At the Movies with Mr. Timberlake

It was another movie day with my daughter and her friends. They're all young teens, too old for the G-rated fare, yet too young for the R-rated material. Now, I'm one of those art film fanatics who cannot wait to view the new Terence Malick release, Tree of Life on DVD. For one, Malick is filmmaker who takes years to complete a project, so I find him intriguing. For another, my cousin served as boom operator on the movie. Scotty's been doing that job for well over 25 years and has worked with everyone from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to Ben Stiller. Nevertheless, I like the occasional action film. When the girls were saying that they wanted to see The Help, I scoffed. It's probably going to be on DVD soon so why waste my hard-earned dollars on a movie that's ready to leave the theatres?

The girls and I compromised to see In Time, the new Justin Timberlake vehicle. For me, In Time was great for the action and his co-star, Amanda Seyfried. I assume for the girls, Mr. Timberlake and well, the action was good for them, but they will never admit it - believe me, I understand the embarrassment.

In Time is a futuristic action-thriller which paints a disturbing picture of how people stop aging at 25. To live longer, one must buy themselves time. The Andrew Niccol film is rated PG-13. I was already 17 going on 18 when I saw the first PG-13 film, Red Dawn. Perhaps it was the hype behind the new rating that sent me to the theater to see what the brouhaha was all about. The mid-1980s Cold War thriller starring Patrick Swayze lived up to the hype. I found the film about the Soviets invading us to be quite unsettling and I'm pretty sure that I had a nightmare over seeing Red Dawn. The Gene Wilder "laffer" The Woman in Red received the same rating that year for its "sexualized content." At the time I couldn't understand why - ah, teenage boys.

The point here is that not much has changed between Red Dawn and In Time. Both films have disturbing elements, but that's what parents are for -- about 15 rows ahead. Do you think that these young teens would be seen with their middle-aged chaperone? No, I cannot go up to the girls and cover their eyes when something is objectionable, but we certainly discuss the film at its conclusion.

I'm torn on the next movie weekend. The Adam Sandler film looks good, but what is its rating?