Reel Help for Catholic Parents

Your teenagers want to see a movie.


The title sounds innocent enough, and the ubiquitous PG-13 movie rating doesn't offer much help in discerning content.


Plan A : You let them go . However, you sit directly behind them in the movie theater, so you can cover their innocent eyes and ears in the event of inappropriate scenes.

Plan B: HappyToBeCatholic parents visit Catholic Movie Reviews ahead of time and decide which movie your teenager will see based on evaluations by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting.


Films are assigned the following classifications:

A-I -- general patronage;
A-II -- adults and adolescents;

A-III -- adults;
A-IV**
L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
O -- morally offensive.

** Discontinued classification. All archived movies that were originally in the A-IV category are now classified as L.

The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.


So, you can relax and enjoy that 90 minutes of free time - maybe in adoration praying for most of Hollywood.

PS - There are archived reviews for movies no longer in theaters, and resources for television programs too!