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Director John Krasinski’s follows a grieving tween named Bea who discovers the world is full of cast-off imaginary friends.

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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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‘IF’ Is Rated PG, but Is the New Movie About Imaginary Friends OK for Young Kids?

Heads up, bring tissues—Why 'IF', starring Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski made this mom a blubbering mess.

“Sometimes life isn’t fun,” but the new movie IF , in theaters this Friday, certainly is. 

I will happily watch anything that stars Ryan Reynolds or has John Krasinski’s name attached to it. So when I saw that IF not only stars Reynolds, but is also written, directed, and produced by Krasinski (who also plays two roles in the film), I immediately knew it was going to be a masterpiece. And it didn’t let me down. Not just because it is great entertainment for kids, but a really fun trip down memory lane for us adults too. 

Paramount Pictures

I did not expect this movie to make me a blubbering mess and all in my feels within the first 30 seconds of the film. There is only one other movie that hit me that hard and fast, and that was Disney’s UP (IYKYK). I was admittedly unprepared for the emotional rollercoaster of laugh-out-loud moments mixed with a sweet sense of poignant nostalgia but I was really happy to be along for the ride of this family movie . 

The PG rating makes sense given some of the film's themes, but the animated creatures' wholesome nature and their adventure makes it really digestible for young children to understand.

The Themes Of IF

IF is a beautiful movie that takes adult viewers on a journey back to their childhood, exploring love and loss through the eyes of a child, and how creating a world of make-believe becomes a way of resilience against the struggles of the real world. It reminds us parents that our magical childhood may not be so far behind us.

For kids who watch the film, it encourages them to cherish their childhood as long as possible. The film not only celebrates imagination but also the strong bonds of family and friendship.

The plot centers around 12-year-old Bea, played brilliantly by actress Cailey Fleming. She's navigating a challenging time in her life with her father, played by Krasinski. She discovers she can see everyone’s long-forgotten imaginary friends . With the help of her eccentric neighbor Cal, played by Reynolds, they embark on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs, or imaginary friends, with their now-grown creators.

Fleming is now 17 years old but was just 13 when she began working on IF. She has been an actress since she was 8, portraying a “Young Rey” in Star Wars: The Force Awakens , and as Judith Grimes in AMC’s The Walking Dead .

“I’ve never been so involved in something as I have this movie,” she tells Parents . “I have tried to hold onto every moment that I could, and learn from everything that I could from watching John and Ryan.”

As Bea navigates the challenges of growing up in this coming-of-age film, Fleming finds herself on a parallel journey in real life. “I felt that as Bea was growing, I was growing,” she explains. “I just felt very connected to her.”

Krasinski’s inspiration for the film came from his two young daughters, whom he shares with actress Emily Blunt. He tells Parents he always wanted to write a film about imaginary friends for his daughters, but it wasn’t until he saw how the pandemic affected his girls that he decided to sit down and finish writing the film. 

“I used to stand in the doorway and watch these girls disappear into this magical world that you know we’re not allowed in, and I remember thinking not only how joyful they were but how authentic they were,” he explains. “They were themselves. They got to do voices and wear whatever they wanted.”

“And then the pandemic hit,” he goes on. “Slowly their light started to go out and they were doing fewer and fewer imaginary games and started asking big questions like ‘Are we going to be ok?’”

He realized his daughters were growing up too fast, and because of what was happening around them, they felt forced to give up on their childhood. So he promised them he would “write a movie about how you never have to give up on that magical world.”

He wrote it at the same time he was producing the YouTube show Some Good News , to “put good energy out in the world,” but also to “talk about big and hard things as long as you do it with love and hope.”

“I’ve never been more scared to show anything to anyone in my entire career,” Krasinski admits of the trepidation he felt before showing the final cut of the movie to his daughters. 

“I got two little thumbs up and to this day I’m still processing it,” he beamed. “Finally, I’m in the cool category. They had no idea what I did for a living and Emily was off to the races with Mary Poppins and Jungle Cruise , and now I’m there!”

The Stellar Cast of IF

Not only was the film a love letter for Krasinski’s daughters, but two of the animated characters were created directly from their imaginary play time.

“Ally,” (a pink alligator voiced by Maya Rudolph), was an imaginary friend that lived under their bed, and “Marshmallow” was another real IF created by his daughters, whom Krasinski ended up voicing in the film. Keeping it all in the family, there’s a unicorn IF voiced by Emily Blunt.

Kids will no doubt be drawn to the live-action animated IF’s, particularly “Blue,” voiced by Steve Carell, and each fantastical creature Krasinski created with their own unique backstory and charm.  That includes “Keith,” an invisible prankster IF who becomes a thorn in Cal’s side. 

A who’s who of Hollywood stars was enlisted to voice the myriad of imaginary characters including Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Matt Damon, Amy Schumer, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Awkwafina, Blake Lively, Maya Rudolph, and Jon Stewart. The late Louis Gossett Jr. voices a wise bear named “Lewis,” and Krasinski admits he was starstruck to have one of his favorite actors he watched during his childhood, starring in a film he created. 

While imagination was very much part of the storyline, it was also very much part of the movie-making process. Krasinski helped the actors move past the logistical challenges of interacting with characters that were physically not in the scene by shooting some scenes using puppets and stuffed animals.

“Imagination is part of our job. We do it every day. Especially in this movie, we had to imagine a lot because they weren’t there,” Fleming says.

I don’t remember if I had an IF but, I’m sure I must have when I was younger. Before watching the movie, I feared that because of this, I’d feel a bit left out. But the film helps those of us who can’t quite remember still feel like we’re part of the process by tapping into the triggers that bring us back to those special childhood days. 

For Krasinski, “it’s the smells, it’s the sounds, it’s the music cues, or it could be a line from a movie that someone says,” that triggers joyful memories of his childhood. 

In particular, Tina Turner’s 1984 hit song “Better Be Good To Me,” which he uses in a grand musical number featuring all of the IFs in the film. He says he included it as a way to pay tribute to his mom who was a “huge Tina Turner fan” which made him one too.  

“I was an 8-year-old who knew all the words to all the Tina Turner songs," Krasinski says. "Like imagination, your memories are stirred up by things that may not be deliberate. The smell of your mom’s cooking or the music she was listening to make you who you are.”  

For me, it’s seeing the waves crash in the ocean and Bob Marley's songs. Hearing reggae brings me back to vacations with my parents in Jamaica, which were probably some of the best moments of my childhood. The film emphasizes that through the right triggers, the magic of childhood is never really lost, even when we become adults. 

When you head to the theater, be prepared (with tissues) for an emotional experience that might make you consider the imaginary characters we created as children may somehow still be providing comfort, joy, and guidance in our later years. The “What If?” where anything is possible. Because as Blue says, “All kids need their IFs, especially when they grow up.” 

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Most children suspect that adults are capable of playing unspeakable tricks on them. One Sunday afternoon my parents attempted to serve me "chicken," when I had every reason to believe that the presence of the "chicken" on my plate was ominously related to the disappearance of one of the rabbits from the hutch in the backyard of the Shaw family - a rabbit the Shaw boys and I had adopted as a special pet. To be sure, there was a war on, and a lot of families were keeping rabbits or raising victory gardens, but as I looked at that pathetic little bunny drumstick, all floured and browned and crispy, I knew that I was being asked to become little more than a cannibal.

"Parents" is a movie about that feeling, about the conviction that after the kids are in bed and their lights are out, parents engage in weird rituals and unthinkable practices. What about those roars of laughter that come echoing down the hallway from the living room, for example: Are the grown-ups just having a good time, or are they holding their nightly planning session on how to play tricks on kids? "Parents" takes place in the 1950s, an ideal decade for this material, and stars Bryan Madorsky as Michael, a solemn, owl-faced little boy whose life centers on one question: What are the "leftovers" left over from? Night after night, his parents place steaming shanks of meat, juicy red slabs of prime roast, on his plate. Where do they come from? "Leftovers," his mom says. But then his mom and dad wink at each other over the table and share a secret laugh, and little Michael knows in his bones that there is something fundamentally wrong with the menu.

Because it speaks to a terror that lurks deep within our memories, "Parents" has the potential to be a great horror film. But it never knows quite what to do with its inspiration. Is it a satire, a black comedy, or just plain horror? The right note is never found, and so the movie's scenes coexist uneasily with one another. There is, for example, the night that Michael creeps out of bed and discovers his parents engaged in some kind of bloody savage rite on the living room floor. How does that fit with the sessions Michael has with the school psychiatrist, who obviously is crazier than any of her clients? The director, Bob Balaban , has cast his movie well. Mary Beth Hurt plays the mom, a perky little thing with a '50s hairdo and clothes that come right out of the Simplicity pattern book. She's always in the kitchen, doing things with enormous stainless steel knives. Dad is Randy Quaid , whose horn-rim glasses and business suits cannot disguise a certain predatory quality, especially when he leans over the table to skewer a big piece of "roast beef." The look of the movie, and the feel of the family's split-level '50s modern house is all just right. But somehow there's no payoff.

Perhaps Balaban and his screenwriter, Christopher Hawthorne , should have declared themselves. Is this a horror movie? Or a psychological comedy about the secret fears of children? Some of the scenes stray so far into blood-soaked pathology that the others don't fit. The movie needs an organizing vision, a clear line through to the end, a feeling that the director is sure of the effect he wants to achieve. Satire of this sort is delicate, and Balaban has the same problem that Paul Bartel had in " Eating Raoul ," another comedy about cannibalism: The more a movie addresses itself to our secret terrors, the harder it has to work to be funny - because at some level, of course, it is attempting to convince us to eat our pet rabbits.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Parents (1989)

Randy Quaid as Nick Laemle

Mary Beth Hurt as Lily Laemle

Sandy Dennis as Millie Dew

Bryan Madorsky as Michael Laemle

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After “Ticket to Paradise” and “Shotgun Wedding” showed us the different ways in which calamity ensues when planning weddings abroad, Netflix releases “ Mother of the Bride ,” which combines the essential elements of both those recent romantic comedies into one passable package. The far-off setting emphasizes the lavish and luxe, though the narrative is cheaply woven and fairly threadbare. While “Mean Girls” director Mark Waters ’ latest fails to add anything unique to the conversation, it does scrounge up a modest amount of heart when it comes to its saccharine sweet message of never giving up on happily ever after.

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Interpersonal relationships between the couples don’t hold a modicum of complexity, providing varying degrees of dampened, rushed resolutions. The audience rarely feels the pull of their emotions or the weight of their decisions. The inclusion of a gay couple is welcomed, though the filmmakers don’t do much with that couple, utilizing Clay and Scott primarily to aid Lana’s arc rather than giving them any internality.

Waters falters in exhibiting the nimble visual dexterity of previous projects. There’s no feeling connoted through aesthetic stylization, as when Regina George’s betrayal dawns on Cady in “Mean Girls” or the curse transference between mother and daughter in “Freaky Friday.” There are few grand movie moments to match the heart-swells in “Just Like Heaven” or the red dress reveal in “He’s All That.” The closest we ever get to something of tangible value are a sunset slow dance between the former lovers and copious drone shots of the sprawling resort property in travelogue-style transitional sequences. Perhaps the peppy, occasionally swoony soundtrack married to the perfectly lit imagery is supposed to inspire our connection to the material, but it doesn’t.

Even so, there are a handful of highlights within its algorithm-aided box-checking. Emma is empathetic to her mother’s extenuating circumstances, which is refreshing to see reflected in Robin Bernheim Burger’s writing and Cosgrove’s nuanced, thoughtful performance. Janice’s horny double-entendres (which Harris blessedly delivers with campy aplomb) are hilarious, especially since she’s never even shown kissing someone she’s hitting on, let alone getting her groove on with them. Shields and Bratt have a chemistry that sparks in their stolen looks and vulnerable intimacies, despite an overall lack of burning desire and heat conducted by their connection. It’s fun to see them stretching their muscles by incorporating genre-mandated physical comedy (via recurring clumsy pratfalls) as it helps to endear this cute couple to us.

Still, with its stale sentiments on social media’s toxic culture of likes and superficial depth exploring second chances at true love, the film’s more palatable qualities are needlessly subdued. In fact, it goes out of its way to not offend anyone with delicate sensibilities, whether it be over-explaining motivations or providing forgettable, reductive scenarios. And while a gentle, light-hearted romp is indeed welcomed in these taxing times, there’s much left to be desired from our journey with these likable but under-developed characters.

“Mother of the Bride” is now streaming on Netflix.

Reviewed on Netflix, May 5, 2024. Running time: 88 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of a Motion Picture Corporation of America production. Producer: Brad Krevoy. Executive producers: Brooke Shields, Oliver Ackermann, Galen Fletcher, Robin Bernheim Burger, Amanda Phillips, Jimmy Townsend, Vince Balzano.
• Crew: Director: Mark Waters. Screenplay: Robin Bernheim Burger. Camera: Ed Wu. Editor: Travis Sittard. Music: Caroline Ho.
• With: Brooke Shields, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Rachael Harris, Sean Teale, Chad Michael Murray, Michael McDonald, Wilson Cruz.

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When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her. When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her. When 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim what was taken from her.

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Movie review: ‘Back to Black’ never captures the beauty of Amy Winehouse’s talent

It would be a challenging undertaking for any filmmaker to attempt to represent the outsize talent, unique style and utterly devastating downfall of soul singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse in biopic form. It’s a thankless task for any actor too. To quote one of Winehouse’s most poignant ballads, the endeavor is “a losing game” before it even starts.

Hers is such a tragic story that Asif Kapadia kept certain creative limitations in place with his Oscar-winning 2015 documentary “Amy,” which sets audio recordings to archival footage to examine Winehouse’s life, never showing the faces of the interview subjects. It’s as if it was too painful to confront head-on: her timeless gift, her destructive love story, her unapologetic persona, glittering and gutter-drunk. Any facsimile could never come close to the real thing, in all of its beauty and horror.

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson and writer Matt Greenhalgh, who previously collaborated on the John Lennon biopic “Nowhere Boy,” have nevertheless persisted with the Winehouse biopic “Back to Black.” “Industry” star Marisa Abela dons the signature black beehive and winged eyeliner to channel the doomed singer, who released the iconic album of new standards “Back to Black” in 2006 and became a tabloid fixture in the mid-aughts. Paparazzi scrupulously documented her physical and mental deterioration from drug and alcohol abuse before she passed away from alcohol poisoning in 2011, sadly becoming a member of the notorious “27 Club” of musicians who have all died at age 27.

Abela, who does her own singing and miraculously captures the vintage jazz style and timbre of Winehouse’s undeniable vocal talent, delivers a fully committed performance. But the film itself is a shallow portrait, a recounting of gossipy facts and lore about Winehouse and her troubled relationship with husband Blake Fielder-Civil (an admittedly fantastic Jack O’Connell).

Greenhalgh’s script doesn’t seem at all interested in understanding Winehouse psychologically — instead ascribing all of her woes to her toxic codependent relationship with Blake. Many of the other men in her life, including her father Mitch (Eddie Marsan), get off fairly easy.

The script is content to blame Amy for her own self-destructive spiral without examining the industrial context that contributed to it — the pressure to tour and perform even when she was struggling, the lack of protection and support, the vicious media commentary about her body and appearance. Packs of paparazzi are a presence in the film, but “Back to Black” doesn’t dive into who is driving the desire for these seedy photos, both media titans and their audiences, hungry for sensation.

There’s no curiosity about Amy at all in “Back to Black,” just a condescending presentation of a girl with great voice and a bad boyfriend. The script even goes so far as to suggest that, in addition to the loss of her grandmother Cynthia (Lesley Manville), the core of Amy’s heartbreak is her unfulfilled desire to have children. She stares longingly at toddlers and has inappropriate conversations with kids, telling a young fan, “I wish I was your mum.” It’s insultingly reductive.

Though “Back to Black” is a somewhat unnecessary reminder of the incredible album that came out of Winehouse’s tumultuous relationship with Fielder-Civil, and Abela delivers soundalike (if over-pronounced) vocal performances of the tunes, Taylor-Johnson fumbles how these songs are utilized within the film. She lets the first verse play, while the rest of the song soundtracks a montage that speeds through the story and conveniently conflates certain events. Winehouse’s scorcher of a scorned woman song, the album and film’s titular number, “Back to Black,” is completely misused over a montage, bizarrely linking it to her grandmother’s death and draining it of its emotional power.

This is not the first time that Taylor-Johnson has cinematically flattened a hyper-controversial story that was originally caked in gore and forced media consumers to question our own relationship to a kind of dark voyeurism. She adapted the James Frey rehab “memoir” “A Million Little Pieces” to similarly sanitized ends in 2019, sanding off the rough edges and failing to ask any of the hard questions. Why tackle these complex stories if you’re just going to reduce them to easily digestible pablum?

With a visual style that is straightforward and serviceable at best and a frustratingly limited emotional range, “Back to Black” never captures the beauty of Winehouse’s talent, the heartbreak of her performances, or the horror of her tragedy.

Witnessing Winehouse’s downfall in real time was incredibly disturbing — it was shocking to see photographs of her with Fielder-Civil, strung out, streaked in mascara and blood. We watched her deteriorate under the harsh glare of a camera’s flash, a star burning too bright for this world. It’s a shame the filmmakers shy away, preferring to remain on the surface of her story. It only proves Winehouse’s presence was always too big to be contained.

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IF Parent Guide

You have to believe to see..

Release date May 17, 2024

Theaters: A young girl begins to see other kids imaginary friends and tries to reunite the forgotten ones with their now grownup kids.

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IF is directed by John Krasinski and stars Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming.