Prescreening Family Entertainment

OK, so the offers for paid reviews that I had hoped for aren't beating down my door, so I am choosing to share and review some things I have found to be valuable to me as a mom.

We are big movie buffs in this family. In fact Neal and I have probably seen hundreds of movies together. I am a big fan of good entertainment and even enjoy catching the occasional flick all by myself. We have even been known to go to the movies "together" just to part ways at the theater door to see separate movies that each appealed to our own likes. (I remember a definite parting of ways as I headed in to see Stepmom, and he went to watch the remake of Psycho. I was the only one who walked out having gotten her money's worth.)

The fact of the matter is, not all entertainment is created equally. And when it comes to exposing your children to modern media, it can be a serious gamble. I have on more than one occasion found myself sitting in a movie theater and regretting that my children were sitting with me, even in a movie that was rated G! As it is, neither the rating system nor even parenting has a clear cut standard for what is acceptable and what isn't. I find even with my own three children I have to hold different standards for different children. What might seem like a tolerable "violence" level for my sons might induce nightmares for my daughter. You have to know your audience, and you have to have your own levels of acceptability clearly defined.

For a time it seemed the only way to figure out whether or not a movie was OK to take my kids to was to go and preview it myself. Even Neal's filter system wasn't accurate enough for me to take total comfort. (Dads!) And let's face it, with the cost of going to the movies these days, who can afford to pay to go see it twice? ThenI discovered this wonderful website. It has become an invaluable tool to prescreen movies for our family.

The Preview Online Family Movie Review site breaks it evaluation of movies down in two categories. First in "Entertainment" value, it rates the movies on a scale from "0" for awful to a "+4" for excellent. ("+3" for good, "+2" for fair and "+1" for bad.) But in addition to Entertainment it also gives you an assessment for Content which evaluates how "family friendly" the movie is. That rating system Ranges as follows: +3 to +4 for "SAFE"; +1 to + 2.5 for FAIRLY SAFE; -1.5 to -.5 for "CAUTION - Questionable"; -2.5 to -2 for "UNSAFE" and -4 to -3 for "DANGEROUS".

On top of that the review breaks down to specific assessments in the following areas: "CRUDE LANGUAGE"; "OBSCENE LANGUAGE"; "PROFANITY" (yes, there is apparently a difference); as well as Violence; Sex; Nudity; Homosexuality; Sexual Dialogue/Gestures; Drugs and just in case that all didn't cover it, they also have the category of "OTHER" as a catch all for any additional information they think you might need, such as mature topics like suicide, abortion, adoption, etc.

I know that's a lot of information, but I really LOVE this website and highly recommend you click on the link and check it out. I will have to warn you though, on more than one occasion I have read the review for a movie I wanted to see just for myself, not including my kids, and when they actually break down word for word issues in a review, I have had to pass on viewing the film... not that that's a bad thing! But it definitely makes you more aware of what you are going to go and see.

So check it out, I think you will find it to be one hell uh, heck of a parenting tool. (Oops, does that make my post PG now?)

This is an unsolicited review.