I’m pretty easily amused. I’ve probably used that line to start a factoid several times, but it’s the truth. I am.
And it’s funny how I’ll see one thing and get a train of thought going that leads me to a factoid. Today’s came from reading a post from 24 Frames, the movie blog for the Los Angeles Times. Yesterday, the MPAA reversed its rating on “Eat Pray Love” from an R to PG-13. Sony wanted this for obvious reasons: making sure they could keep the younger teen demographic. It was R for “brief strong language;” now, it is PG-13 for “brief strong language, some sexual references and male rear nudity.” I like how those last two things weren’t mentioned at all in the R-rated descriptor.
But some of the descriptors that the MPAA uses are kind of … odd. Take for instance, the ones for the 2010 remake of “The Karate Kid.”
I’m sorry, but “bullying?” I understand that parents may not want their kids to see that, but there are sites now for parents to get more in-depth looks at a movie’s content. I don’t see why they couldn’t just leave it at “violence” and call it a day.
Or what’s even worse: “a brief instance of smoking.” I honestly wonder if the MPAA use that for some movies just to make me laugh. Although smoking kills and I’m glad that the smoking crack-down is occurring as long as it doesn’t disrupt the art.
Good spot. It’s freakin’ weird what can get a film a certain rating, isn’t it? And it’s always for the most banal of films. You’ll only get the vaguest descriptions (“body horror”, maybe) for the more serious of stuff like The Human Centipede.