Twilight
HEADLINE: ** Teen Swoon **
TITLE: TWILIGHT
Quality: * * * Acceptability: -2
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: L
Violence: VV
Sex: S
Nudity: N
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE: November 21, 2008
TIME: 121 minutes
STARRING: Kristen Sewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, and Peter Facinelli
DIRECTOR: Catherine Hardwicke
PRODUCERS: Greg Mooradian, Mark Morgan and Wyck Godfre
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Karen Rosenfelt, Marty Bowen, Guy Oseary, and Michelle Imperato Stabile
WRITER: Melissa Rosenberg
BASED ON THE NOVEL BY: Stephenie Meyer
DISTRIBUTOR: Summit Entertainment
CONTENT: (RoRo, O, B, C, Pa, L, VV, S, N, A, MM) Strong, slightly mixed Romantic worldview lacking biblical theology where teenagers go by their feelings rather than common sense or morality with some occult content about the unique powers of an unusual brand of vampire characters who can run fast, fly, jump long distances, read minds, and sometimes read the future, but some moral, redemptive elements of good versus evil and sacrificing oneself for the people you love, plus Indian character mentions pagan belief that his people were descended from wolves; one light obscenity and five light profanities; strong, sometimes scary, violence with some blood, but not very graphic or heavy, such as teenager stops out-of-control van from killing another teen, vampire chases a deer and picks it up deftly to presumably eat it, implied vampire attack, evil vampire flings teenage girl across a room several times, evil vampire starts to bite teenage girl's arm and suck her blood, implied killing and burning of evil vampire, teenage girl hits her head against post during fight, two vampires fight and fling one another across a room, teenage girl falls on breaking glass and her leg gets stuck by a chard so she begins to bleed, and evil vampire deliberately breaks victim's leg; passionate teenage kissing, smoldering teenage passion and teenage couple in throws of passion start planning to fornicate on bed but they stop suddenly; upper male nudity and quick shot of teen girl's panties on her; implied beer drinking; no smoking; and, teenage girl keeps secret from her father and others, father and daughter have awkward relationship but they start warming up to one another, teenage girl admonishes father to eat a salad occasionally, teenage girl lies to her father about what she really feels about him in order to protect him from evil vampire, and vampire reads minds of people in restaurant, saying that most of them are thinking about sex or money.
GENRE: Horror/Teen Romance
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
Please address your comments to:
Rob Friedman, CEO
Summit Entertainment
1630 Stewart Street, Suite 120
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Phone: (310) 309-8400
Fax: (310) 828-4132
Website: www.summit-ent.com
SUMMARY: TWILIGHT is the first movie adaptation of the TWILIGHT series by author Stephenie Meyer about a teenage girl who falls in love with a boy who is a vampire. TWILIGHT does not delve deeply into the occult issues in the rest of the series, but it presents smoldering teenage passions apart from God and is limited by a pedestrian third act and the male lead's overly melodramatic, unconvincing performance in several critical scenes.
IN BRIEF:
TWILIGHT is the first movie adaptation of the TWILIGHT series by author Stephenie Meyer about a teenage girl who falls in love with a boy who happens to be a vampire. The movie opens with 17-year-old Bella going to live with her father in tiny, rainy Forks, Washington. In school, she runs into the mysterious family of Dr. Cullen, the foster father of Edward, her incredibly handsome biology lab partner. Edward gives her the cold shoulder in a weird way, but then seems much more friendly, though still mysterious. Eventually, Edward admits that his family are vampires who have disciplined themselves to consume only animal blood. He tries to convince Bella he's too dangerous to love, but their smoldering passion grows.
This first entry is just as much a teen romance movie as it is a vampire horror movie. The weak link is Edward Pattinson's sometimes overly melodramatic performance. Kristen Stewart does a much better job as Bella. Though this first entry does not get into the strange, occult issues in the rest of the series, it presents smoldering teenage passions apart from God. Thus, TWILIGHT warrants extreme caution.
NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.
