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Sucker Punch | 2011 | PG-13 | - 5.7.4

After a young woman (Emily Browning) is institutionalized by her wicked stepfather she imagines herself and her four new friends (Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung) as action heroines in an alternate reality, in order to cope with the terror of the hospital and help plan for their escape. Also with Carla Gugino, Oscar Isaac, Jon Hamm and Scott Glenn. Directed by Zack Snyder. [1:49]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A man kisses a lobotomized young woman, she is unresponsive, and it is implied that he is going to sexually abuse her but is interrupted (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). It is implied that a man has intentions to rape his 20-year-old stepdaughter, and he pulls at her shirt and rips a button off; she hides from him, so he approaches his younger stepdaughter and is about to attack her but is interrupted (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
 A young woman wearing a bustier and underwear dances on a stage as a group of men watch, including an older man with a young woman wearing a corset and a short skirt sitting on his lap, and seductively rubbing his chest and nuzzling his neck. A young woman wearing a bustier and underwear dances on top of table while a man watches, and another young woman sits on the man's lap (we do not see the dance). A man pulls a woman close to his face, their lips almost touch and then he shoves her away. A group of men watch as a young woman dances (we do not see her dancing).
 A young woman wearing a short dress tells a woman directing her that she does not understand how to act "sexy." Several young women wearing midriff and cleavage exposing tops and short skirts are instructed to dance seductively (we do not see them dancing).
 Throughout the film, we see young women wearing dancing unitards (they look like one piece bathing suits) and cleavage-exposing tops. Young women wear a variety of skimpy costumes, including a young woman wearing a bikini-style top (her cleavage is visible) and short shorts, a young woman wearing a midriff exposing shirt (her cleavage is visible) and short skirt, a young woman wearing a bustier (a portion of her midriff is exposed) and a short skirt, and a young woman wearing an extremely short and low-cut dress (her cleavage is exposed). A woman wears a tight dress with a very high slit, low-cut front (her cleavage is exposed). A young woman is seen unbuttoning her dress and taking it off, and a bustier and underwear are seen underneath.
 A young woman implies to another young woman that she is a prostitute and that the other young woman must now become one too. A man instructs several young women to "entertain" several men, implying that they are prostitutes and must have sex for money. A young woman refers to another young woman's dancing as "moaning and gyrating" after she is instructed to dance to entertain men. A young woman explains to another young woman that they must dance to entertain men for money. A young woman tells another young woman to kiss a man's neck and rub his chest since he is her "client." A young woman tells another young woman that they are to "entertain" men (implying prostitution) so a man can continue his drug, gun and gambling ring. A man tells a woman that he owns the woman as well as a group of young women. Several young women discuss how a young woman had been selected to perform for a man and one of them makes a crude remark about the young woman not being a virgin.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A young woman imagines the following scenarios with herself and other young women: A man instructs five young women to shoot male orc-like creatures and he then tells one young woman that she must kill a baby dragon; two young women flying a plane above a destroyed castle shoot at creatures on the ground while a man drops a flaming gas tank from the plane, causing a massive explosion; a young woman discovers a small dragon lying on a pile of bones, tissue and gore hanging from skeletons, she lifts up the dragon's neck and slices it open, she reaches into the dragon's neck and pulls out two stones (no blood is visible, just clear gel-like ooze covering the stones and coming from the wound), the young women shoot more creatures as they leave and two of them attack their airplane; one creature falls off the wing and the other is punched through the glass by a young woman, its body hits a propeller and is chopped into multiple pieces (no blood is visible) and a giant dragon chases the airplane, breathing fire on it until one of the young women gets on top of its head and stabs through its forehead, killing it (no blood is visible) and the five young women escape unharmed.
 Four young women are told that a bomb will detonate and destroy an entire city, three of the young women parachute out of an airplane and into a train, they shoot and use swords to fight robots that are firing guns at them, and sparks fly from the robots as their limbs are chopped off and they are struck by bullets; the young women find a giant bomb and disarm it, a robot that had been chopped in half becomes reanimated and throws itself on one of the young women, two of the young women escape, and the third stays behind as the train explodes and it is implied that she is killed (the other three are unharmed).
 A man tells five young women that they will have to fight an army of reanimated dead soldiers that are powered by steam and machine cogs; a young women climbs into a flying robot and fires at airplanes and onto the ground, causing small explosions and reanimated soldiers to fall to the ground (no blood is visible), a plane crashes into a blimp, causing a massive explosion and the ground is covered with the lifeless bodies of soldiers and crumbling buildings. Four young women fire machine guns, use hand-to-hand combat and swords to fight reanimated soldiers that fall to the ground with steam coming from their wounds; the soldiers shoot at the young women but they are unharmed, and several soldiers surround one of the young women, but she escapes when another young woman opens fire on the soldiers and they slump to the ground. A disfigured man (his face is covered in scars and open wounds) attempts to shoot a young woman but she avoids the shot and as he and a group of soldiers corner her, she shoots them. A young woman fires countless shots into a blimp as it attempts to lift a man off the ground, it explodes throwing the man to the ground and a robot operated by another young woman lands on the ground, smashing the man.
 A young woman fights three giant samurai robots, one of the robots throws her through the air repeatedly, her body slams into the ground and buckles the floor, she stabs the robot in the shoulder and then cuts its head off -- rays of light come from the wounds and the head of the robot rolls away from the body; a second samurai robot fires a gun at a young woman, she avoids the bullets but the building around her crumbles and catches on fire, the young woman climbs up the robot and fires four bullets directly into its face (it glows and the building collapses on top of it), and the young woman approaches the third robot and cuts it in half with a sword (rays of light come out of the robot and it collapses).
 A man slaps a young woman sitting on his lap, the young woman falls on the ground, the man stands above her with a knife, we hear a slicing sound and then see the young woman lifeless in the arms of another young woman; a small amount of blood is visible from a stab wound on the young woman's torso and on the knife. A man with a gun shouts at several young women, we hear a shot fired and one of the young women drops to the ground, the man grabs the hair of another young woman and throws her against a dresser, he slaps her, grabs her neck and puts the gun to her face, and we hear a shot and the sound of a body dropping to the ground (no blood is visible).
 It is implied that a man is about to sexually assault a girl, he finds a girl hiding in a closet and as he approaches her a young woman comes behind him and holds a gun to his head; the man turns around and the young woman fires, missing the man and hitting a pipe and the girl (we do not see the impact of the bullet), and the young woman holds the girl in her arms and we see blood on the young woman's hands but no injury on the girl. A man shoves a young woman against a desk and is about to kiss her, the young woman grabs a knife and stabs him in the shoulder, the man screams in pain and we later see him with a bloody bandage on his shoulder, and blood seeping from the bandage and covering his shirt. A man grabs a young woman, she slaps him and the man slams her head against a wall, throws her to the ground and pins her with his body; moments later another young woman approaches and holds a knife to the man's neck, and the man stands up and allows the young woman to escape, unharmed.
 Three men carry a dazed young woman into a room, a man (we see a small amount of blood coming from a bandage on his shoulder) instructs them to put her on a chair and the three men tell the man that they do not approve of what he is doing and leave (it is implied he is going to sexually abuse the young woman); moments later police officers break into the room and grab the man, pulling him away in handcuffs.
 A man chases a young woman, shoving through a door and grabbing her shirt (it is implied that he is trying to sexually assault her); the young woman claws the man's face (we see four bloody marks on his face), and he shoves the young woman to the ground and then locks the door behind him. A young woman kicks a man in the crotch and the man punches the young woman as several men surround her. A man grabs a young woman and drags her, she trips and falls to her knees, and the man lifts her up and pulls her away.
 A young woman shouts at another young woman and flips a table, the two young women fight and scream at one another as people watch, and two men then drag them apart (they are unharmed). A man stabs a knife into a cutting block next to a young woman's hand. Several police officers surround a young woman and arrest her, dragging her through a doorway and later injecting her with an unidentified syringe that causes her to fall asleep.
 It is implied that a man performs a lobotomy on a young woman: we see him dropping a large nail-shaped tool into a pan of water (we also see a medical drawing of a nail-shaped tool being driven into a skull) and hear him explain to a woman that he had performed a lobotomy on the young woman (the young woman appears physically unharmed but dazed).
 A young woman discovers another young woman locked in a closet, and the two make a Molotov cocktail, throw it and it explodes in flames. A young woman climbs out a window and slips as she grabs a gutter; she rights herself and is unharmed.
 A young woman shouts at a woman. A woman shouts at a man. A man shouts at several young women. A young woman tells another young woman that a man had shot and killed two young women. A man tells another man that a young woman is going to have a lobotomy performed on her, saying that the young woman will not even remember her own name after what he "has done to her." A young woman tells another young woman that several people had died. A young woman tells another young woman that a man had attacked her, but she was rescued when a young woman held a knife to the man's throat. A woman tells a man that a young woman's mother had died and she had then accidentally killed her younger sister in a fit of insanity. A woman tells a man that a young woman had stabbed a man, set a fire and allowed a patient to escape from a hospital.
 A young woman spits in the face of a man (we hear the sound of her spitting but do not see the spit leave her mouth or land on the man) and he walks away. A young woman and a girl cry as they pull back the sheet covering the face of a dead woman.

LANGUAGE 4 - At least 1 incomplete F-word derivative ("motherf-"), 5 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 5 sexual references, 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (liar, stuck up, pig, fool, simple, inbred, idiot), exclamations (heck, shut up), 1 religious profanity, 2 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A young woman tells another young woman that a man has a "pill" ring, and sells drugs to make money. A man drinks rapidly from a bottle of liquor, a man drinks wine, a man drinks alcohol from a glass, and a man pours himself liquor and proposes a toast to a group of young women. A man smokes a cigar, and young women discuss a man's cigar smoking habit.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Lobotomies, mental hospitals, sexual abuse, mistreatment of hospital patients, imagination, dragons, German soldiers, reanimated humans, war, escaping situations with your imagination.

MESSAGE - People can use their imaginations to escape terrible situations. Self-sacrifice is admirable.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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