Unlike the MPAA we do not assign
one
inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE
and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest,
depending on quantity and context.
A divorced boat builder (John Travolta) has his hands full
with a 12-year-old son who's rebelling against his mother's new romantic relationship by
lying and getting into trouble with the police. When the boy comes up with a farfetched
story about witnessing a murder, and accuses his new stepfather (Vince Vaughn), no one but
his dad believes him. Also with Teri Polo, Steve Buscemi and Matthew O'Leary. [1:28]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - A woman and man are shown in bed in their underwear,
presumably after having had sex. A woman wears a dress which exposes her bare shoulders
and some cleavage -- she has a tattoo on her shoulder and the top of her breast. A woman
makes a veiled reference to repeatedly having had sex with a man. A woman kisses a man, a
man and woman kiss during a wedding ceremony, and a man kisses a woman on the nose. A
reference is made concerning adult bookstores. A man talks to his son about girls, saying
that they think he's cute.
VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A man stabs a man in the back with an ice pick. A man
drags a man's dead body out of a car and puts him into a brick kiln where we see the body
engulfed by flames. A man holding a crowbar is shoved into an electrical box and he's
electrocuted. A man hits a man on the back of the head and he falls to the ground
unconscious, and a boy hits a man in the head with a bat and he falls to the ground
unconscious (we see a bloody head wound). A man sprays paint thinner around a warehouse
and sets it on fire causing several explosions (in the process his sleeve and arm catch on
fire) while an unconscious man is inside. Two men fight with shoving and punching; they
fall back through a table and it splinters, one throws a paint can at the other, one
swings a shovel, one shoves the other's head through a car window breaking the glass, one
swings a crowbar and the other uses a stool. A woman slams a car door on a man's arm, a
man hits a boy across the face and he falls to the ground (we see his bloody cheek), a man
throws a woman into a wall, a man punches a man in the face and he falls to the ground,
and a man crashes through a glass door. A man slams a boy onto the hood of a car, ties his
hands behind him and throws him into the back of a car. A man grabs a boy by the jaw and
slams him into a wall while threatening him verbally, and a man shoves a boy into a wall
and threatens him verbally. A man shoves a man, they nearly fight and one threatens the
other verbally. A boy hides in the back of a car, witnesses a murder and is nearly caught
by the murderer. A body bag is loaded onto an ambulance. A man drives recklessly and a
police car cuts him off causing him to slam on the brakes. A boy climbs out a window and
down a drain pipe. A boy throws a baseball through a glass window, breaking it. A man
throws a baseball hard at a boy while they are playing catch. A man speaks abusively to a
boy. There is a reference about a woman having had a miscarriage.
the review continues below...
PROFANITY 5 - 3 F-words (one is mouthed but is dubbed and we hear
"fooling" instead), 10 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 12 mild
obscenities, 3 religious profanities, 15 religious exclamations and some insults. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Separation, divorce, stepparents, strained relations
between parents and children, custody, prostitution, lying, trust, kidnapping.
MESSAGE - Not everything is what it seems. New stepfathers can be very
dangerous.
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we
started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were
not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many
older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please
keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period.
While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are
limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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