Web address: www.screenit.com
Cost: Free
User friendly index: ***
Entertainment index: ***
As many of today's Hollywood movies become more graphic and profane, a lot of parents have started wondering if they should let their children see them.
Now, aside from reading movie reviews in their favorite newspaper, there's a way for parents to determine that without having to watch the film. Screen It! is an information-filled Web site, created by a Washington, D.C., husband-and-wife team "to give parents a way to access the content of popular entertainment their kids are exposed to."
The 4-year-old site quickly has become one of the most popular film Web sites. Movie critic Roger Ebert recently named it the "third most useful movie site on the Internet."
It's easy to see why. Screen It! is one of the easiest movie sites to use. Visitors to the site can glean all the information they'll need in less than 10 minutes.
The site assesses film content, broken down into such categories as "alcohol/drugs," "blood/gore," violence, profanity and "sex/nudity," as well as ones for smoking, "guns/weapons," "imitative behavior," "jump scenes" and "disrespectful/bad attitude."
It also quantifies that content, on a scale that includes none, minor, mild, moderate, heavy and extreme.
For example, the overview or "parental review" for the new thriller "The Cell" points out that it is extreme in the following areas: "blood/gore," "disrespectful/bad attitude," "music (scary/tense)," "frightening/tense scenes," violence and profanity.
In addition to the parental reviews, which are content-specific listings, the site features "our take," the couple's critiques of a film's artistic and entertainment values.
But browsers should be warned that the site pulls no punches. For instance, the parental review for "The Original Kings of Comedy" observes that the film features 184 uses of the so-called "R-rated" curse word but also cites some of those phrases, which are barely censored.
Also, the site's lack of splashy graphics can be considered both a strong point as well as one of its weaknesses. Though that allows browsers to load the page quickly, photos from the films would probably allow the reviewers to illustrate some of their points.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com