Though the press materials insist that "Lassie," the new, updated '90s movie of that title, is not a remake of the old classic movie series, parents needn't worry that this version might have our favorite collie pumped up and battling inner-city drug dealers.
No, this is the old city mouse/
country mouse tale, with Lassie thrown into the mix to periodically warn his master (though his master never pays enough attention, of course) and ultimately to save the day.
The central character is Matt, a troubled 13-year-old boy whose mother has passed away and whose father has remarried. Matt sports an earring, wears a bandana and never goes anywhere without his Walkman, headphones blasting his favorite tunes in his ears. But it's all for show, of course — he's confused and angry, but a good kid at heart.
As the film begins, Matt and family (his younger sister, father and stepmother) are driving, U-Haul trailer in tow, from Baltimore to Virginia, where they plan to put down roots in the country, specifically the farm where Matt's late mother spent her childhood. Along the way, they pick up a stray collie, whom they dub "Lassie."
Matt isn't happy to be moving, and it doesn't help when he discovers that the town is so small (Franklin Falls, population 148) and that the electricity is off at their house. "No MTV?" he wails. "Why don't we just kill ourselves?" To make matters worse, his father's construction job falls through.
Later, however, Matt decides country life is OK. It helps when Lassie shows him where his mother's initials are carved in a tree and even finds his mother's childhood diary for him. (Smart dog, that Lassie.) And even better, Matt meets a girl who takes a shine to him.
Meanwhile, an evil, wealthy sheep rancher on the other side of their farm has been grazing his herd on their land. You can tell he's evil because he gets his two rough-and-tumble sons to do his dirty work — and worst of all, he chews tobacco.
When Matt learns that Lassie is a sheepdog, he suggests to his father and stepmother that they take up sheepherding, too. They give it a try — but when the fences go up to keep their new sheep from wandering, the evil neighbor gets mad.
The plot is simplistic — even simple-minded in places — and the characters are stereotypes and dimensionless, but the actors manage to bring a little more to the material, especially Thomas Guiry ("The Sandlot") as Matt and Jon Tenney ("Tombstone," "Beverly Hills Cop III") and Helen Slater ("City Slickers," "The Secret of My Success") as his parents. (Veteran folksy grandfather Richard Farnsworth and, as the villain, Frederic Forrest, are also on hand.)
There is enough charm at work here — and beautifully photographed landscapes — that kids should be dutifully enthralled, and parents probably won't go to sleep. In all, pretty good family fare.
"Lassie" is rated PG for a couple of mild profanities, a couple of vulgar remarks and some fairly tame violence.