I got tickets for "The Dark Knight" for tomorrow night. From what I am reading, there are already a lot of showings around the country that are already sold out. The theater we usually go to (Fossil Creek in Fort Worth -- Rexer know where it is) usually sell out for big movie openings anyway.
Babysitting is arranged, so it will just be the wife and me. That will be nice; we rarely get to go out just by ourselves. But the movie looks way too intense for our superhero-loving five-year-old... I know it is PG-13, but the generally kid-friendly Iron Man and Hulk were PG-13 too. As a parent, I've given up on the MPAA ratings...
The Dark Knight
-
danielh41
- Posts: 1219
- Joined: Thu Nov 08, 2007 10:36 am
- Location: Fort Worth, TX
- Contact:
-
gsabc
- Posts: 6493
- Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:03 am
- Location: Federal Bureaucracy City
- Contact:
USAToday gives it four stars, but also comments that it should have been rated R.
How times have changed. Barbarella was rated R at initial release, I believe because of the "pleasure machine" sequence. Star Wars the first (or fourth) was PG because of a half-second glimpse of an alien's severed arm. Now you can blow up half a city and kill people on screen, and it's PG-13.
How times have changed. Barbarella was rated R at initial release, I believe because of the "pleasure machine" sequence. Star Wars the first (or fourth) was PG because of a half-second glimpse of an alien's severed arm. Now you can blow up half a city and kill people on screen, and it's PG-13.
I just ordered chicken and an egg from Amazon. I'll let you know.
-
earendel
- Posts: 13871
- Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:25 am
- Location: mired in the bureaucracy
Barbarella got an R rating because of a bare-breasted Jane Fonda (one of the "cups" on her suit was transparent, IIRC).gsabc wrote:USAToday gives it four stars, but also comments that it should have been rated R.
How times have changed. Barbarella was rated R at initial release, I believe because of the "pleasure machine" sequence. Star Wars the first (or fourth) was PG because of a half-second glimpse of an alien's severed arm. Now you can blow up half a city and kill people on screen, and it's PG-13.
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."
-
gsabc
- Posts: 6493
- Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:03 am
- Location: Federal Bureaucracy City
- Contact:
My recollection is that while the cups were plastic, they were tinted and nothing really showed. I'm sure the sexuality and the character's origins had a large part in the determination of the rating at the time. You could show it uncut on network television, nowadays.earendel wrote:Barbarella got an R rating because of a bare-breasted Jane Fonda (one of the "cups" on her suit was transparent, IIRC).gsabc wrote:USAToday gives it four stars, but also comments that it should have been rated R.
How times have changed. Barbarella was rated R at initial release, I believe because of the "pleasure machine" sequence. Star Wars the first (or fourth) was PG because of a half-second glimpse of an alien's severed arm. Now you can blow up half a city and kill people on screen, and it's PG-13.
I just ordered chicken and an egg from Amazon. I'll let you know.
-
SportsFan68
- No Scritches!!!
- Posts: 21294
- Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:36 pm
- Location: God's Country
I'm really looking forward to this one too, partly because of all the talk about Heath Ledger's amazing performance. They better not be hyping it just because of his death -- it better really be amazing.
-- In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.
-- America would be a better place if leaders would do more long-term thinking. -- Wilma Mankiller
-- America would be a better place if leaders would do more long-term thinking. -- Wilma Mankiller
-
silverscreenselect
- Posts: 24387
- Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:21 pm
- Contact:
Barbarella undoubtedly got its rating due to the opening weightless striptease credits sequence. Back then, sex and nudity, in any degree, guaranteed an R rating or worse. Midnight Cowboy was rated X.
On the other hand, True Grit managed a G rating despite considerable coarse language (fill your hand, you son of a b....), and a lot of violence, including one man's fingers being cut off and his subsequent rather gory stabbing to death. It would almost certainly get a PG-13 rating today.
Another Western of the same era ran into trouble when it was re-released. The Wild Bunch got a deserved R rating on its initial release and then was re-released on the arthouse circuit in the 1990's in a longer roadshow version, with about ten minutes of footage restored that had been cut against Sam Peckinpah's wishes. The added material was not in any way more graphic or intense than the rest of the movie, but under MPAA rules, the film had to be re-rated as a whole. Although the movie wasn't that much more violent than a lot of what's released today with R-ratings, it did contain a lot of non-P.C. depictions of women as treacherous sluts and Mexicans as unshaven. lazy drunkards. This offended the MPAA to the extent that they almost rated it NC-17, which would have given exhibitors a poor set of choices between re-releasing the shorter, inferior version and getting an R-rating (the MPAA does grandfather in films with more lenient ratings as long as no new material is added) or putting up with the NC-17. A number of film critics and historians protested and the MPAA finally went with the R rating.
On the other hand, True Grit managed a G rating despite considerable coarse language (fill your hand, you son of a b....), and a lot of violence, including one man's fingers being cut off and his subsequent rather gory stabbing to death. It would almost certainly get a PG-13 rating today.
Another Western of the same era ran into trouble when it was re-released. The Wild Bunch got a deserved R rating on its initial release and then was re-released on the arthouse circuit in the 1990's in a longer roadshow version, with about ten minutes of footage restored that had been cut against Sam Peckinpah's wishes. The added material was not in any way more graphic or intense than the rest of the movie, but under MPAA rules, the film had to be re-rated as a whole. Although the movie wasn't that much more violent than a lot of what's released today with R-ratings, it did contain a lot of non-P.C. depictions of women as treacherous sluts and Mexicans as unshaven. lazy drunkards. This offended the MPAA to the extent that they almost rated it NC-17, which would have given exhibitors a poor set of choices between re-releasing the shorter, inferior version and getting an R-rating (the MPAA does grandfather in films with more lenient ratings as long as no new material is added) or putting up with the NC-17. A number of film critics and historians protested and the MPAA finally went with the R rating.
-
whittler44
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:54 pm
Yesterday, I went and bought some tickets for an IMAX showing of the Dark Knight. While I was there I noticed they had a machine where you could win DVDs by lining up a couple of flashing lights. I won I Am Legend on my second try. I haven't seen it yet and I was going to get it from Redbox for a buck, but now I own it for two bucks. 