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 toy store of wondrous secrets, owned by a rather eccentric man named Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman), is changing hands, and the woman (Natalie Portman) who has been chosen to take over is unsure of her ability to keep the magic alive. When she decides it's too much for her, she puts the store up for sale. Also with Jason Bateman, Zachary Mills and Ted Ludzik. Directed by Zach Helm. [1:34]
SEX/NUDITY 0 - A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage and bare shoulders.
the review continues below...
VIOLENCE/GORE 2 - A store throws a "temper tantrum" and strange things happen: a lemur pops out of a book and jumps on a boy's head, rats screech and run around in a room (we only hear the noise), the words in a book are incomprehensible, toy planes won't fly, a ball loses its air, things begin to blow up, a boy's arms are tied over his head and he cries for help, a rocket tries to take off then falls over, shelves fall off a wall, and a stuffed dragon blows fire toward a boy and people run out of the store. A huge ball rolls toward a boy in a room, the door closes, the boy is pressed against the door and into the ball (he's OK) and a man says, "That ball is impossible to dodge." ► A boy stomps on a man's foot. ► The walls of a store begin to throb and bubble and turn gray. A store becomes depressed and all of its colors turn gray. ► A man sits on a chair, stars begin to swirl around him, we understand that he has died (we do not see him dead) and we see people grieving at his funeral. ► We hear that a boy has no friends. A man tells a woman that her pants will catch on fire because she has been lying. We hear that a man was born in the basement and just stayed there. A man talks about having owned a store for over 113 years and that it is time for him to leave (i.e., die). ► A man and a boy play a pretend game in the boy's room and his mother appears suspicious of the man's intentions. ► A woman has a large squid on her head and is drenched with seawater after opening a book about sea creatures. We see a girl covered with green slime after something blows up on her while in a store. We hear a toy porta-potty toilet flush. A man has a tattoo on his arm.
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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