MovieChat Forums > The Promotion (2008) Discussion > Movies like this get shafted with the R-...

Movies like this get shafted with the R-rating

posted 15 years ago by mike-5134
5 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone really consider this movie to only be appropriate for 18 and up? The humor might fly over the heads of younger viewers, but the movie wasn't dirty, had no nudity or violence and was all around pleasant.

Employee of the month was a much worse movie but got a PG-13 rating and probably did far better in the box office because it got the advertising and viewers due to the lower rating. Even though these are the reasons for each rating:

"Employee of the month": Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and language.
"The Promotion": Rated R for language including sexual references, and some drug use.

So both movies with a similar premise have sexual references and language. One movie is a more realistic comedy, and the other is a constant exaggeration of work where the employees have secret hideouts and ride around on scooters. The "drug use" in The Promotion isn't dirty or suggestive. They don't even say what he's smoking, just imply that it's wrong and he'll get in trouble for it. That's something a 5 year old could learn from.

Anyway it just pains me to see movies like this with light humor and good messages get ignored due to their adult ratings. Same thing happened with "The Hammer" and that was a similarly light humor movie with good messages and nothing too inappropriate.

[–] pags407 15 years ago

Langauge alone earned it its R-rating.

[–] firestarter_269 15 years ago

I think "Fúck" is used enough times to warrant an R rating by the MPAA's usual standards.

[–] Mad_Monkey 14 years ago

The F word is only allowed twice in a movie before it rates an R rating.

It didn't matter, this movie was incredibly boring.

[–] peewee_zz 14 years ago

You make a good point. Movies are purposely given an R rating in todays movie climate, in an attempt to appeal to older audiences, yet MOST great comedies in history are pg or pg-13. There are only a handful of break out classics that are rated R.

I don't know if it's in the editing, and the smart directors cut the movie enough to make the PG-13 rating, or if they purposefully try to stay within the guidelines from the beginning. But fact is that great comedies need greater exposure. Forcing your movie into an R rating is just stupid and insults our intelligence.

---
Babies:
Fun to make
Even more fun to eat

[–] WileyJack (147) 4 months ago

I haven’t seen it in a few years, but Employee of the Month was not as exaggerated as you think. In the 1970s I worked in a large warehouse for a major auto manufacturer. Not only did we have hideouts up in the racks, a couple of them would put the one in EoM to shame. One was wired and had lights. We didn’t have scooters, per-se, but employees rode pallet jacks around. Countless shenanigans went on every day.