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November 8th, 2006
09:23 pm - Movies and more movies, part III
Kids In Mind is just the coolest movie review site I've come across in a long time.
In a world where a lot of people are trying to tell us what's good for our kids, I always love a resource that gives me all of the information to decide for myself whether a particular thing is kid-appropriate - for my kids, by my standards. In this case, movies.
Kids In Mind rates movies on a 0-to-10 scale for sex/nudity, violence/gore, and profanity - and then discusses, in detail, every scene in the film that contributes to each of these scores. In addition, it gives each film a detailed list of substance use/abuse incidents (though not a rating); a list of discussion topics that the film might provoke, and a general "message" or moral.
What I love about it is that it's not moralistic at all. It's very much "just the facts"; there's no site rating for recommended age, or subtle equating of the ratings of the movie with its quality. By way of example, I ran two searches to get a feel for the site: Forrest Whittaker's new film The Last King of Scotland (which has LOTS of sex AND violence AND profanity and is by all accounts magnificent but definitely not for kids) and the animated Flushed Away, clearly marketed as a kids' film but loaded with opportunities for scatalogical humor. Flushed Away rates 1.3.2; The Last King of Scotland rates 7.9.6. Samples from the detailed analyses:
"A nearly unconscious man is dragged by soldiers, he is thrown to the floor, we see his badly bruised eye and bloody face from having been beaten, and a man squeezes his head between his hands while threatening him. Men are kicked and beaten and threatened by men with guns. A man hits another man, and he falls to the floor." (The Last King of Scotland, violence/gore)
"A lot of name calling and insults (stupid, dipstick, get stuffed), a couple of mild anatomical references (booty), a couple of mild profanities, one religious exclamation in French." (Flushed Away, profanity)
"A mouse has disgusting looking toenails. A mouse is covered in chocolate cake. A mouse runs into a melted chocolate bar floating in a sewer and thinks that it's feces. There are a lot of references to people going to the bathroom during the half-time period of a soccer match. One character flatulates and another burps a few times. Two mice spit in their palms and shake hands, twice." (Flushed Away, violence/gore)
"Political coups, Uganda, Africa, naiveté, bigamy, betrayal, treason, loyalty, fairness, the Libyan hijacking of a plane and the Entebbe airport raid, making a difference, human rights violations, assassination, cannibalism, paranoia, change, hope, beginning of civilization, fear, terror, hatred, weakness, omens." (The Last King of Scotland, discussion points)
Plenty of information here to make reasoned, informed decisions that will vary from family to family. And plenty of opportunities for using entertainment as a launching point for valuable family discussions about real-world issues.
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