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Family Film Guide: 'Lakeview Terrace,' 'Ghost Town'
Friday, September 19, 2008
The Post-Gazette reviews movies from a family perspective:
'Lakeview Terrace'

Rated: PG-13.

Suitable for: Teens and older moviegoers.

What you should know: Samuel L. Jackson plays a widowed LAPD officer who doesn't take kindly to his new suburban neighbors, an interracial couple. He makes their lives miserable as the tension within their marriage escalates.

Language: Two uses of the f-word, at least one "Jesus" as an exclamation and some profanity, vulgarities and use of the n-word.

Sexual situations and nudity: A couple gets cozy in a swimming pool and a bachelor party takes a raunchy turn, complete with strippers.

Violence/scary situations: Lots, including raging wildfires, a break-in, attempted assault, beating, fatal exchange of gunfire and overall menacing tone.

Drug or alcohol use: Adults drink, sometimes to excess, and the cops encounter drug dealers and a volatile domestic dispute.

'Ghost Town'

Rated: PG-13.

Suitable for: Tweens and above.

What you should know: British comedian Ricky Gervais is a Manhattan dentist who develops the ability to see ghosts, including one played by Greg Kinnear, who doesn't want his widow (Tea Leoni) to remarry. Not earth-shaking but a pleasant, restrained romcom.

Language: At least one use of the f-word along with some profanity and vulgarities.

Sexual situations and nudity: There are references to infidelity but nothing is dramatized. A nude ghost is discreetly photographed, and an archaeologist talks about a mummy's penis.

Violence/scary situations: We witness the sudden death of a couple of characters and the dentist learns that he died, for just under seven minutes, during a hospital test and was revived. Hordes of ghosts haunt the Gervais character.

Drug or alcohol use: Adults drink champagne, wine and other alcoholic beverages.

First published on September 19, 2008 at 12:00 am
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