Here is the good news: Britney Spears is a better actress than Mariah Carey. Here is the bad news: the movie is not very good. Here is the worse news: it is not appropriate for the girls who should have been its prime target, Britney fans ages 8-14. Instead, the movie has subject matter that is too mature for that age group, but treats those subjects without any of the originality, maturity, or genuine understanding that would hold the attention of older teens or adults. Its biggest fault is not having a clear idea of its audience.

Britney plays Lucy, who finds herself feeling empty as she prepares for her high school graduation. She has achieved all of her father’s dreams for her, graduating as valedictorian and preparing to enroll in a rigorous pre-med program. And she is about to fulfill someone else’s dream, too — she has agreed to have sex with her lab partner so that they can go to college and not be ostracized as virgins.

She can’t go through with it, though, because it isn’t special enough. When her estranged pregnant friend invites her to come along with a guy neither has ever met before and drive to Los Angeles, she impulsively accepts. So does a third estranged friend, the engaged prom queen, who wants to go to LA to see her boyfriend.

So off we go on a road trip, which will give these old friends a chance to remember their connections and have some adventures. Yes, the car breaks down. Yes, they don’t have the money to repair it. Guess what? There’s a karaoke contest! Maybe if they win, they can earn enough money to pay for the repairs! Britney sings the old Joan Jett song, “I Love Rock and Roll” and the crowd throws tomatoes and runs them out of town. Okay, no, just kidding, the crowd goes wild and showers the girls with money.

Everyone learns some important lessons, and the three wishes made by the girls when they were eight and swore to be lifelong friends turn out to be not exactly what they had in mind. But they learn that the friendship was more than they had expected, and that not knowing exactly what their dreams are might make life more interesting.

Parents should know that in addition to one of the girls being pregnant (we learn later, the result of a rape when she was drunk), the girls get drunk (and giggle about who has “touched it”). Lucy has sex with a man, and it is clear that unlike the planned prom night encounter, it is very special. The girls take a very big risk by getting in a car with a man they do not know, who turns out to have a prison record, and setting off with him for California with no plans and no money. They all stay in the same rooms along the way. Some family members may be upset by Lucy’s meeting with the mother who left her when she was three.

Families who see this movie should talk about why it was so difficult for Lucy to talk to her father and why Kit thought that all she wanted was to get married. What do you think the girls will do next? How did Lucy decide that it was the right time for her to become intimate with Ben?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Britney’s video collection.

The stork delivers babies to the circus animals, including Mrs. Jumbo’s baby, an elephant with enormous ears. The other elephants laugh at him and call him Dumbo, but Mrs. Jumbo loves him very much. When Dumbo is mistreated, she is furious and raises such a fuss that she is locked up. Dumbo is made part of the clown act, which embarasses him very much. He is a big hit and, celebrating his good fortune, accidentally drinks champagne and becomes tipsy. The next morning, he wakes up in a tree, with no idea how he got there. It turns out that he flew! He becomes the star of the circus, with his proud mother beside him.

The themes in this movie include tolerance of differences and the importance of believing in yourself. It also provides a good opportunity to encourage empathy by asking kids how they would feel if everyone laughed at them the way the animals laugh at Dumbo, and how important it is to Dumbo to have a friend like Timothy.

Parents should note that while respecting individual differences is a theme of the movie, the crows who sing “When I See an Elephant Fly” would be considered racist by today’s standards. One of them is named “Jim Crow” and they speak with “Amos ‘n Andy”-style accents, but clearly they are not intended to be insulting. Families who see this movie should talk about that depiction, as well as these questions: Why does Timothy tell Dumbo he needs the feather to fly? How does he learn that he does not need it? Why do the other elephants laugh at Dumbo’s ears? How does that make him feel? Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy some stories with related themes. The circus train, Casey, Jr., puffs “I think I can” as it goes up the hill, just like “The Little Engine That Could.” Compare this story to “How the Elephant Got Its Trunk,” by Rudyard Kipling (read by Jack Nicholson in the wonderful Rabbit Ears production), in which another elephant finds his larger-than expected feature first ridiculed and then envied by the other elephants. Kids may also enjoy comparing this to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “The Ugly Duckling,” and other stories about differences that make characters special.

Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter) is an art restorer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with very bad taste in men. When she comes home to find her current beau in bed with another woman (“This isn’t what it looks like,” he protests), she has to find another apartment. She moves in with four towering fashion models and promptly falls (literally) for Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), the Prince Charming across the street who makes her weak in the knees. One little problem — as she gazes into his window, it appears that he has killed someone. Amanda is caught between fear and longing as the models act as sort of combination Greek chorus members/evil stepsisters/fairy godmothers guiding her to solve both the mystery and the romantic dilemma.

This plot could be played a number of ways from slapstick (think Lucille Ball) to terror (think “Rear Window” or “Gaslight”). The tone this version tries to strike is something like “date movie for teenage girls whose boyfriends love Adam Sandler.” So what we get is some swoony romance, a lot of pratfalls, and intermittent gross-out jokes. For example, not once, but twice the snooty supermodels are trapped in the bathroom to no end of would-be comic chaos. The first time they are hiding out in Jim’s shower while he has a post-pirogi visit to the bathroom. The models get to engage in frantic breath-holding and face-squinching. The second time they are in a restaurant men’s room and listen to two plumbers engage in conversation misperceived as sexual before a toilet explodes. The movie’s first ten minutes include two gay jokes and a crack about menopause, all of which, like the bathroom scenes, miss rising to the level of actually being funny.

The models are good sports and enjoy making fun of their image as vapid gold-diggers. Potter (the wife in “Con Air” and the girlfriend in “Patch Adams”) is pretty and appealing but she has no comic sparkle. The movie needs Meg Ryan or Jenna Elfman (and a better script). What we get instead is a standard-issue blue-eyed blonde with an acting range as narrow as her roommates’ hips. Prinze has real star appeal, but deserves much better than this generic role.

Parents should know that the humor and plot may be juvenile, but the movie is raunchier than many PG-13s, with some very strong and graphic language. When the models do a makeover on Amanda, they tell her to clench her behind and tweak her nipples. Amanda’s lesbian friend grabs her breast. The dog Prinze walks for a neighbor tries to mount Amanda, which is supposed to be funny. There is violence, including an apparent murder and some shooting, but it is not explicit or very threatening. Some parents may also be concerned about the way that the models exploit the men who want to date them and about the foolish chances taken by the characters.

Families who see the movie should talk about why some people make mistakes in trusting the wrong people. They may also want to talk about whether a life devoted to looking beautiful can lead someone to be superficial and self-centered.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “Charade” (the perfect combination of thrills and romance) and romantic comedies like “If a Man Answers.”

Keeping the Faith” is a romantic comedy for grown-ups, witty, thoughtful, sweet and funny. Always respectful of the sincerity and commitment of its two clergy lead characters and the serious issues they must resolve, it allows us to laugh with them at their struggles to live up to their ideals.

Jake (Ben Stiller) and Brian (Edward Norton, who also directed), have been best friends since grade school. Now in their early 30’s, they are still the closest of friends, with a lot in common — Jake is a rabbi and Brian is a priest. They provide a lot of support for one another as they both try to combine “an old world God with a new age spin,” and fill the seats of the sanctuaries with people, and fill the hearts of those people with the joy of worship. They joke that they are “like those young cops who shake things up – ‘the God Squad.’’

Their other best friend was Anna, who moved away in 8th grade. When she calls to say that she is coming to town, they are thrilled. Though they suspect that she will no longer “be 88 pounds and listen to Leif Garrett,” they are dazzled by her transformation into a brilliant, leggy, blonde played by Jenna Elfman.

Amid a classic romantic triangle – well maybe a square, if you include God, or the restrictions imposed on clergy – the movie has some good things to say about the importance of maintaining tradition (“it’s comforting to people”) while trying to connect to people in changing times. And it has some insight into relationships (one character says, “It takes at least 10 years to get to know yourself well enough to stop being a total idiot”), and the way we make decisions about the future (another character explains that it is “a choice you keep making again and again and again”). Some things are more complicated than we think they are, and others are simpler. The trick is to be able to tell them apart.

It’s a dream cast. If Edward Norton and Ben Stiller really were a priest and a rabbi, converts would be lined up around the block. Anne Bancroft is terrific as Jake’s mother, and Eli Wallach and director Milos Foreman are fine as the older rabbi and priest who step in to provide some guidance.

It may not appeal to too many teens, but families of those who do see it should take it as an opportunity to discuss their own views of religion and intermarriage. They may also want to discuss whether it is possible, honest, or wise to enter into a sexual relationship with the intention of not becoming romantically involved, and the complications of failing to be honest with others, or with yourself.

Parents should know that there is a joke about an 8th grade “shoplifting club,” a character responds to heartbreak by getting very drunk and behaving boorishly, a priest confronts conflicts about celibacy, and there are many sexual references, including fairly explicit sex viewed by the characters through a window.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “You’ve Got Mail” and the movie it was based on, “The Shop Around the Corner.

Summer has arrived. “Mission Impossible 2” is the essence of a summer movie: gorgeous stars, sensational stunts, nerve-wracking chases, steamy romance, some “gotcha” plot twists, and lots of explosions. And this time, the story makes sense!

The first one was a huge success, but most viewers thought that the real mission impossible was trying to understand the plot. This time, they make it simple so we can just sit back and enjoy.

Alfred Hitchock used the term “McGuffin” to stand for whatever it was that the hero and heroine were after — the stolen jewels, the secret formula, the Ark of the Covenant, or the map of the hidden treasure. He said it did not matter what it was. All you had to do was establish that it was important, and then get out of the way.

This time, the McGuffin is a secret formula – a monster virus somewhere between the Hong Kong flu and Ebola. And our hero, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has to retrieve it, even though it is really, really hard to get because it has been stolen by one of Hunt’s former colleagues who knows all his tricks. As Hunt’s boss (an unbilled Anthony Hopkins) says, “It’s not Mission Difficult; it’s Mission Impossible.”

As in one of Hitchcock’s best, “Notorious,” the hero has to persuade the heroine to get romantically involved with an ex-flame. Thandie Newton plays Nyah, a brave and beautiful jewel thief who just happens to be the bad guy’s former girlfriend and our hero’s current love interest, providing lots of tense moment and a couple of opportunities for Cruise to show some emotion between karate kicks.

Director John Woo makes the whirl of a flamenco dancer’s skirt, the flutter of birds taking off, and the smoke from an explosion mesmerizing to watch. His trademarks are all here — the hero sliding across the floor in slow motion, firing two guns at once, the balletic combat, the villain’s streak of sadism (just two words of warning: “cigar cutter”), and an engaging willingness to tweak, even spoof, his own conventions. The bad guy (“Ever After’s” Dougray Scott) explains that Hunt will “undoubtedly engage in some acrobatic insanity” to retrieve the virus, and even mocks Cruise’s inimitable grin.

My one quarrel with the movie is that it leaves out the best part of the original “Mission Impossible” concept, back in the days of the TV show, and that was teamwork. It was a lot of fun to see how the special expertise of each of the MI team members was going to come in handy. Ving Rhames returns as the world’s least geeky computer genius, but aside from a couple of great lines, impeccably delivered (“Punk put a hole in my Versace!”), he never gets a chance to show us what he can do. Hunt is more like loner James Bond than he is like MI’s Jim Phelps.

But that’s a small point. It is a terrific thrill ride of a movie, just the way to start the summer. Cruise just keeps getting better, and I can’t wait for MI3.

Parents should know that the movie has intense scenes of peril and a lot of violence and sexual situations (not graphic).

Families who see the movie should talk about the statement by the scientist that “every search for a hero must begin with something every hero needs – a villain.” A corporate CEO applies this in very literal terms of supply and demand. Older kids may want to talk about the controversy over biotechnology and the risks of scientific inquiry. Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy James Bond classics like “Goldfinger,” “Thunderball,” and “Goldeneye.”