There is real logic and there is movie logic. Audiences are usually very forgiving of lapses in movie logic — we recognize that people always get perfect parking spaces and have correct change and live in fabulous apartments that their characters could never afford because we recognize that these elements are there to make the story movie smoothly and because they make it more fun to watch. In the spirit of movies like “Flashdance” and “Grease,” this movie requires suspension of disbelief that is close to complete abandonment of any sense of reality. This is the kind of movie in which characters who live in the poorest circumstances seem to have all the money they need to buy fake IDs or expensive theater tickets. Students who get good grades never seem to do any homework or have any books in their backpacks. A teenager with a baby never has a problem with child care. Still, no one goes to this movie to gain great insights about the human condition. It is nowhere near “Grease” or “Flashdance” in style, soundtrack, or dance (and the use of a dance double in the ballet sequences is obvious), but it may appeal to teens who see it as one big music video.

Sara Johnson (Julia Stiles) is a ballet dancer who is nervous about her big audition for Julliard. Her mother promises to be there, but she is killed in a car crash on the way to the theater. Sara leaves her home in the suburbs to live with her musician father (Terry Kinney) in a tiny apartment in Chicago’s inner city. Memories of her old life are so painful that she wants to leave everything behind.

Her new high school has metal detectors at the entrance, and almost all of the students are black. She stands in the cafeteria, holding her tray, not knowing where to sit. Chenille (Kerry Washington) welcomes Sara to her table. Chenille’s brother Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas) is a smart kid torn between his loyalty to his old friends who are increasingly involved in dangerous activities, and his ambitions to go to college and medical school. Chenille brings Sara to a dance club (after a quick style makeover) and after some verbal sparring, Derek dances with Sara, teaching her a little about hip hop. He gives her a few more lessons. They become friends, then they become romantically involved. He finds out about her passion for ballet, and urges her to apply to Julliard again. Various complications ensue, especially when Chenille becomes angry and tells Sara that white girls should not become involved with “one of the few decent men we got left after jail, drugs, and drive-by.” Sara, Chenille, and Derek have to confront their fears and think carefully about loyalty and trust. Ultimately, what Sara has learned from Derek in dance and in life, helps her to follow her dream.

This is a formulaic coming of age/teen romance with an MTV spin (MTV co-produced the movie). While the script is below average, even by the low standards of this genre, its performers are attractive and sincere (Kerry Washington is particularly appealing) and most teens are still so new to this category of film that it may not seem clichéd to them.

Parents should know that the characters use strong language and the soundtrack lyrics have even stronger language, including the n-word. Chenille has an out of wedlock child (and a difficult relationship with the child’s father). Derek has to decide whether his loyalty to an old friend (and his sense of guilt at the friend’s having taken the rap for them both) means that he must go along with him when he plans to shoot someone. Characters object to the interracial romance, mostly because they are jealous. The characters buy fake IDs so they can go to a club that serves liquor, and they drink and smoke.

Families who see this movie should talk about the choices Sara and Derek must face. Sara blames herself for her mother’s death. How does she overcome that feeling and allow herself to take the risk of auditioning again? How do Derek and Sara get into trouble by not being honest with each other about what is bothering them? How do they sort through their loyalties, Derek to his friend Malakai (Fredro Starr) and Sara to Chenille? Malakai tells Derek, “You act like you don’t know who you are anymore.” How do Sara and Derek decide who they are? Where do they find their support?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “Footloose” and “Fame,” both with some mature material.

If we needed someone to save the world, wouldn’t Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner, and Donald Sutherland be the guys to do it? Or at least wouldn’t it be fun to watch those guys play “Leisure World astronauts” showing off their right stuff? If your answer is yes, this is your movie.

Four hot-dogging test pilots were thrown out of the space program and replaced by a monkey. Forty years later, they are called back into action when a Russian communications satellite begins to fall down out of the sky. It turns out that the satellite’s guidance system is, mysteriously, none other than the very guidance system set up by former hot dog Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood, who also directed). And it also turns out, mysteriously, that for unrevealed “political” reasons, NASA wants the satellite repaired, not destroyed. Less mysteriously, it also turns out that Corvin won’t fix the thing unless NASA lets him go up and do it himself, accompanied by his old team, despite the fact that “the last time they trained for a space program, people were driving cars with fins on them.”

Eastwood takes his time, giving us a prolonged black and white intro, with the stars’ voices coming from younger actors portraying them circa 1958. Then we have to get acquainted with the problem, NASA has to come to Corvin for help, he has to turn them down, then get his old nemesis to agree to let him get his over-the-hill-gang back together, then they have to go through training and show those young upstart astronauts a thing or two, and then comes ten, nine, eight, seven, and all the rest of it and we’re out in space.

The script is weak and saggy and the plot is predictable. The last scene is weirdly maudlin, even macabre. But the effortless star quality of these guys, so clearly still in their prime, is undimmed. You can’t help loving every wrinkle of those handsome craggy faces, especially if you’re old enough to have a crag or two yourself.

Parents should know that the movie has some strong language and some sexual references. Sutherland’s character is portrayed as a perpetual womanizer and this is supposed to be charming and virile, even when he makes a very vulgar comment on Jay Leno’s show. Characters drink and smoke, punch each other, and engage in other kinds of risky behavior. There is a sad death.

Families who see this movie should discuss our society’s prejudices against older people. It is important for kids to know that many old people are capable, curious, and vigorous, with experiences that are worth learning about and that it is always important to treat them with respect. Ask kids what they think they will feel like when they get to be as old as Corvin and his team. Get them to ask older relatives about some of their experiences. Families will also want to talk about the decision of one crew member to make a great sacrifice to save many others.

Families who like this movie will also like “Apollo 13” and “The Right Stuff.” They may also enjoy some of the earlier movies of this all-star cast, including Eastwood’s “Every Which Way But Loose,” Sutherland’s “M*A*S*H” (for older teens), Jones’ “The Fugitive,” and Garner’s “Support Your Local Sheriff.”

I think the idea here was to cross “Silence of the Lambs” with “The Matrix.” It’s a story about a serial killer, now in some sort of irreversible catatonia. How can the police find where he has hidden his last victim, who may still be alive? Well, it just so happens that a billionaire whose child is in a mysterious catatonic state has funded one of those mysterious science labs that only exist in movies, lots of sleek corridors and white-coated geniuses and equipment that requires a skin-tight jumpsuit to operate. This one has figured out a way to allow an empathic social worker named Catherine (Jennifer Lopez) to enter the boy’s mind and communicate with him. So the police decide to allow her to see if she can make any progress with the serial killer.

All of this is just an excuse for lots and lots of stunning but often gruesome surreal visual effects that fall somewhere between the hyper-clarity of a nightmare and the claustrophobic grotesquery of a bad acid trip.

The movie is all sensation, no plot, no logic, no meaning, no effort to explore or illuminate. It is filled with juxtapositions that seem more meaningful than they are, creating an illusion of profundity that dissolves before your eyes.

Parents should know that the movie has many gross, upsetting, and scary moments, including child abuse, torture, murder, perversion, mutilation, a terrifying full-immersion baptism, and characters in peril. A character smokes marijuana to calm her nerves.

Families who see this movie should talk about what it would be like to enter someone else’s mind and about the differences in the ways individuals think. They may also want to talk about mental illness, its causes and treatments.

Families who enjoy this movie will also like “The Matrix.”

Plot: “Fast” Eddie Felsen (Paul Newman) is a pool hustler. He and his partner, Charlie, go into pool halls and set the local players up. Eddie pretends to be a pool player who likes to make big bets. When he beats them and takes their money, he makes it look like luck, so they can’t tell they have been hustled. Eddie’s dream is to beat the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), the champion. He challenges him to a contest. At first, Eddie is ahead. But he gets cocky, drinks too much, and is finally worn down by Fats. After more than 24 hours, Eddie realizes he can’t win. He leaves Charlie the money and the car, and goes off on his own. Eddie meets Sarah (Piper Laurie), an alcoholic, and moves in with her. When Charlie finds them, Eddie tells him to go. Charlie wants to make enough money to set up his own pool hall. Eddie wants more; he wants to win, and to be a winner. Angry at himself and the world, Eddie hustles some young punks, and shows off, humiliating them. They beat him up and break his thumbs. He has time to reflect, and to grow closer to Sarah. He agrees to go into partnership with Bert Gordon (George C. Scott), a silky gambler who sees everything in terms of dollars. Bert sets up a game with a decadent rich man. In a mirror image of the game with Fats, Eddie loses at first, and then, defying Sarah’s appeal to quit, persists, and wins $12,000. At the hotel, Bert and Sarah acknowledge that in the tug-of-war for Eddie, Bert has won. Sarah commits suicide. Bert once told Eddie that he needed more than talent to beat Fats — he needed character. He shows that he has developed character when he goes back and takes Fats on again. Fats concedes, “I can’t beat you.” Bert says that Eddie owes him his piece of the proceeds, but Eddie refuses. Bert allows him to go, but says he will never be able to play in a big-time poolhall again. That doesn’t matter. Eddie has what he wanted. Discussion: Despite the seedy settings (so evocative that they are almost a character in the story), this is almost a traditional morality play about humility and redemption. In the beginning Eddie is, as Fats notes, as fast as his nickname, slick, cocky, superficial. He wants to win for the kick of it. But inside him, there is someone who wants to win for the beauty of the game, and the honor of doing something surpassingly well. He is really not so far removed from Eric Liddell (“Chariot’s of Fire”), who feels God’s pleasure when he runs. But before he can be a real winner, he must get rid of the part of himself that wants to lose, that is afraid to take a real risk. For that, he has to experience real loss, the beating, the damage to his thumbs that could have ended his ability to play pool, the loss of Sarah. As Nietzsche said, “That which does not defeat me makes me stronger.” Eddie is strengthened so by these experiences and by what he has learned, that he can no longer be contained by what had once been his entire world. Bert’s threat that he will no longer be able to play big- time pool is meaningless to him. Even if Bert had offered him a 50-50 deal, he would not have taken it. That world is too small and self- contained for him now. Most of the movie takes place in smoky, dingy bars and pool- halls. The scenes at the rich man’s home in Louisville are just as squalid in their own way. There is only one scene in which Eddie and Sarah are outside together. They are having a picnic. It is in that scene that they first reveal the truth about themselves to each other. Sarah confesses the real source of her money (her father) and her limp (polio), contrary to what she has told him before. And she tells him that she loves him. Eddie tells her what he barely admitted to himself, the way he loves the game of pool, the way it makes him feel to play it well. Understanding what it means to him is what enables him to begin to go back to it. The relationship between Eddie and Sarah is a weak part of the movie, mostly because her character is the least well-crafted in the otherwise all-male movie. It is hard to feel sympathetic towards her because she thinks so badly of herself. Yet her willingness to love Eddie is what causes him to recognize what is best in himself. It is also interesting to look at this movie from Fats’ perspective. He represents one direction Eddie could take. He could become the new champion and take on every tough kid who wanted to topple him, until one finally would, just as he toppled his predecessor. This is the theme of “The Gunfighter,” in a life-and-death context. Questions for Kids: · People in the movie have different ideas about what makes someone a winner or a loser. What are those ideas? How do they fit with others you have heard about, or with your own? · What made Eddie different between his two games with Fats? · Why didn’t Sarah want Eddie to keep playing Findlay? · How do Sarah and Bert represent two different parts of Eddie that fight with each other? Connections: “The Color of Money,” also starring Newman as Eddie Felsen, is a sequel made twenty-six years later by Martin Scorsese (rated R). Felsen becomes a mentor for a young hustler played by Tom Cruise. Both performances are outstanding (Newman won a long-overdue Oscar), but the script is weak, especially in the second half.

This is a great big luscious lollypop of a movie, terrific fun for girls of any age and for their families, too.

Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a shy 15-year-old who says, “My expectation in life is to be invisible, and I’m good at it.” She dreams of a “foot-popping” kiss from high school hunk Josh Bryant (Erik von Detten) (that’s a kiss so good that it makes your foot pop up) and she would like to be able to get up in front of the class to speak without going to pieces. Her sympathetic mother, an artist, her best friend Lily (Heather Matarazzo), and her “baby,” a beat-up Mustang she is having repaired, keep her going.

Just before her 16th birthday, she gets a visit from her grandmother (Julie Andrews), whom she has never met. An even bigger surprise is the reason for the visit. It turns out that Mia’s grandmother is the queen of Genovia, her late father was the king, and that makes her – a princess! Mia will have to get some fast princess lessons to get ready for the annual ball. That is, if she decides to accept the job, which is not too appealing. As she says to her mother, “Just in case I’m not enough of a freak already, you add a tiara!”

Things get worse when Lily feels deserted and a couple of very public mistakes make Mia feel that she is not up to the job. But this would not be a fairy tale if everyone did not live happily ever after, so somehow everyone’s wishes come true.

This is a terrific movie for any age. It might not be of much interest to boys, though Hathaway is spectacularly gorgeous (the least realistic part of the movie is the highly ineffective attempt to make her look like an ugly duckling), and there are some cool cars and very funny moments. But it is a wonderful story about growing up, finding ourselves, and taking chances, with lots of great things for families to talk about afterwards. The queen’s head of security (Hector Elizondo in another impeccable performance) quotes Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous words, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” And Mia realizes that the important part of being a princess is not what it does for her, but what it makes it possible for her to do for others.

Parents should know that Mia drives without a license and manages to escape a ticket using tactics they might find troubling.

The movie is rated G because it has no profanity, violence, or sexual material, and there is very little to concern parents. But that does not make it a kids-only movie. This is a family movie in the best sense, a movie that the whole family will enjoy. This might be a good time to tell the kids about some of your own mistakes and fears when you were Mia’s age, and what you did to help you move on from them. They may also want to talk about what teens should consider before deciding to kiss someone, and how important it is to be loyal to true friends.

Video/DVD notes: There is no Genovia, but it might have been inspired by Monaco, where an American actress became a real-life princess, the late Grace Kelly. Families will enjoy seeing some of her movies on video, especially “High Society” and To Catch a Thief.