Island, The

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Entertainment: +2

Content: -1 1/2

In this futuristic action thriller, the Island is portrayed as a Garden-of-Eden-like planet where the inhabitants of earth are selected to go and repopulate. A catastrophic contamination on earth has spared only a handful of humans who are now living in a sterile, protected environment. Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) are two of the residents of this carefully controlled, seemingly utopian waiting facility. One worker (Steve Buscemi) at the institute befriends Lincoln. People are carefully monitored for optimum health and wellness to insure their greatest success for survival once they are randomly selected to go to the Island. But everything is not what it seems. Lincoln begins to question much of what is going on in their ordered community. He explores the facility and discovers the true purpose of the inhabitants existence.

The Island is rich in moral and ethical issues to discuss. Personal liberty is greatly restricted as each residents physical, emotional and mental health is evaluated every moment. It turns out that the inhabitants are actually clones created by scientists for a purpose. Mankind is playing God. Elements in the movie parallel the atrocities experienced by the Jewish people during the holocaust, such as the use of an extermination chamber. Interestingly, even in cloned individuals, the nature of sin is evident. A cloned man is told, I can tell when you are lying because your mouth smiles, but your eyes dont. Objectionable elements are few with occasional inappropriate language, a few brief scenes where people are scantily clad, and one sex scene that is not graphic. The Island earns Previews negative rating primarily for its gratuitous violence.

Preview Reviewer: Brian Hughes
Distributor: Warner Brothers

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Several times (5) mild (hell 2); strong (-ss 1, b-tch 1, SOB 1)

Obscene Language: Several times (9) moderate (s-ck 1, wanker 1); strong (f-word 1, s-word 5, finger gesture 1)

Profanity: Few times (3) moderate (OMG 1, G 1, Oh G 1)

Violence: Many times mild (man is grabbed and pulled under water and struggles for air, many instances of people or things breaking through glass, armored car runs into a police car, lots of high-speed car and helicopter chases); moderate (man hits another man with a pipe, man kicks another man in ribs, man hits another man in face, man and woman kickbox in a virtual XBox game, many instances of guns being shot at people, man has his hand nailed to a door by a nail gun, man stabs another man in the neck with a needle); strong (several instances of harpoon-type weapons being shot into peoples bodies, which are then pulled around by cables; people are put into a gas chamber; vital organs are harvested from people while they are semi-awake)

Sex: Few times mild (man and woman kissing, deep kissing, caressing and heavy petting; man and woman lying together in embrace)

Nudity: Several times mild (pictures of women in bras and panties pinned up on a wall, women in tight-fitting leather outfits); moderate (women with partially uncovered breasts pole dance)

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times mild (in nongraphic terms, man tells another man how much he is going to enjoy kissing and sex)

Drugs: Several times mild (drinking alcohol from a flask, alcohol use or implied drug use)

Other: Moral and ethical issues are raised regarding cloning humans, harvesting organs and tissues, and value/sanctity of human life; sin nature is portrayed in cloned humans; God is shown as one who asks of people and then ignores them

Running Time: 105 minutes
Intended Audience: Adults

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