Kernel Rating (out of 5): 
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Length: 118 minutes
Age Appropriate for: 13+. Sharks! Not only are they a constant threat to the characters, but in one scene, the men drag one up onto their ship and revenge-kill it, brutally stabbing it over and over again and cutting its stomach open. That is undoubtedly the most graphic scene in the film; there is also some sexual innuendo (the backs of people frolicking nude in a waterfall) and jokes, and an overall tense atmosphere given the nature of their adventure.
The 1950 documentary by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl on himself and the other men behind the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft adventure won an Academy Award decades ago; “Kon-Tiki,” a newly dramatized version, attempts to capture the energy, enthusiasm, and thrill of that journey. It is ultimately somewhat invigorating, but it’s also so idealized and sparsely characterized that it lacks a fair amount of punch.
By Roxana Hadadi
More than 65 years ago, a group of European men decided to do what seemed practically impossible: travel more than 4,000 miles from Peru to Polynesia … on a wooden raft. Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl had a theory, an idea, that Polynesia had been settled not from the east, but from South America. So he gathered a few men and got some funding and set out—a journey that is chronicled in “Kon-Tiki,” but not necessarily to the most thrilling effect.
