It can be higher or lower
Most obvious is Matrix, Rated R, should be PG13, everyone knows that one
Disneys Hunchback of Notre Dame is rated G, should be PG for violence and sensuality
Titanic is a freak of nature to get a PG13 with that nudity, like, that defies MPAA "logic" (I use that word loosely)
Saving Private Ryan Rated R, should maybe be NC17
The Karate Kid, Grease, Jaws, etc. if your gonna re release it, re rate it.
I am one that thinks Top Gun deserves a PG-13 rating. The sex scene in that movie was too graphic for a PG. Also from what I have heard, if a movie uses the F word at least once, which Top Gun did, although not scripted, it automatically gets a PG-13 rating. That movie should have got it just for that. If you ask where the word is said. Its said in one of the times Cruise gets nailed in Top Gun. He says it.
But from what I am getting in more recent TV. BS and A-hole are used more frequently. Check Raising the Bar, and Franklin and Bash for that. Franklin and Bash is hilarious.
Also what I found really funny was in the Disney movie The Invisible. Goddamn is used more than once. I believe the movie was rated PG-13 but still. I was like wow in a Disney movie.
But what I think would be interesting is to discuss which movies and TV shows that if the language was taken out would be the same movie.
My honest opinion. Deadwood would have been a better series if they toned the language down. Didn't need to get rid of it but toned it down because it distracted from the movie.
The Breakfast Club - losing the language that is in the movie would ruin the film.
Liar Liar - I may get attacked for this but thought the language in the film was distracting.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Movie would be ruined if the language was even toned down. Why? Because it was part of the joke at the end.
American History X - if language was removed it would ruin that film too. There are other films I could bring up but there is a few.
Is this from the MPAA's point-of-view, or our own?
In my opinion, any movie that got an R just for language should be PG-13. It must take a special kind of naivety to think that your 13 year olds' not only don't hear those words everyday at school, but aren't saying them themselves.
Jaws and Poltergeist should both be rated R. The latter shows a guy ripping his own face off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAxDpEtumZQ
The 2011 American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in all honesty, SHOULD be NC-17, I know it's not because David Fincher made it and they wanted higher marketability, but it really should be NC-17 for the brutal rape scene.
shareand then next to noone would have seen what is actually a pretty damn good film, and that's with my "the book is better" goggles on and my "remakes suck" bias firmly in place. honestly, if any rating should be done away with, it's NC-17 because it's far too often used as a means to bully non-studio productions. on paper R and NC-17 are the same thing anyway: noone under 17 years of age allowed. i don't care who made the movie; if a brutal rape, of a main protagonist no less, can get by with an R but too much hair in a scene between two consenting partners earns an NC-17 then the system is broken.
shareBrick: despite a strong anti-drug message and the lack of any graphic sex/violence, it is rated R. I suspect that if it had been released by a major, it would have been a PG-13.
Say Anything: is it PG-13 because it encourages rebellion against a dishonest father, which is a big no-no for the "parents are always right" brigade? I see it firmly in PG territory.
Now something off my chest about the rating system of my own country, Italy.
The following films are all rated G: Sin City, Wild at Heart, 300, Bram Soker's Dracula and Hannibal, the latter for no other reason that it helped the national film industry due to scenes being shot in Italy and the casting of Italian actors.
Rating is mandatory only for films that get a theatrical release. Romper Stomper and American History X are rated 18, but The Believer is rated G simply because it went straight to DVD. Better still, some Italian exploitation films from the 70's featuring hardcore inserts and one porn "Luana la porcona" are rated PG because they weren't released theatrically.
Pretty in Pink, on the other had, is rated 14, same as The Exorcist, Full Metal Jacket, and Dario Argento's Deep Red, Suspiria and Phenomena.
Brokeback Mountain is rated 14 and cut, it would have made far more sense to give it an 18 and release it uncut.
The Canterbury Tales and Easier with Practice both should have been rated R instead of NC-17. Both movies are rated 15 in the UK.
shareTaken (rated PG13), should be rated R.
shareToy Story 3 is too intense for a G. The Hunchback of Notre Dame deserves a PG.
shareFound another one
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
VERY graphic, bloody, 10x more so than any of the bigger blockbuster Batmans, easily a hard R
Rated PG-13.....All I can think is that it got a lower rating bc its animated......Which means 7 year old will see this, all the more reason to warrant an R
I first saw Saving Private Ryan when I was 12 or 13 and it had a profound impact on me as to the nature of war. A movie like that does not glorify the violence- it helps bring a proper, realistic understanding of it. The R rating is 100% correct, as parents with kids who are mature enough to handle the subject matter should be able to show it to them.
The only thing that stopped BEOWULF from getting an R rating was the motion capture technique used. It's surprisingly violent for a PG-13 movie.
I don't mean to impose, but I am the Ocean.
Looper could have been PG13
shareWOW! Thrilling find! Glad I'm not the only one who agrees that some things should be rated differently
Frankly, there are too many to even list, but here's a few:
* "Hunchback" - Yeah, Frollo's the evilest villain ever to grace an animated Disney film. His song, "Hellfire", and cold bastardly nature, as well as his practically SATANIC (pathetically enough for a "man of God") ways of lusting, yet hating Esmeralda. And a fair few more reasons, too, but those came to mind... Should definitely have gotten a PG - even back in 1996!
* "The Muppets 2011" - PG(!!!) for FART SHOES!!! ...That's all? A cutaway gag, practically harmless in every way??? Why should parents even bother checking out if this film is ok for kids or not? It's "The Muppets" for God's sake!!! Easy G...
* "Dr. Dolittle" (1998) - Got a PG-13 rating for some reason (in 1998 no less), and yet it's considered (and technically is, from having seen it, myself) a family film. Sure it had some mildly crude jokes. And guess what? Its 2001 sequel simply got a PG for the exact same reason THIS one got a PG-13 (language and crude humor)... Neither one is really worse than the other, that's for sure; the 1998 remake of 1967 original should likely have been PG as well... :/
* Not as prime an offender, but the first two "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movies were PG, even though they're really not...TOO much worse than the third film "Chipwrecked", which graciously DID get a G. I'll be they, too, could've squeaked (no pun intended) by with G's...
That's all I can think of (or at least feel like talking about) now...
Upon further thought, EVERY 90S ANIMATED DISNEY MOVIE... G, should be PG......Seriously, go through them in your head!
sharePersonally, I'd say only "Hunchback" should be the definite PG of all the Disney films from that decade; the rest are either ok with G, or completely debatable...
Either way, it's outrageous (and a recurring automatic negative thought for anyone especially myself) that the M(other) P(hrickin) A($$hole$ of) A(merica) is being ridiculously oversensitive these days over the littlest of things ("Fart Shoes" in "Muppets", anyone?)
At very least, "Rango" was well suited with a PG. Even with all the smoking, drinking, "cursing", whatever else that prompted many parents to complain about the film deserving a PG-13 or even R rating instead... Perhaps they're even wussier than the Mother Phrickin A$$hole$...