(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) - A guide to movies from a family perspective:
"Limitless"
-- Rated: PG-13.
-- Suitable for: Teens and above.
-- What you should know: Bradley Cooper plays a struggling writer who discovers a pill allowing him to use 100 percent of his brainpower. It eventually brings wealth but also potentially fatal health problems and brushes with death.
-- Language: One f-word and at least a half-dozen milder four-letter expletives.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: A couple of hookups with strangers are briefly dramatized.
-- Violence/scary situations: A man teeters on the balcony of a high-rise building, and the movie has chase scenes, a murder, a car crash, beatings, stabbings, fights and gunshots, some fatal. Hands are amputated and sent to someone as a menacing message, and corpses shown.
-- Drug or alcohol use: In addition to the black-market drug, the movie shows adults drinking beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks.
"Battle: Los Angeles"
-- Rated: PG-13.
-- Suitable for: Teens and above.
-- What you should know: The world's biggest cities are under attack by aliens who seem unstoppable. Aaron Eckhart leads the cast as a Marine about to retire but ordered to join a platoon sent to Santa Monica, Calif., where members of the military and a band of civilians try to stay alive.
-- Language: One f-word and a fairly steady stream of milder expletives and profanity.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: A Marine is teased about being a virgin, but that's about it.
-- Violence/scary situations: What the news media report as meteor showers are really aliens leaving cities in flames and ruins. There are fiery explosions, attacks on people and property, much exchange of weapon fire, children in peril and the loss of core characters. For much of the movie, it's chaos, nonstop destruction and what seems like little hope for humanity.
-- Drug or alcohol use: Marines consume many beers, and one newbie drinker vomits.
"Red Riding Hood"
-- Rated: PG-13.
-- Suitable for: Mature tweens and older.
-- What you should know: Amanda Seyfried from "Mamma Mia!" plays the title role, a young woman living in a medieval village menaced by a werewolf. When the wolf kills her older sister, a hunt for the beast intensifies, everyone comes under suspicion and dangerous secrets are revealed. It's from the director of the first "Twilight" movie and features actor Billy Burke, who plays Bella's dad in that series.
-- Language: Little noteworthy.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: Some passionate kisses and embraces are exchanged, and there's talk about loving one man but marrying another.
-- Violence/scary situations: Lots, although it's often bloodless, or moviegoers see the aftermath of death, dismemberment or torture.
-- Drug or alcohol use: Adults are shown drinking.
"Mars Needs Moms"
-- Rated: PG.
-- Suitable for: Kids 5 and older.
-- What you should know: It's a 3-D animated sci-fi action adventure from ImageMovers studio ("The Polar Express," "A Christmas Carol") about a Martian colony that abducts Earth mothers to help raise its children. Milo, a 9-year-old (voice of Seth Green), becomes a stowaway trying to bring his mom home alive.
-- Language: Nothing notable.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: None.
-- Violence/scary situations: The mom-abduction scenes seem somewhat realistic and might be disturbing to young kids. There's also a scene of a mom strapped down and blasted by a laser.
-- Drug or alcohol use: None.
"Beastly"
-- Rated: PG-13.
-- Suitable for: Tweens and older.
-- What you should know: Kyle (played by Alex Pettyfer) is a rich, cruel high-schooler who must pay for his wicked ways by becoming a "beast" after a witch casts a spell on him. In this modern-day retelling of "Beauty and the Beast," Kyle must find love or risk spending his life as a beast. Co-starring Vanessa Hudgens ("High School Musical"), "Beastly" is based on a young-adult book of the same name.
-- Language: Mild language is used, but the worst curse words are avoided.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: Teens making out at a party and a few scenes with the male lead shirtless.
-- Violence/scary situations: One fight scene involving some punches and a gunshot.
-- Drug or alcohol use: Alcohol use is implied during a party scene, but it's not overtly stated, nor is it the focus of the scene.
"The Adjustment Bureau"
-- Rated: PG-13.
-- Suitable for: Tweens and up.
-- What you should know: Matt Damon and Emily Blunt star in a romantic thriller, based on a Philip K. Dick sci-fi story. He plays a U.S. Senate candidate from New York who falls for a dancer but finds that forces conspire to keep them apart.
-- Language: One f-word, a couple of uses of profanity and a handful of mild four-letter expletives.
-- Sexual situations and nudity: A reference is made to someone "mooning" others as a prank, and a couple are seen in a sexual embrace.
-- Violence/scary situations: Damon's character is pursued by mysterious men who want to control his actions, leading
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