Northwest Film Forum

Mob bosses, machine gun fights and Madonna - could this really be family entertainment? Absolutely! Warren Beatty's surprisingly bloodless take on Chester Gould's comic strip crime-stopper will be a relief to parents who’ve shied from taking their kids to darker cartoon adaptations. Upon its release, critics cheered the film's stylish production, and audiences of all ages delighted in film’s cheerful good vs. evil smackdown. Beatty turns in an appropriately square-jawed performance as the heroic gumshoe, with Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman playing the grotesquely visaged villains to the hilt and none other than Madonna playing the sultry Breathless Mahoney. Stephen Sondheim wrote several exuberant songs for the film, including a stellar slower number sung by Mandy Patinkin as the luckless Club Ritz piano player.

NOTE: This PG-rated film contains violence (though no gore) and some sexually suggestive costumes and scenes courtesy of Madonna (which stop well short of anything explicit). Recommended for ages 8 and up.