There are a lot of resources our there to help parents learn more about media options for their families. This post is the second in a series of three posts where we review websites that go in depth to give parents more information than you might get from a simple rating.
Commonsensemedia.org - "Common Sense Media" offers reviews for movies, video games, websites, TV, books and music. Their reviews give a basic out of five star review of the movie (not based on content) and a basic age recommendation based on the content of the film. They also give a 1-5 rating in six categories Violence, Sex, Language, Consumerism, Drinking, drugs and smoking, and Message and role models. Their reviews also have a description of the plot and content that parents would want to know about and offer discussion topics for families. For movies they list as not appropriate for kids they offer some alternative titles which is nice if you have a kids who really wants to see a certain movie that you think is inappropriate.
The site also offers recommendations of similar films and several interactive elements. They offer age appropriate recommendations and reviews by users, broken down into parents and kids. They also have a lot of older titles not just new releases.