A recent Discover Magazine article illustrated that war is not inevitable. Different legions of monkeys sometimes had "wars" and sometimes did not depending on how much food was available and so on.  It was mentioned that in the 1980's a survey of college students suggested that 20% of them thought that war was invevitable. Today that same survey was repeated and a majority of the people surveyed thought that war was inevitable. It is the overwhelming predominance of violence in the media, particularly in violent movies, that has contributed to this attitude. To undo this attitude is simple: Promote the sale and viewing of non-violent movies over the sale and viewing of violent movies. The market is ripe for such a move as a survey of  people in San Jose, CA  reveals that 1/2 of the people surveyed want non-violent movies while the other half simply don't care one way or the other. Only a couple of people out of 30 people surveyed specifically wanted violent movies or horror movies. 

Below is the beginings of a list of movies that are relatively non-violent.  The standard used is that each 2 hour movie has to have less than 10 violent scenes in it and few deaths, if any, to be included in the list of preferred movies below. Links are provided to where you can purchase these movies on Amazon.com.  Your Amazon.com purchase supports Peacemovies.com. If you don't trust the links on this page to be secure, just visit the Amazon site briefly using the links on this page and then type http://www.amazon.com into your browser and Peacemovies.com will still get credit for all of the purchases you make on Amazon.com, provided you have not previously visted Amazon.com recently. Running your anti-virus software program may also delete tracking cookies, resetting your Amazon cookies to give Peacemovies.com credit for your visiting Amazon.com. This is an alternative to charging $9.95 for an e-book that reviews at least 300 non-violent movies. Peacemovies.com doesn't have the budget to rent 300 movies to start this project and you probably don't have $9.95 to spare just to get some reviews that are availalbe on other web sites for free anyway. So browse the 50 titles and reviews below and enjoy!  Thanks.

84 Charing Cross Road  -- Romance  99 minutes, rated PG 1986

Set in 1949 New York and London, Helene Haniff (Anne Bancroft) is planning a trip to London to check out some books and visit bookshop owner Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins). Helene is displeased with the lack of availability of old British books in the US.  Various mishaps along the way delay her arrival in London and she ends up mail ordering the books she needs from Frank.  This is mostly a story about a woman visiting bookstores and the library, with some interesting narration, but they do manage to squeeze in a moment of potential violence when Helene witnesses a sit in protest at Columbia University.   2-1/2 stars.

Alice – Woody Allen 1990 PG-13 Romance

Mia Farrow who plays Alice in the movie won the 1990 National Board of Review Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Alice. Woody Allen can’t play a woman so Alice Tate (Mia Farrow) subs for him in this movie. Alice has all the whiny characteristics that Allen would have playing a male character. In this case, Alice is having marital problems, but thinks that she needs acupuncture to cure what is ailing her. She soon finds out that her heart and not her body are in the wrong place. Zero violence, not even references to violence. Five stars.

Amelie From Montmartre  2001 R  122 minutes  French with English subtitles

Set in 1997 France, the movie stars Audrey Tautou as Amelie, a shy recluse woman who finds an old toy box and decides to return it to its original owner.  After that is accomplished, the story takes some further amusing twists and turns as Amelie decides to befriend others in a similar way.  There are six scenes of violence, only two of which are central to the plot (four scenes are imaginary about what could have happened).  Four stars.

Arthur  1981 PG  97 minutes

Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) is a lonely millionaire playboy who is being forced to marry a woman named Susan Johnson (Jill Eikenberry) who he doesn’t love. If he doesn’t marry Susan, he will have his $750 million dollar trust fund cut off and be left penniless. Arthur meets the love of his life Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) and wants to marry her instead and the fun and conflicts ensue. Surprisingly, there are 7 acts of violence or threats of violence or references to violence in this otherwise melodramatic movie. That gives this movie almost the same rating as the Rocky Horror Picture show, though of course in this movie nobody dies. Four stars.

Arthur 2: On The Rocks  1988  PG  113 Minutes

The daffy and irrepressible drunk Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) returns in this loving sequel to the original hit Arthur. In this sequel, Arthur is forced to sober up and look for a job, after his family enters into a business partnership that results in Arthur’s $750 million trust fund being taken away from him. In order to get the money back, Arthur must divorce his current wife Linda (Liza Minnelli) and marry Susan (Jill Eikenberry, the woman he dumped at the altar in the last movie).  There are only mild physical altercations in this movie, 3 in all.  Four stars.

Awakenings  -- Drama  PG13, 1990, 120 Minutes

Based on a true story: Dr Malcom Sayer  (Robin Williams) attempts to cure some comatose mental patients who have been mental vegetables for the past 20-30 years using a new drug.  Initially the patients experience a dramatic improvement.  This movie is an almost totally non-violent examination of psychiatry’s reliance on drugs to solve all of the patients problems.  Robin Williams gives a superb performance as Dr Sayer, a very compassionate human being.  Five stars.

Baby Boom  1987 PG 110 Minutes

JC Wiatt (Diane Keaton) is a high powered female executive with a food distribution and marketing firm who is living with her boyfriend Steven Buchner (Harold Ramis).  Her life is turned upside down when she unexpectedly inherits a baby girl. Thrust into the role of mother unexpectedly, she initially tries to put the baby up for adoption, but soon becomes attached to the baby and decides not to compromise the care of her baby for the sake of her job. There are no violent scenes or threats of violence in this movie.  Three stars.

Bush’s Brain Documentary PG-13 78 minutes 2004

This movie explores the history of political manipulator Karl Rove’s involvement with the political campaigns of President George W. Bush.  Narration, apparently from Rove’s point of view, criticizes the book by the same title. No violence on screen.  3 stars.

Close Encounters Of The 3rd Kind 
Steven Spielberg 1977

The wacky world of alien abductions comes to life, with a peaceful resolution and reconciliation.  15 scenes of mild violence or alien abduction including family verbal arguments, non-lethal car crashes and whacked out electrical appliances.  The DVD dust jacket in some versions was inexplicably remade from the original black and white to show a red explosion at Devil’s Tower which doesn’t happen.

Dead Poets' Society  PG 1989 129 minutes

John Keating (Robin Williams) plays an unconventional  teacher who was a member of the Dead Poets Society at the same prep school that he now teaches at.  His antics in the classroom lead some of his students down the primrose path, some would say to self destruction and others would say to liberation from rote learning. Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) has a particularly difficult time reconciling Keating’s teachings with his own father’s ambitions for what he thinks are the appropriate educational goals for his son. There are only four acts or implied acts of violence. (The one suicide occurs off screen). Four stars.  

Enchanted April  1992 PG  97 minutes

Four English women take a vacation in a nice secluded villa in post WWI Italy.  They mostly want to be alone away from their husbands. Soon they are joined by one lady’s husband and the owner of the property. The movie delivers on its promise of light entertainment without a lot of hype or playing the audience. There are only two violent scenes in the movie, one of which, an accidental explosion, was sorely disappointing and seemed to be deviant from the plot the first time I saw this movie.  Three stars.  Note: This movie is only available in VHS format for US Televisions from Amazon.com.

Erin Brockovich  2000 R  132 minutes

This is not a traditional bang bang type shoot’em up type movie, but lots of people are portrayed as being injured by the chemical disposal negligence of PG&E.  The only actual physical violence or threats of same are a car accident and a threatening phone call.  Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) takes on the negligent powers that be at the same time as taking care of her three kids and convincing her boss, Attorney Ed Masry (Albert Finney), to hire her in the first place. Four stars.

ET: The Extraterrestrial 1982 PG 

This movie won 4 Oscars:  Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing; Best Effects, Visual Effects; Best Music, Original Score; Best Sound.  A young boy named Eliot (Henry Thomas) discovers an Extra-Terrestrial in his back yard after the ET is stranded on Earth. Eliot takes the ET into his house and into his room. Eliot and his brother and sister keep the ET a secret for as long as possible. ET sets up some gadgets to make a device to “phone home”.  There are no serious acts of violence in this movie.  There are five mildly violent scenes, such as the boys getting knives from the kitchen when they first try to “hunt” ET in the backyard, or some government workers getting dragged behind the hijacked van that Eliot’s brother commandeers when trying to return ET to the forest. Five stars.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind  2004 R 108 minutes

Jim Carey plays Joel, a guy who decides to have his memory of his girlfriend erased using a high tech procedure.  Halfway through the procedure, he decides that he wants to save the memories and a mental struggle ensues between Joel and the people administering the procedure. There are 7 scenes involving violence or play acting at violence, but only one scene where something or someone is killed or injured.

Fast Times At Ridgemont High  1982 R 90 min

For this movie, writer Cameron Crowe spent a year at Claremont High in San Diego learning about high school life in the early 1980’s.  That allowed Crowe to make the script more realistic and lifelike. As a result, the characters are more complex and less stereotypical than in most teen angst movies. The movie follows some of the people at the high school as they lose their virginity and get involved in drug use. There are only four acts of mild violence, including a hold-up where a man uses an unfired gun at a convenience store.  Two stars.

Finding Forrester  2000 PG-13 for language and sexual situations  136 minutes

Basketball star and neighborhood bro Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) breaks into old man and writer William Forrester’s (Sean Connery’s) apartment on a dare from his buddies.  One thing leads to another and soon Jamal finds himself becoming friends with Forrester and Forrester helps Jamal with his writing.  Jamal faces challenges along the way, including the conflict over pursuing his writing vs pursuing his basketball career. There are only 3 moments where mild violence occurs or is even likely to occur  (throwing things or an attempt at starting fist-cuffs for example).  Four stars.

Flashdance 1983 R

Jennifer Beals gets her big break in this blockbuster movie with the classic “Flashdance what a feeling” hit song as part of the soundtrack. The song “Flashdance … what a feeling” won the 1984 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and as of 2007 ranks as the 22nd most successful song in history, according to Wikipedia. Beals stars as Alex who is a welder by day and an exotic dancer by night who has big dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. Alex also reluctantly gets involved with her boss at her welding job.  There are only four violent scenes, two of which involve someone getting punched out.   Four stars.

Grease  1978 PG  110 Minutes

Relive the hit songs from the late 1970’s Grease soundtrack with a story weaved into it involving the budding romance between greaser Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John).  This movie was the biggest grossing musical hit of all time. There are only 4 scenes of mild slapstick type violence.  3 stars.

High School Musical  TV-G   98 minutes  2006

High School Basketball star Troy (Zac Efron) and newbie female brainiac on campus Gabriella (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) team up almost by chance to perform in the High School Musical. There are plenty of roadblocks the two encounter along the way to their stellar performance in the musical. Sci fi and special effects addicts will be satisfied by the relatively low tech time warp that is pulled off at the climax without blowing everything up, like happens in those James Bond or Stargate movies. There is no violence nor threats of violence in this movie.  Four stars.

High School Musical 2  TV-G

Summer vacation arrives at East High School.  Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) and the rest of the East High School basketball team land summer jobs at the resort owned by the Evans family. Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) schemes to use her family influence to break up Troy and Gabriella in both their professional and personal relationships.  Plenty of dancing and singing routines round out this blockbuster sequel to High School Musical. There are no violent scenes or threats of violence.  Three stars. 

Imagine – John Lennon  1988 UR 100 minutes

This movie details the life of John Lennon from his boyhood days to his untimely death in 1980.  The movie draws on never before seen footage. It has many of his songs mixed in with stories about how fans were treated by the Beatles.  There are only four violent scenes or references to violence. The shooting of John Lennon is portrayed symbolically. Five stars.

Le Fils (The Son)  2002 NR 100 minutes
Foreign – French with English subtitles

Ex wife tells husband near the beginning of the movie: “He killed our son and you are teaching him carpentry?”  A reluctant teacher takes on a new client at the woodworking school.  The client is an ex juvenile offender who killed the teacher’s son. The movie is mostly uneventful.  It’s great if you like watching carpenters walk up and down stairs and look out windows and do sit ups and driving murderers to places while their ex wife freaks out.  They even get to eat french fries in France! How exciting.  The movie does have a climax which is not very violent at all.  Two stars.

Legally Blonde  2001 PG-13 for language and sexual situations. 96 minutes

Blonde bombshell Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) is disappointed that her boyfriend who she wanted to marry dumped her just so he could look respectable while attending Harvard Law School. So she hatches a plan to attend Harvard Law School herself and woo him back. Along the way she makes some stunning legal maneuvers. A murder mystery is central to the plot later in the film, but there is little if any violence on screen, except for the UPS man getting accidentally smacked in the nose by an overeager would be mistress.  Three stars.

Look Who’s Talking   1989 PG-13  96 minutes

A CPA accountant named Molly falls for a coworker and gets pregnant. The next thing we know, the voice of Bruce Willis is narrating the experiences of the baby to be.  Lots of other babies are also narrated so when the babies meet up they have cute conversations. A cab driver named James (John Travolta) becomes the love interest in the story. There are only five scenes that could loosely be characterized as violent.  Some of them are Molly’s dream fantasies.   Three stars.

Look Who’s Talking Too  1990  PG-13  80 minutes

Mollie (Kirstie Alley) and James (John Travolta) team up again in this sequel to Look Who’s Talking.  This time there is a baby girl in the family named Julie (with her voice narrated by Roseanne Barr) who is getting in minor fights with her older brother Mikey (voice provided by Bruce Willis).  There are a few instances that are questionable from a violence avoidance perspective. Monsters scare Mikey in his room a couple of times. The new room mate Stuart (Elisa Koteas) pulls an unloaded gun a couple of times and gets into a minor fight with a robber and starts a fire in the apartment.  2 stars.

Lost In Translation R for some sexual situations 102 minutes  2003

Bill Murray stars in an off beat slow paced comedy about his escapades and language barriers he encounters while in Japan with another woman while filming a commercial.  Only two scenes of violence punctuate an otherwise calm movie: a kid is playing a video game and some Japanese gangsters storm into a bar and start shooting it up using machine guns.

Love and Other Disasters  2006 R  90 minutes

Emily Jackson – Jacks (Brittany Murphy) is an intern at British Vouge magazine, where she tries to play matchmaker for her various office buddies, with often hilarious results. One “gay couple” is matched up even though they aren’t sure if they are really gay for example. There are no acts of violence or hints of violence in any part of this movie. 3 stars.

Manilow: Live  2000 NR 115 minutes

Barry Manilow mixes it up in this live concert, including doing short skits with an Accordion and a Kazu. Manilow also gives a softer edge to a lot of the musical numbers that he sings, not just popping out a steady routine of hit songs one after the other. Some of the lyrics he inherited from Frank Sinatra. There are a couple of references to violent themes in his songs. One is the usual reference to gunplay in his hit song Cobocobanna. The other is a reference to a song in his Broadway musical “Harmony” about life in a Nazi concentration camp. Three stars.

Moscow On The Hudson  1984  2 hours  English and Russian with English subtitles.

Musician and Sax player Vladimir Ivanoff (Robin Williams) pays a visit to New York when he travels with the Russian circus.  Vladimir defects while on a shopping trip and is befriended by the dept store security guard.  He soon embarks upon the usual odyssey of an immigrant in America, finding odd jobs and a beautiful girlfriend named Lucia (Maria Conchita Alonso).  This movie is almost a Sax musical, since Vladimir gets in enough Sax playing to make it seem that way. Although the movie starts out in the pre 1990 Soviet Union, the KGB does not pose a serious threat to safety of the characters. Vladimir suffers the only violent encounter in the movie when he gets mugged in New York.  Five stars.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington   1939 UR  129 minutes   Classic

A young, idealistic Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is appointed to the position of Senator when a former Senator dies unexpectedly. When Mr. Smith goes to Washington to serve in the Senate, he soon finds that his idealistic enthusiasm for serving his country is undermined by the corrupt scoundrels who inhabit Washington in this academy award winning movie.  Eight brief acts of violence permeate what is otherwise a totally non-violent movie. Four stars.

Mrs Doubtfire  1993 PG-13 125 minutes

Robin Williams pulls off another hit comedy routine, this time dressed as an old lady housekeeper.  Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) is a loving and funny husband to his wife Miranda (Sally Field) but the marriage is on the rocks and headed for divorce court after one too many comedy antics are pulled by Daniel.  Daniel decides to dress up as an old lady housekeeper when Miranda places an ad for a nanny to take care of the kids since the breakup. Lots of hilarious hijinks ensue and only three acts of slapstick violence occur to punctuate an otherwise non-violent movie. Four stars.

My Dinner With Andre  1981 PG

Two friends Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn share a dinner together where they discuss philosophy and life as playwrights and directors. The conversation even covers such outlandish topics as the utopian outpost called Findhorn or what it means to be a human being sitting in a room doing nothing.  The overwhelmingly utopian and scintillating conversation drifts occasionally into very minor discussion of violent themes and outcomes, but there is no violence on screen.   Five stars.
Note that this movie is now a collector's item.

National Geographic: March Of The Penguins  G  Documentary 2004, 80 minutes

The Emperor Penguins of Antarctica march for 70 miles inland to mate in the dead of winter. Morgan Freeman narrates this compelling documentary about the Penguins’ struggle for survival. A few Penguins die from the cold, but there is not much violence (except a seal or a bird eating a Penguin).  Three stars.

Notting Hill  -- Romance 1999 PG13 for sexual content and brief strong language. 123 minutes.

Bookseller William Thacker  (Hugh Grant) falls for famous screen actress Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) and must face the reality of Anna’s life with the Paparazzi and her lack of truth telling to her peers.  Will they make a go of it despite these setbacks? Overall it is a jolly good story with no violence of any kind.  Four stars. 

Nova: Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold  2008 NR 112 Minutes

A Nova documentary that explores the scientific investigations of what is “cold”, starting in the 16th and 17th centuries with the invention of the thermometer and the world’s first air conditioner and progressing to the present day race to find absolute zero. No violence, except for the account of how one researcher was executed in the 17th century.  Three stars.  Available from Netflix.

Oh, God!  PG  98 minutes 1977 Comedy

Atheist grocery store assistant manager Jerry Landers (John Denver) is the unlikely recipient of attention from on high from the Almighty God himself (George Burns) in this award winning movie from the late 1970’s.  God’s message? “Cherish and nurture each other instead of killing one another” and “Everything’s going to work out provided people make that choice.”  There are no violent scenes or references to unseen violent parts of the plot in this movie.  Four stars.

Oh, God! Book II  1980 PG  94 minutes

Elementary school student 11 year old Tracy Richards (Louanne Sirota) is the one to see God (George Burns) this time. God visits Tracy and explains that he needs some additional publicity. Tracy and some of her pals from school start an ad campaign where everyone is urged to “Think God”.  But soon Tracy has to answer questions from school administrators and her parents about what motivated her to start the campaign. There is no violence in this movie, though Tracy runs away after being threatened with being put in an institution. Three stars.

Oh, God! You Devil 1984 PG 96 minutes

In this third and final film in the Oh God! Series, Bobby Sheldon is a struggling musician who whispers out loud that he would sell his soul to the devil if he could make it in the music world. Soon the devil (George Burns) signs Bobby up for a 7 year contract in exchange for Bobby’s soul.  A little while later, Bobby is having second thoughts, as part of the deal involves him impersonating a true rock star while another man gets to live out his former life with his wife and kid.  Soon God intervenes and attempts to win Bobby’s soul in a poker game. There is not much violence in this movie. Six people are reported to die in a hurricane (off screen). A waiter wrecks the wedding cake next to the pool. Billy Wayne (the rock star) commits suicide by popping pills.  The devil’s most famous quote: “Next year I’m bringing back the gypsy moth.” Two stars.

One Nation Under God  Documentary 1993 NR   82 minutes

A succinct examination of the psychological theories and religious fundamentalism surrounding the issue of weather or not homosexuality is a learned behavior that can be unlearned through counseling and/or prayer. A few former “ex gays” give their accounts of how the religious and psychological programs designed to convert gays into straights are failures. The only references to violence against gays and lesbians is the reminder that Germany interned gays in the concentration camps. Three stars.

Patch Adams PG-13 116 minutes 1998

In Patch Adams Robin Williams plays the real life Patch Adams, who inspired the creation of a unique hospital in the 1970’s.  Patch is a medical student and former psychiatric inpatient who is inspired to help people in hospitals by making light of their situation through humor and good times. Patch runs smack up against the establishment that prohibits him from practicing medicine without a license. There are five violent scenes or events (two of them are play acting at shooting guns) including one murder-suicide not shown on screen. Five stars.

Primer 2004 77 minutes  PG-13

In this independent award winning film a group of techno-geeks is experimenting with batteries and gadgets in their garage while trying to invent a room temperature superconductor. Eventually their experiments lead them to invent a time travel device. They try to exploit the device for financial gain and this leads to trouble, both technically and personally. There are only 5 somewhat violent images or scenes, not too gross.  Three stars.

Rocky Horror Picture Show  1975 R

This movie is mostly a musical where a naïve couple named Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) who got stranded along a deserted roadway are introduced to the mad scientist/vampire Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) and his lab. A couple of people die. There are a total of 8 violent scenes (mostly mild slapstick violence) including one sex scene that has an open question of consent. Three stars.

Sleepless In Seattle PG 1993 105 minutes

Jonah Baldwin (Ross Malinger), son of Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks), calls in to a national radio program to express that his dad needs a new wife, after his wife died.  After Sam goes on the air briefly, over 2000 women call in to try to find out how to contact Sam.  One of those women is Annie Reed (Meg Ryan), who writes Sam a letter. Jonah is adamant that Sam and Annie have to meet, but Sam is not inclined to visit Baltimore from Seattle. Jonah eventually figures out how to get them together in a surprising meet up.  There is no significant violence in this movie. (A wife accidentally elbows a man in the face while lying in bed in a totally out of context moment.)  Four stars.

Somewhere in Time  1980 PG    103 minutes

This movie features time travel without the flashing lights, burning rubber and flux capacitors and without the gunplay of the Libyan terrorists.   However the star of the show Richard Collier (played by Christopher Reeve) is continually stalked by William Fawcett Robinson (Christopher Plummer) who ultimately has Richard bagged and dragged from the scene in a not too violent display of thuggery.  Otherwise, this is a nice romantic story of a playwright living in 1980 who falls in love with an actresses' picture from 1912 and takes a trip back through time, courtesy of willpower sans technology.  There are six scenes of violence to self or others or implied threats of violence.

The Front  -- Woody Allen 1976 PG

Howard Prince (Woody Allen) befriends a blacklisted screen writer Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy) who is trying to get his work accepted in the McCarthy witch-hunt era of the 1950s. Howard acts as a “front” so that Alfred can submit his scripts.  Soon Howard is a very popular fellow. But the FBI is not far behind… There is only one reference to violence, when an actor who is being pressured to testify against Howard commits suicide (off screen).  Four stars.

The King of Kong  2007 PG-13   79 minutes

This movie details the competitive gaming world of Donkey Kong.  There is a whole genre of gamers who compete for the title of the world’s best Donkey Kong player and this movie provides a glimpse into that world. There are only three instances of violence or glorification of violence in this movie. There is “war all the time in this universe” according to one player. Another player idolizes the Red Barron from WWII because he shot down 87 planes in the battles with Germany. Finally, the players sometimes send death threats to each other. Three stars.

The Man From Earth  2007  NR

This is a Sci-fi yarn written by Jerome Bixby that could have been subtitled “My Dinner With Andre meets Mr Spock”. In this case Mr Spock is a 14,000 year old caveman named John who was born in Cromagnon times and has lived to tell about it, all while not aging a day past 35.   John is about to move on to another part of the world to hide his identity, but this time he decides to stay for awhile and chat with his soon to be departed friends.  There is no violence in this movie, though a gun is pulled at one point and later the same man (a psychologist) threatens to have John committed to an asylum. 

The Pursuit Of Happiness  PG-13  for some barely noticeable 4 letter words.  2006 117 minutes

A down on his luck salesman named Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is struggling to keep his relationship together and take care of his son Christopher (played by Will Smith’s real life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith).  Mr Gardner goes from selling bone density monitors to hospitals and doctors’ offices to working his way up to a dream job at a stock brokerage. Along the way, he scrapes by day to day but he and his son continue valiantly in their pursuit of happiness.  There are a couple of potentially violent confrontations, but nobody gets hurt. Fast forward over the violent previews for Spiderman 3 and James Bond (approved for all audiences my ass!) 4 stars

The Thrill Of It All!  1963   NR 103 minutes

Beverly Boyer (Doris Day) is a happily married doctor’s wife who by chance lands a spot doing tv commercials for soap.  Soon her life is turned upside down by the competing demands of the soap commercials and her doctor husband (James Garner), who is just a little envious that his wife is making more money than he is. With more demands happening every day the plot soon becomes a race to save the couple’s marriage.  There are five acts of mild violence, such as drinks being thrown in people’s faces.  Three stars.

The TV Set  Comedy Staring David Duchovny (X-Files) and Sigourney Weaver (Alien)

This movie chronicles the life of writer Mike Kline (David Duchovny) who is trying to get his TV series pilot to be accepted for airtime.  The movie focuses on some of the scenes in the pilot and how the Network President (Weaver) wants the script to be changed. The original pilot script has a suicide plot. A competing pilot script has a plot of death due to natural causes.  No one dies on screen. There is no violence other than a story about a bumpy airplane ride.  Rated R for language.

Tin Cup  1996 R 135 minutes

Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy (Kevin Costner) is a washed up golf pro who has his own golf shop and driving range in the middle of nowhere. He takes on giving golf lessons to a beautiful woman named Dr Molly Griswald (Rene Russo).  Soon Roy finds himself in competition with Molly’s boyfriend both for Molly’s hand and for the championship in a round of golf at the US Open. Lots of suspense with absolutely no violence, except for Roy and his caddy breaking his own golf clubs.  Five stars.

Tootsie PG 1982  119 minutes

Out of work actor Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) tries in vain to find an acting job as a man.  Finally he decides to try landing a part by casting himself as a woman named Dorothy Michaels (nicknamed Tootsie).  Things go along swell and Tootsie easily lands the part on a soap opera. But like all good things, it just doesn’t last.  Hoffman’s character falls for co star Julie (Jessica Lange) and things get complicated from there. There are only two mildly violent scenes, when Hoffman gets punched and when there is a boxing match on TV. Four stars.

Xanadu   1980  PG  96 minutes

The Greek Muse named Kira (Olivia Newton John) spices up a fanciful musical. An aspiring artist named Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) sets out to start a dream career with once famous Danny McGuire (Gene Kelley).  The movie has only three scenes that could be loosely characterized as violent (one crash, one pulled gun and one dancer hanging by the back of her neck).  Otherwise we are scarcely reminded of the cruel outside world while getting lost in the musical world and musings of Xanadu. Three stars.