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Family reviews: '2012,' 'Pirate Radio'

A parents' guide to select new movies:

'2012'

Rating: PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and some language.

What it's about: People struggle to make it to a safe haven as volcanoes, earthquakes and tidal waves threaten to bring human civilization to an end.

The Kid Attractor Factor: Buildings collapse, ships roll over and sink, stuff blows up and people die. But not the dog!

Good lessons/bad lessons: Don't put off making up with relatives. You never know when the end is coming.

Violence: Lots and lots and lots of people die.

Language: The end of the world prompts John Cusack to curse.

Sex: Not really.

Drugs and alcohol: There are no teetotalers at the end of the world.

Parents' advisory: A big old-fashioned disaster movie that borrows bits from every other disaster movie to show us what the end might look like; this is too intense for anyone younger than 8.

'Pirate Radio'

Rating: R for language, and some sexual content including brief nudity.

What it's about: A teenager (Tom Sturridge, below) is sent by his mom to an offshore "pirate" radio station during the golden age of British rock, the mid-1960s.

The Kid Attractor Factor: DJs behaving badly.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Be careful whom you give your heart to. Maybe she (or he) is just out for a good time.

Violence: The threat of a watery grave.

Language: Profanity is uttered in the queen's English.

Sex: Yes, suggested, with the nudity to go along with it.

Drugs and alcohol: Yes, smoked and sipped.

Parents' advisory: Parents skittish about language and sexual situations will want to keep their 12-and-youngers away from this one.