'Journey' an enjoyable, uncomplicated family film

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?Journey 2: The Mysterious Island? PG ? Fast-moving, funny and imaginative, this movie is too brightly colored and silly to be very scary, even though it?s in 3-D. Most kids 8 and older, and even some a little younger, will have fun with it.

This is a sequel that?s actually more amusing than its predecessor (?Journey to the Center of the Earth,? PG, 2008). Teenager Sean (Josh Hutcherson) has become a devout ?Vernian? since his trip to the Earth?s core, believing all of Jules Verne?s science-fiction fantasies to be provable fact. (This may encourage kids to read the classic books.)

Sean has grown sullen since his widowed mom (Kristin Davis) married Hank (Dwayne Johnson). Yet it?s Hank who gets Sean out of trouble when he rides a motorbike into a neighbor?s pool. And it?s Hank who helps Sean decode a radio message from his adventurer grandfather (Michael Caine) sending map coordinates for the Mysterious Island Verne described in his 1874 novel.

Hank offers to take Sean to the South Pacific to check it out. In Palau, they hire an eccentric helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman), whose pretty teenage daughter (Vanessa Hudgens) makes Sean tongue-tied with awe. The chopper flies straight into a hurricane (a little scary) and crashes (not shown) onto an island paradise where elephants are tiny and hummingbirds are huge.

Sean?s grandfather meets up with them and they have a series of adventures until they realize the island is sinking. They use Verne?s stories to find a way out. The movie is preceded by an amusing Looney Tunes short in 3-D, ?Daffy?s Rhapsody.? Elmer Fudd walks into a theater and is infuriated to see Daffy singing onstage. He tries and of course fails to shoot him dead.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Some of Elmer?s gunshots are a little daunting in a 3-D cartoon. In the movie, kids 8 and younger may be scared when the protagonists are chased by giant lizards and hummingbirds. The helicopter flying into the hurricane is also a little frightening. Underwater scenes are tense: Can they hold their breath long enough? A volcano erupts, too. There is very mild toilet humor and sexual innuendo.

?Safe House? R ? High-school-age movie fans 15 and older will be carried along by sheer adrenaline in this deliberately convoluted, breathlessly nonstop spy saga. ?Safe House? spits out tiny bits of plot amid head-spinning mayhem.

The story isn?t all that original, once it?s parsed out, but the presentation is fresh. And the film works on more than just an action level because stars Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds bring great nuance to their characters.

Matt (Reynolds), a young CIA operative, runs a ?safe house? in Cape Town, South Africa. His French girlfriend (Nora Arnezeder) thinks he runs a health research facility. Nothing ever happens there, and the idealistic Matt longs to prove himself to his superiors (Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga and Sam Shepard) back at CIA headquarters.

His life changes with drastic speed when an ?extraction team? brings in Tobin Frost (Washington), a notorious former agent who has been selling state secrets for cash. Frost has turned himself in for an unknown reason, but there?s a cadre of unidentified assassins close on his tail. After a massacre at the safe house, Matt takes Frost on the run, never knowing whether Frost will try to kill him, or infect him with bitterness.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The violence in ?Safe House? is a constant ? thunderous gunplay, neck-snapping fights, property-wrecking chases, plus the occasional stabbing. In one scene, agents use waterboarding on Frost. The level of on-screen gore is somewhat understated for the R rating, but there?s still plenty of blood. The script also contains rare barnyard profanity. Early in the film we see Matt in the shower with his girlfriend, but there is no sexual situation or nudity. Characters drink wine. All the mayhem is underlaid with a dark sense of betrayal and disillusionment.

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'Journey' an enjoyable, uncomplicated family film