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"VIEW FROM THE TOP" (2003) (Gwyneth Paltrow, Mike Myers) (PG-13) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Moderate None Moderate None None Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Mild None None None Moderate Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Moderate Minor Minor Moderate Mild QUICK TAKE: Drama/Comedy: A young woman tries to live out her dream of becoming an international flight attendant. PLOT: Donna Jensen (GWYNETH PALTROW) has always desired to get out of her little town of Silver Springs, NV and is inspired by former flight attendant turned famous motivational speaker Sally Weston (CANDICE BERGEN) to follow one's dreams. Donna gets the chance when she joins Sierra Airlines, a small commuter operation, and is taught how to be a flight attendant by seasoned veteran Sherry (KELLY PRESTON). They're soon joined by Christine (CHRISTINA APPLEGATE) and the three become fast friends. Yet, Donna aspires to move on to a bigger airline and gets Christine and Sherry to join her in applying for jobs with Royalty Airlines. She and Christine are accepted, and begin studying under the direction of John Whitney (MIKE MYERS), the airline's director of flight attendants. Despite Donna being the better student, Christine gets the better assignment, while Donna gets the Cleveland commuter route with gay attendant Randy (JOSHUA MALINA). Once there, however, she runs into a former acquaintance and law school dropout, Ted (MARK RUFFALO), who's now going back to school. They quickly become lovers, but Donna still wonders why she didn't get a better assignment. As she seeks out the help of Sally who's now her mentor, Donna must decide between love and furthering her career. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? If they're fans of someone in the cast, they just might. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13 For language/sexual references. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: GWYNETH PALTROW plays a young woman who must choose between love and career as she pursues her dream of being an international flight attendant. She uses some profanity and apparently sleeps with Ted. CANDICE BERGEN plays her mentor, a famous former flight attendant and motivational speaker who encourages her to pursue her dreams. KELLY PRESTON plays the flight attendant who teaches Donna the ropes about their line of work. MARK RUFFALO plays a law school dropout who returns to school and falls in love with Donna. CHRISTINA APPLEGATE plays a high school dropout and fellow flight attendant who steals, and stabs others in the back. MIKE MYERS plays the director of flight attendant training for an airline. Grounded due to his lazy eye, he uses some profanity while teaching his students. JOSHUA MALINA plays a gay flight attendant who's partnered with Donna. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: Here's a brief summary of the content found in this comedy that's been rated PG-13. Profanity consists of at least 6 uses of the "s" word, while other expletives and colorful phrases are also used. Some sexually related dialogue is present (some of it homosexual based from a gay character), various women are seen in varying degrees of revealing attire (including some skimpy bikinis), some making out is present and off-screen sex is implied. Various characters drink, one smokes, and some bad attitudes are present. Violence consists of a comedy-based fight between two women (with punching and hitting). The rest of the film's categories have little or nothing in the way of major objectionable content. That said, should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE Donna's father is drunk and passed out on the sofa (with many beer bottles near him), while her mom carries a beer. A man has a drink in a bar where Donna has a beer and comments via voice-over narration that she contemplated becoming an alcoholic (but adds that she's just kidding). An official tells Donna that his airline only really flies gamblers and drunks. Christine has a beer. Donna has wine with dinner. Sally, her husband and various flight attendant students have wine with dinner. We see bottles of champagne on a flight. Christine has wine while Donna and Ted have beer. We also see that Christine has those little mini-bottles of booze in her purse and then states that they should do shots. Donna asks passengers if they'd like champagne and one man says he'd rather have vodka. A man on a plane wants more champagne. Some people have drinks at a party. Sally and Donna have wine in the outtakes. BLOOD/GORE None. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Some flight attendants look down on Donna's town when having to stop there (they act snooty and condescending). We see that Christine stole soap from Sally's place, many items from the airline, and cheated on her test (at the expense of another student's success). FRIGHTENING SCENES None. GUNS/WEAPONS None. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "Bullsh*t," "Sh*t-stick," "Freak(ed) out," "Jerk," "Get off your ass to make a buck," "Nuts" (testicles), "Screwed" (nonsexual), "Screwed up," "Dorky" and "Pissed off." Donna wears a midriff-revealing top as well as many cleavage-revealing ones. Christine gives someone "the finger." JUMP SCENES None. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) None. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None. PROFANITY At least 6 "s" words, 3 asses, 3 damns, 3 hells, 21 uses of "Oh my God," 3 each of "God" and "Oh God" and 1 use each of "For God's sakes," "Good Lord" and "My God" as exclamations. SEX/NUDITY Donna and her mother show cleavage in their respective outfits and Donna shows more in various other outfits and scenes. We see Donna making out with a football player beneath the bleachers. She later tells him in another scene that she brought the dress he likes and wonders if he wants to watch her change (that never happens). Donna and Sherry show cleavage in their extremely tight, short and formfitting flight uniforms (that really accentuate their bosoms, especially Sherry). We see Donna and Christine in very skimpy bikinis that show cleavage and a lot of other skin (at one point, Christine purposefully bends over to show more cleavage to Ted) and we see various shots of them dressed that way. The clasp on Donna's top then breaks and Ted later walks in on her barely holding the top over her breasts (as she tries to find a safety pin and he then fixes it with a twisty-tie). Later, Christine wants Ted to put oil on her back and shoulders in a purposeful come on to him. We hear that Christine's trademark is giving hickeys. During the interview process, John asks about the threshold of physical pain and Christine asks if he's talking about sexual pain. We see Christine wrapped in just a towel. We see that one of the male flight attendant students, Randy, is gay. He tells Sally's husband to consider him one of the girls and later asks him where he's been all of his life (while letting out a playful growl). A woman then comments about hearing that European guys are uncircumcised and Randy chimes in, "Not all." While training his students and acting like a disgruntled passenger, John states that he's felt warmer nuts on a polar bear. He later states that he actually has done that. We see Donna and Ted making out in several scenes (including one where he falls on top of her on the sofa), but it's all very brief. Randy, the gay flight attendant, tells Donna that some guy has been eyeing him. He then states that when he told the man to put his tray in the upright position, the man asked, "That too?" We see Donna in bed with a shirtless Ted, and both are only sleeping, but sex is somewhat implied. We briefly see Donna in her panties. During the outtakes at the end, we see Randy (the gay man) ending up in the "69" position with a male dummy during some training (he then comments on forgetting to offer to buy the guy a drink). SMOKING We twice see Sherry with a cigarette. TENSE FAMILY SCENES Donna mentions not having a happy family life in her past. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT Pursuing one's dreams. Balancing career with happiness and/or romance. The life and work of flight attendants. Having a lazy eye (John has one and much attention is paid to it). Stealing from one's work place. VIOLENCE A boy slaps his father on the top of the head. Mad at how things have transpired, Christine pushes Donna backwards several times and then shoves her from behind. She then pushes Donna into a wall, tries to punch her (but misses) and then kicks Donna in the leg. She then slams her back into a wall, grabs her by the hair on the floor, and tries to smash her head into the floor (but Donna manages to cushion her face from that). Two security guards then grab Christine and carry her out. All of that's played mostly for laughs. A champagne cork pops out and accidentally hits a passenger on the head. Reviewed March 17, 2003 / Posted March 21, 2003