Spenser Confidential

Parents need to know that Spenser Confidential is an action-adventure movie with humor, based loosely on characters created by Robert Parker in his iconic series of Spenser novels, beginning in the 1970s. In this movie, clearly designed as the first in a franchise, Spenser is an entirely new incarnation of the Boston private detective. As written, and as played in a number of television productions, the elegant but hard-nosed private eye (i.e., Robert Urich in the long-running Spenser: For Hire on ABC) was a gourmand, an articulate quipster, a cerebral but lethal opponent, and in love with a classy psychologist. In the newest version, Spenser is a feisty, quick-tempered, unemployed Southie cop, in a relationship with a potty-mouthed dog groomer, and just released from prison for assaulting a superior officer (it turns out justifiably). This "origin" story finds Spenser on the brink of becoming a righteous investigator and introduces those who will be his allies. Violence is at the center of the movie. Viewers can expect the hero to overpower an army of enemies in any number of places. Savage beatings, machete-wielding drug dealers, car crashes, shootings, bloody bodies, fist fights play one after another, with a little time in between to move the story and play the jokes. A cat is killed and left hanging as a warning. A comical scene of sexual intercourse (without nudity) is shown and heard. Profanity is used throughout, with countless uses of "f--k," "s--t." Trinidadians are presented as stereotypical violent gangsters. Due to graphic violence and language, it's not appropriate for kids.