“Wonder Woman”(Warner Bros.)
Enjoyable adventure for the DC Comics superhero (Gal Gadot) takes her from her home environment – an island of Amazons isolated from the rest of the world – into the thick of World War I. Her involvement in the conflict follows the accidental intrusion of an American (Chris Pine) who’s spying for the British into her native realm, an event she takes as a signal that her race is being called to bring peace to humanity. Since her mother (Connie Nielsen), who is also the queen of the warrior women, disagrees, she undertakes the mission on her own.
Guided by the agent, and with the support of a high-ranking government official in London (David Thewlis), she uses her military training (under Robin Wright) to take on the real-life German commander Gen. Ludendorff (Danny Huston) and the fictional, sinister scientist (Elena Anaya) who runs his chemical weapons program.
Though director Patty Jenkins keeps the mayhem mostly free of gore, and the dialogue in Allan Heinberg’s script is unspotted by vulgarity, the sexuality that tinges the central romance, though restrained, makes the film best for grownups, though possibly acceptable for older teens.
Frequent stylized violence with minimal blood, nonscriptural religious ideas, implied premarital sexual activity, a scene of immodest behavior, some sexual humor, at least one mild oath, a single crass term.
The Catholic News Service classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
“Captain Underpants:The First Epic Movie” (Fox)
Cheerfully silly, bodily functions-obsessed kid’s cartoon adapted from a series of books by Dav Pilkey. Two fourth-grade pranksters (voices of Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch) fear that their friendship will be broken up if their strict principal (voice of Ed Helms) follows through on his threat to separate them by assigning them to different classes.
Improvising a solution, they hypnotize him and use mind control to convince him that he is Captain Underpants, the superhero featured in some of the many comic books they have written and drawn together. In this guise, he battles a wild haired mad scientist (voice of Nick Kroll) who schemes to employ technology to stamp out laughter, especially among kids.
Parents averse to potty humor will find little to like in director David Soren’s otherwise unobjectionable comedy, which showcases a giant mechanized toilet running amok and an orchestra of whoopee cushions. A brief spell of seriousness finds the central duo figuring out that some grownups may be mean because they’re lonely, and doing their best to remedy an instance of this problem. Pervasive childish scatological humor.
The Catholic News Service classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG – parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.