“Shoot first — ask questions afterward.” That’s the motto on the lucky pillow carried to location by director Walt Price (William H. Macy). This is actually the second choice of location, a last minute substitution for the original small New England town in Vermont. That site did not work out, partly because the town was asking for more money, but partly for another reason that Price will only reveal in a whisper. They have now come to Waterford, New Hampshire, in part because of a brochure about the town’s historic old mill, which would be the perfect setting for one of the movie’s most important scenes.

The cast and crew arrives and takes over the town’s small hotel and they are almost ready to go when they find out that the old mill pictured in the brochure burned down in 1960. Price is unflappable — he tells screenwriter Joe White (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to rewrite the scene. The stunned look on White’s face may be explained as the camera pulls back to reveal the title of the movie they are about to shoot: “The Old Mill.”

Meanwhile, Price and the movie’s producer, Marty Rossen (David Paymer), have to cope with an array of problems from charming the town’s mayor into giving them a permit to shoot on Main Street to persuading starlet Claire Wellesley (Sarah Jessica Parker) to do a nude scene and keeping Hollywood hunk Bob Berrenger (Alec Baldwin) away from underage girls. Joe White, beguiled by Ann Black, the local bookstore owner (Rebecca Pidgeon), has to keep producing rewrites on demand. And the cinematographer has to figure out a way to shoot around the antique stained-glass window in the town’s historic firehouse.

Writer/director Mamet clearly relishes the chance to skewer some of the people he has met on his previous movies, but it is done with a light, even romantic, touch. White and Black find a way to communicate despite the chaos around them. In one of the movie’s funniest scenes, Mamet turns the most well-established conventions of farce upside down as, for once, a character behaves sensibly and trusts another character instead of believing the circumstantial evidence. Then, just to make sure we don’t take anything for granted, he has another character do the same thing and be completely wrong.

Mamet does not make this a story of city slickers taking advantage of country yokels or of crafty country people triumphing over the corrupt city folks. Both sides have a range of characters with a range of motivations and moral compasses.

White keeps saying that his movie is about purity and second chances. So is this one, with a lulu of a second chance for one character who really needs it. Consistent with Mamet’s duality throughout the movie, other characters who do not deserve second chances get them, but those are probably just “a second chance to make the same mistake again.”

Parents should know that one character is attracted to underage girls and has sex with a girl who, despite clear indications that she approached him, is too young to legally consent to sex. There are other sexual references, including a character who takes off all her clothes as a way to seduce another character and a discussion about whether Claire will do a nude scene, as provided in her contract. Characters drink and smoke and use strong language. Many make moral compromises that parents will want to discuss with teens who see the movie.

Families who see this movie should talk about the characters’ priorities and choices. Walt and Marty just want to make the movie, and will do anything to get it done. White is trying to keep his story’s integrity (and his own). Claire takes what appears to be a moral stance, but is willing to back down for more money. Another character backs down from an apparently moral stance for money and a chance at power. White is given a choice between his honor and his career — what helps him decide? Families might want to talk about some of the characters’ names. Why is the director named “Price?” Why does the mayor have the same name (George Bailey) as the Jimmy Stewart character in “It’s a Wonderful Life?” What about the names “White” and “Black?”

Families who enjoy this movie might also like Mamet’s version of “The Winslow Boy,” also starring Pidgeon (Mamet’s wife). They will also like the cult classic, “The Stunt Man.” Be sure to stay throughout the credits (“2 animals were harmed in the making of this movie…”) and check out http://www.oldmillmovie.com/ for a hilarious parody of movie promotional websites.

It might have worked if this movie had been frustrating in the way that the peace movement or the 60’s as a whole were frustrating. But this movie about the life of Hippie/Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman is unsatisfying for a far more mundane reason — a script with a wavering point of view.

Abbie Hoffman emerged from the demonstrations at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention as the spokesman for rebellious youth. He was genuinely committed to the causes of ending the war in Vietnam and economic justice. He was an inventive strategist and a leader who could inspire others. He was always good copy and gave great quotes. And he was a self-absorbed, angry man who suffered from bipolar disorder.

Back when Abbie Hoffman was engaging in guerilla theater antics like dumping dollar bills on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and running a pig for President, there was a popular saying: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they aren’t really out to get you.” That is Hoffman’s story. This movie adopts a “Citizen Kane”-style structure, with a journalist interviewing Hoffman’s associates to determine whether he was crazy or a victim, and the conclusion of the movie seems to be that he was both.

We see Abbie (Vincent D’Onofrio) with civil rights workers in the South, then losing his short hair, suit, and tie to connect with college students protesting the war. He meets Anita (Janeane Garofolo), who describes him as “crazy and joyous and behind the fun were serious ideas about the redistribution of wealth” who dreamed of “a revolution of artists, poets, and wizards.” He knew that “satire is very effective against tyranny,” and said that “sacred cows make the best hamburgers.” Hoffman worked with others to embarrass the Nixon administration and show the possibilities for change to people who were unhappy with the way things were. He and seven others were arrested for their protest at the Democratic convention. They seized the opportunity of the trial to make their case about what they saw as fundamental injustice in American life with antics that landed them on the front page of every newspaper.

The government saw them as such a serious threat that they engaged in a campaign of disinformation and persecution. Hoffman was charged with selling cocaine and escaped underground, leaving Anita and their infant son, america. Although he and Anita stayed close, he fell in love with another woman, Johanna Lawrenson (Jeanne Tripplehorn). He cannot resist becoming involved, helping to organize an environmental protest. But the pressures of living underground and the increasing chemical imbalence of the bipolar disorder make him fearful and angry.

The movie is sympathetic to Hoffman’s efforts and balanced enough to show us the parallels between Hoffman and his enemies. Each side calls the other immoral. Each recognizes that, as J. Edgar Hoover said, “ridicule is one of the most potent weapons we can use.” Garofolo is strong and tender as Anita. Ultimately, though, the movie is as unsatisfying as the snippets of covers of classic rock songs. More than 30 years later, knowing how it all turned out, it is difficult to remember how truly revolutionary Hoffman’s ideas were, and this movie never really tries.

Parents should know that this movie may be very confusing for anyone who does not remember the 1960’s, and teens who want to see it may need some background. The movie has strong language, fairly mild sexual references and situations (including adultery), permissive drug use, and illegal activity by both protesters and the government.

Families who see this movie will want to talk about what their older members were doing during this period and how they felt about Hoffman’s actvities. The movie’s official website has commentary by Stew Albert, one of Hoffman’s closest associates. Families who enjoy this movie may enjoy “Flashback,” a fictional account of a federal agent with an unexpected secret who captures a former hippie or “Medium Cool,” a fictional story that takes place at the 1968 Democratic convention that features footage from the protests.

The title may be “Sugar and Spice,” but the content is closer to snips and snails and puppy dog tails in this supposedly cute story of a pregnant teenage cheerleader and her friends who rob a bank. Lisa (Marla Soloff) a bitter rival of the cheerleaders, narrates the movie. In the first few minutes, she calls a male cheerleader a “fag” and accuses the cheerleaders of being so close they must be “lesbos.” She says the girls are so close to each other they even get their periods together and we get to see them share a box of tampons, passing it to each other under the stalls.

The movie begins by helpfully assigning each member of the cheerleading squad one characteristic, to help us keep them straight. There is “the rebel,” “the brain,” “the mastermind,” etc. The girls have nothing in common other than cheerleading, and yet are completely devoted to each other. As one of them says, “you’re the only family I have.” Parents are hopelessly out of touch or otherwise useless.

The movie wastes the talents of some able performers, and it is almost painful to see this lively and energetic cast struggle with the lazy grubbiness of the script. When the best the director can do to add energy to a scene is to play Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part II” (the successor to “I Feel Good” and “Bad to the Bone” as the most overused soundtrack song), you know they’ve run out of ideas and just don’t care anymore.

Diane Weston (Marley Shelton) is the head cheerleader, relentlessly peppy and optimistic. She and the new quarterback, Jack Bartlett (James Marsden), fall in love. Their parents are thrilled when they say plan to get married, until they explain that it will have to wait until after the baby is born. Their parents kick them out, and Diane and Jack have to find jobs and a place to live. Diane decides that they will have to rob a bank to get the money they need for the baby, and the other girls agree to help. The girls rent movies with robbery scenes to get ideas and then go in with “Betty Doll” masks and what they think are non-working guns.

Parents should know that the dialogue is very graphic and raunchy. A typical comment from one of the girls is, “Just hoping we can finish this up before menopause sets in.” One of the girls says she is not a virgin anymore because she had an orgasm while riding a horse at church camp. Another says that a picture of Jesus “made me hot.” There is an explicit scene of an animal giving birth. The plot centers on a pregnant teenager. (She and the father are devoted to each other and to preparing for the baby.) Another of the cheerleaders is surprised that she is not the first to get pregnant — her mother has the same reaction. One parent is in jail because she shot her husband for having sex with someone else while she was in labor. The girls buy guns and rob a bank with no adverse consequences.

Families who see this movie should talk about the way that Diane shows responsibility, leadership, and organization. She is relentlessly optimistic but practical. When she sees the broken pieces they recieve from the gun dealer, she chirps, “I see a craft project!” The girls show a great deal of loyalty and resourcefulness. Unfortunately, these efforts are directed at robbing a bank, with no sense of any adverse consequences for the people whose money they are stealing. Diane does not feel that she can confide in Jack about their plans. What does that say about their relationship? Why does she feel that only she is capable of doing what she believes is necessary to help her baby? What other alternatives did she have? Parents may want to talk about how families should react if a teenager becomes pregnant. The movie’s final twist shows another moral compromise that families may want to discuss as well.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy the somewhat less raunchy “Bring it On.”

“Plot: This is the story of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Ralph Bellamy), from the time he became disabled by polio to his comeback into mainstream politics, as he introduced candidate Al Smith to the Democratic convention of 1928.

Discussion: Franklin, a man of unquenchable vigor, was forced to reconsider his future when his legs became paralyzed. His close friend and political advisor, Louis Howe (Hume Cronyn) tells him he has two choices, to become a “”country squire”” and write books, or to get up and get back into politics. His mother urges him not to overdo: “”I don’t want to see you hurt.””

Toward the end of this movie, a character explains the difference between the pranks he and his friends play and those devised by a colleague. “Our shenanigans are cheeky and fun. His are cruel and tragic.” It’s a relief to hear that the people behind this movie recognize that distinction in theory, even if they are not always able to do so in practice.

“Super Troopers” feels like the kind of movie five college buddies who didn’t want to go to law school would dream up after a weeklong marathon of smoking dope and watching John Landis movies. In fact, that’s pretty much how it came about. Five recent Colgate graduates who created a comedy group called Broken Lizard wrote and star in it and one of them directed it. The result is a sort of “Animal House” crossed with Cheech and Chong with a touch of the 70’s Erik Estrada television show “ChiPs.” It is a slob comedy story of the rivalry between a group of Vermont highway patrolmen and the local police. Budget cuts are looming, so it escalates from taunts and practical jokes to a struggle over turf and then to a struggle for survival.

The members of Broken Lizard play the troupers, whose idea of “cheeky” hijinks includes making bets about how many times one of them can use the word “meow” while giving a motorist a speeding ticket or donning a hippie wig and racing the other troupers to the Canadian border.

In classic college fashion, drugs, alcohol, humiliation, and sex provide most of the subjects for humor. For example, it is supposed to be funny when a college student swallows two bags of marijuana and mushrooms, a character told to create a distraction concocts an elaborate prop to make it look like he is having sex with a bear, a character is hosed down naked and subjected to a fake delousing done with powdered sugar, and a German couple in a stolen Porsche offer sexual favors to get out of trouble — an offer that is happily accepted.

This is in the middle range for bad taste comedies, in both the bad taste and comedy categories. There are a lot of gross jokes that are cheerfully politically incorrect (even one about television cartoons made in Afganistan -“Afganimation”) but not as offensive as some of what is out there. They are not as stupid as some of what we’ve seen in recent movies, but they are not terrifically funny either. It falls somewhere between “American Pie” and Tom Green.

No one in Broken Lizard has what anyone might deem star quality — in those uniforms, they look more like they are auditioning for a local franchise for the Village People than like anyone who might know how to hold a radar gun on a speeding 18-wheeler. But director Jay Chandrasekhar and one or two of the others clearly have fun on screen and it occasionally reaches the audience.

Parents should know that the movie is mostly sex, alcohol, and drug humor, including depiction of masturbation, exhibitionism, bestiality and implied group sex. An unmarried couple has a child to whom both are clearly devoted. There are several depictions of a vulgar drawing of a cartoon character. Some law enforcement officials are shown as corrupt or stupid. Others, both male and female, black and white, are shown as high-spirited but loyal and honest. One strength of the movie is its positive portrayal of inter-racial relationships.

Families who see this movie should talk about what it might feel like to fear losing a job you like and how friendships develop among people who work together.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Caddyshack and the Police Academy and Naked Gun movies.