godzilla rules

We all know the famous ones (Poltergeist, Indy 2), but what movies do you think got the wrong rating from the MPAA?

My list:
Are you afraid of the dark?- there is no reason that this movie got an R rating.

Judge Dredd- as much as people hate this movie, this has to one of the softest R ratings I have seen.

The King's Speech- I know the rule when it comes to the word "Fuck", but having this movie with an R rating is ridiculous.

Rypro 525

i think i read Re: are you afraid, that the violence/scariness of the movie was "too intense" for a PG-13 (what the producers/studio was hoping for)

How about "There Will Be Blood" outside of the scene at the end (which if offscreen) theres nothing to warrent an R rating, and they could of probably over turned it to get a PG-13 if they wanted to

Also how about many movies from the 60's that got G ratngs that would easily be PG's or PG-13's today. Planet of the Apes (nudity, violence) True Grit (which was surprisingly violent, not Wild Bunch level, plus the language)

AnonomusBob15

there is another thread on this subject. In that thread, I also said There Will Be Blood. There is no language/nudity/strong violence. It got it's rating based on theme alone.

DeanoBKN

To be fair, if it was PG-13 it's not like any kids would be picking this movie anyways on a Friday night. That R rating was simply stating, "Go way you, this movie requires a brain, Horror remake #928 is in theater 8"

joe_b

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls - Probably the tamest X rated film you're likely to see. The only pair of breasts we're given a good look at are make out of latex. For a movie staring two former Playboy centerfolds, it's kind of a waste. Russ Meyer purposely held back on the nudity because it was his first time working for a major studio.

After the rating was passed down, he asked permission to go back and shoot more nude footage to give people what they expect out of an X rated picture. Sadly, Fox declined the request.

Mondo Kane

And hard to belive that it's still NC-17.

Rypro 525

Isn't it more for the ending scene then anything?

Crocker Jarmen

Eyes Wide Shut being rated NC-17 because of the orgy scene, being given an R after the copulating bodies were digitally obscured.* It has since been released in North America with the digital obscuring removed, but I still don't think that scene is anything other than R-rated.

The common theme you'll hear from filmmakers when they are battling the MPAA over sex scenes, is they say the MPAA has a problem with "the thrusting".

*The digitally obscured version was the one distributed in Canada, even though the rating boards here would have had no problem passing the film. This point was drilled home to me in the summer of 1999 when Eyes Wide Shut was relased, and playing at the same theater in Toronto, with the same rating, was a French film called Romance that had come shots in it for crying out loud!

clckworang

This sort of reminds me of Kids. It's rated NC-17 but has zero nudity. Yes, it has a lot of adult situations and language as well as a couple of violent scenes, but it never felt like an NC-17 to me.

AnonomusBob15

except the rape scene, and the fact that the actors are portraying minors.

Philzilla

yeah, that's the issue, a pair of boobies does not equal a hard rating or soft

inri222

Saving Private Ryan should have been NC-17 instead of R
Bad Education should have been R instead of NC-17
Wendy & Lucy should have been PG-13 instead of R

Boba Fett

The new TRUE GRIT should have been 'R'

Solid Snake

Really? I dunno about that. I can't think of anything pushing it to NC-17. The D-Day sequence wasn't that graphic. It was graphic sure but it wasn't gore porn.

Nick Danger

Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange were rated X in the same era. Due to cultural changes (or loss of moral values, YMMV), both are tamer than today's R movies.

godzilla rules

If memory serves me, Spielberg and Hanks pushed for an NC-17.

And going back to Are you afraid of the dark, I understand people saying that a movie's tone is what gets it a harsher rating, but just because a movie is REALLY scary does not mean that kids can't see it. That just does make sense to me. Some of the scariest movies of all time ( the original Haunting being an example) have very tame ratings.

Ash Ketchum

A lot of movies got X ratings back then that would barely get "R" today.

GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE, starring Marianne Faithfull and Alain Delon
LAST SUMMER - a teen youth drama starring Richard Thomas, future star of the "The Waltons," and Barbara Hershey, directed by Frank Perry
CAN HEIRONYMUS MERKIN EVER FORGET MERCY HUMPPE AND FIND TRUE HAPPINESS? a British comedy starring Anthony Newley, Joan Collins, Milton Berle and Stubby Kaye!
GREETINGS - a comedy with Robert De Niro and directed by Brian de Palma
MEDIUM COOL - a political drama shot in the midst of Chicago '68 and directed by Haskell Wexler

And a little later:
FRITZ THE CAT
LAST TANGO IN PARIS

Some of these have since been rerated R.

leem6453

The Matrix should not have been R. It's a straight up action movie with very little blood and almost no bad language.

Rypro 525

i was gonna say no, but then again, There Will Be Blood got an R rating with tamer violence

Solid Snake

alright..so I got bored and decided to look this up. From what I can find, seems like Speilberg was going to shoot it as realistic as he could. In doing so, he wasn't bothered to think about what it could get him in terms of a rating. He just shot it w/ his intentions in mind. If he got the NC-17, seems like he'd be fine w/ it. It was also mentioned that there was a possibility of going uncut for SPR.

Boba Fett

From my understanding the scene that pushed it to an 'R' was the point blank execution of the Agent on the roof.

leem6453

It's funny because you see that kind of stuff all the time now in PG-13 movies.

Rypro 525

and yet, there there's no blood and its not like you can see blood/brain matter coming out of the agents head after words

inri222

High Tension was threatened with an NC-17 rating due to the violence.
I thought SPR was way more violent and gruesome than High Tension.

AnonomusBob15

Saving Private Ryan might seem R rated by today's standards, but in 1998, that amount of gore in a major hollywood picture was unheard of. I'd say it's one of the reasons films get by more easily now.