A parents' guide to select new movies:

'The Spy Next Door'

Rating: PG for sequences of action violence and some mild rude humor.

What it's about: Jackie Chan is a spy who baby-sits the neighbor kids while defending the world from an arch-villain.

The Kid Attractor Factor: Martial arts fights and gags, spyware, smart-mouthed kids.

Good lessons/bad lessons: "Family isn't whose blood you carry. It's who you love and who loves you."

Violence: Gunplay, comic martial arts brawls.

Language: No profanity.

Sex: Jackie Chan does a little smooching.

Drugs and alcohol: None.

Parents' advisory: Jackie Chan is always kid-safe, unless Chris Tucker is in the movie with him.

'The Lovely Bones'

Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language.

What it's about: A murdered teen narrates the tale of her death and her family's life after it.

The Kid Attractor Factor: It's about kids, and it's by fantasy director Peter Jackson (King Kong, The Lord of the Rings).

Good lessons/bad lessons: "You're not supposed to look back. You're supposed to go forward."

Violence: A girl is lured on camera, and murdered off camera.

Language: Some profanity

Sex: Young romance, and the crime itself has a sexual nature.

Drugs and alcohol: Alcohol and cigarettes.

Parents' advisory: Entirely too creepy and intense for very young children, and kids younger than 12 might be bored by this after-life thriller and fairy tale.