Not suitable under 15; parental guidance to 15 (themes, disturbing scenes, violence)
This topic contains:
Children under 15 | Not suitable due to themes, disturbing scenes and violence. |
Children aged 15 | Parental guidance recommended due to themes, disturbing scenes and violence. |
Children aged 16 and over | Ok for this age group. |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | Sucker Punch |
Classification: | M |
Consumer advice lines: | Frequent action violence and mature themes |
Length: | 109 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Baby Doll (Emily Browning) and her younger sister, who have just lost their mother are being abused by their angry stepfather (Gerard Plunkett) who has been left out of the mother’s will. Unable to tolerate her stepfather’s abuse of her younger sister, Baby Doll attempts to shoot him. When her younger sister is killed instead, the stepfather accuses Baby Doll of the crime and she is committed to Lennox House, a psychiatric asylum. There Baby Doll overhears her stepfather bribing an orderly named Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) to arrange a lobotomy for her, to be performed in five days time.
At Lennox House Dr. Vera Gorski (Carla Gugino) uses theatre techniques in treating her patients. Baby Doll is befriended by four girls: Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) and Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and Amber (Jamie Chung). Baby Doll soon learns that she has a talent for dance and when she dances, she also imagines herself in fantasy worlds where she is in control and fighting zombies, dragons, robots, and other evil beings. She incorporates her friends into these alternate realities along with The Wise Man (Scott Glenn), a sage who gives her advice on reaching freedom.
Baby Doll informs the other girls of her escape plan and the five girls begin working against great odds to collect the items they need to make a bid for freedom.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Loss of a parent; sexual abuse; mental illness and mental institutions
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
Sucker Punch contains fantasy action violence, and real world verbal and physical violence, including sexual abuse. Examples include:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the violence and scary scenes described above.
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Children in this age group may also be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.
None of concern
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There are some coarse language, name calling and put-downs in this movie. Examples include:
Sucker Punch is a fantasy action adventure targeting an adolescent and younger adult audience. Its themes, violence and scary scenes make it unsuitable for younger teens.
The intended message from this movie is that we all have within us the ability to survive by empowering ourselves.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:
Parents may wish to discuss the message conflict that that exists within this film. On one hand the film is saying that young women are capable of being self-empowered superheroes. However the film sends these self-empowered women into battle wearing sensually styled lingerie, push-up bras, ultra mini skirts, and tight fitting dresses. The same female characters are also depicted as sexual playthings that are fair game for exploitation by males.
Tip: Leave out the first A, An or The
Selecting an age will provide a list of movies with content suitable for this age group. Children may also enjoy movies selected via a lower age.
Content is age appropriate for children this age
Some content may not be appropriate for children this age. Parental guidance recommended
Content is not age appropriate for children this age
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