By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@thecitizennews.com

Have you gone to the movies with your children lately and been absolutely shocked?

It seems movies today get a particular rating and then stretch that rating as far as it can go. “The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps” is a perfect example. The film is rated PG-13, but there is little in the film but profanity, adult themes and gross-out humor (not to mention it has a weak plot and just isn't nearly as entertaining as the first film.)

There is a way to find out exactly what you're getting yourself into before you go to the movies and it involves only a few minutes on the Internet. There are thousands, possibly millions, of web sites devoted to reviewing movies and spelling out exactly what is involved in each one. Sites like moviemom.com, screenit.com, and capalert.com have breakdowns of every film in wide release as well as an assortment of video reviews, so that viewers will never again be unpleasantly surprised by what their children are seeing.

Moviemom.com is brought to you by Nell Minow, a columnist for Child Magazine. Minow has written a book reviewing films for children and updates her information on her web site weekly. The site has reviews of new movies, video releases, films appropriate for older kids and teens and a list of all time best family movies. There is also a very handy search engine to help you locate a particular film in a matter of seconds. If you want to know if a film is appropriate for your kids, ask moviemom.

Similar to moviemom and a little more specific in its breakdown is www.screenit.com. The site breaks down movies, music, videos and DVDs with a large box full of categories such as profanity, nudity, violence and so on. Each box is rated on a scale from none to heavy. A review of the plot and film continues and then comes the “Our Take” section. This section is brutally honest about the movie and goes on to list every offense in the film. In its “Nutty Professor II” review, the list of sexual references is over a page and a half long.

To take it one step further, www.capalert.com gives a Christian analysis of modern films. The site is the first to point out that it is not a movie review service but an analysis service. The sponsors do not favor one movie over another; they merely report what occurs in the film. They break down movies similarly to screenit.com, but also provide scriptural references. The site is very informative, but can be a bit unsettling. It seems to pore over every film with a magnifying glass. Its analysis of “Chicken Run” seemed a little over the top and makes one wonder how it would review “Bambi” or “The Ten Commandments.”

If these sites don't provide you with enough information, such as whether the film is any good despite how much sex or violence is in the film, visit www.mrqe.com. MRQE stands for movie review query engine and will provide you with every review for a movie the site's sponsors can find. The site finds reviews from newspapers all over the country as well as from fan web sites. There were close to 100 reviews for the film “Coyote Ugly,” and that's a lot of bad reviews.

So, before you drag the kids to the theater this weekend, go on the web and visit some of these web sites. At least you'll know what you're up against and maybe you could find a more appropriate film for the family.

Some sites also offer you the chance to give your review of the film. Locally, you can visit digitalcity Atlanta or 99x.com and instantly chime in about the film you most recently viewed. After all, everybody is a critic.

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