• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

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  Not age appropriate for kids under 14, age appropriate for kids over 16; suggested age 15.

• Is it any good?

  4.0

• Common Sense says

  White Cuban escapes tough inner city; teens only.

Why We Rated This for Ages 15–16

What to watch out for

• Messages:

  The main character steals comic books from a store, and he is both unrepentant and unpunished. Teens hitchhike frequently, which is presented as normal behavior. A boy runs away from home for a year. Racism of all types is frequent and often violent.
• Violence:

  A boy is shot, others are badly beaten, including having teeth knocked out. A father punches his son repeatedly. A junkie accidentally sets himself on fire while high on heroin.
• Sex:

  References to falsies, Playboy, masturbation, condoms, making out, sodomy. A man pulls out his penis and tries to get two teen boys to masturbate him. It's implied that the teen main character has sex.
• Language:

  "S--t," (and the Spanish word for it) "t-tty," the N word, "p---y," "spic," "f----t,""dick," "ass," "MF" and "motherf--king" (with the dashes) both used.
• Consumerism:

  Candy, sneaker, snack, cigarette and tobacco, ice cream, soft drink, fast food, gum brands.
• Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

  Major and minor characters, both adults and children, drink, often get drunk, smoke tobacco and marijuana, and in a detailed scene, one prepares and injects heroin. Major characters grow and sell marijuana. Drunken, angry parents mistreat and abuse children, a son has to get his falling-down-drunk father home from a bar and up four flights of stairs. References to hashish, LSD, and junkies.

What Parents Need to Know

About Dark Dude

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