s few genuinely clever moments of kid empathy has Skye chafe at being picked up and manhandled by grown-ups who think she’s cute. Her new powers give her a major confidence boost, but she meets a formidable adversary in the form of mad scientist Victoria Vance (Taraji P. Henson). Meanwhile, Liberty (Marsai Martin) copes with her own lack of powers by training a trio of smaller prospective members of the Patrol, one of which is voiced by North West, whose mom Kim Kardashian reprises her cameo role from the first film.

That’s just part of The Mighty Movie flaunting a starrier cast than the first film. In addition to Kardashian, Howery, and Henson, Chris Rock contributes a one-line gag cameo and Kristen Bell seems to be doing an Edie McClurg impression, presumably in a bid not to confuse young Frozen fans into thinking Anna of Arendelle has relocated to Adventure City. These familiar voices are supposed to delight parents, but they mostly seem more like items in a celebrity gift bag – hence Kardashian securing her daughter North and son Saint their very own PAW Patrol vanity parts.

More than ever, most of the liveliness comes from silly villains, whose colorful goofiness at times recalls the outsized antagonists of the ’60s Batman TV series, if only briefly. Henson clearly has a ball voicing Victoria, who meets the irrepressible Mayor Humdinger (Ron Pardo) and his pack of disdainful cats in jail.

Rather than marveling over the vaguely familiar vocal tones or appreciating the handful of decent villain gags, bored parents can spend some time considering how The Mighty Movie follows the fine tradition of superhero adventures creating screwy continuity. On the still-ongoing TV show, the pups live in Adventure Bay and occasionally transform into the superheroic mighty pups; in the movies, they make their home in Adventure City, and the reconfigured mighty-pup origin now includes a meteor crash apparently explosive enough to garner a PG rating. Though the destruction is indeed more intense than it is on TV, urging any caution for a preschool-targeted movie is another strange MPA decision. If a PAW Patrol movie can’t receive a G, it’s hard to imagine what could.

Regardless, the destruction of their high-tech base of operations doesn’t matter much to the unflappable pups. Though they’re momentarily aghast – “Our vehicles!” one of them cries, though they restrain themselves from lamenting the loss of their awesome accessories – they simply relocate to a second, already-built playset, er, high-tech base (reminiscent of The Transformers: The Movie back in 1986, where characters were killed off and replaced with cool new products). These canine characters exist in a kiddie utopia where toys (and, to a lesser extent, their human, benevolent taskmaster Ryder) replace parents as the true authority. No matter what kind of shenanigans the pups get into, someone offscreen will always buy them more PAW Patrol junk.

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie is harmless enough, and less numbingly repetitive than its TV counterpart. Even if the TV show has already told similar stories, the superhero framework gives the new movie a little more structure, as well as and funnier, more entertaining villains. But this is still a time-waster designed to momentarily distract the smallest children in exchange for pitching them a new line of PAW Patrol action figures. Little kids will like it, but they can still do better. 

More Reviews by Jesse Hassenger

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