Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Jesus would you stop being such a flipping baby...this is almost as bad as your whining about The Amazing Spiderman 2

Wasn't 2 it was 1. And it was awful.

 

[Handyman]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Wasn't 2 it was 1. And it was awful.

Oh my bad...I never saw either of them

 

[Kepler]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

I just wish we could go back to the era of comedies having two fleeting expletives and one brief "nudity for comic effect" scene without earning the R rating, like Airplane!

Nobody would have predicted in the 70s that TV and movies would flip. Movies have gotten progressively more childish as audiences are dominated by teens and young twenties. (Non-Network) TV has gotten better and better and now is virtually the only place to see adult themes and mature characters.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

For what it is worth, The Economist has a review of the Ghostbusters reboot (it opened in England already). Basically, their view was [in white text, including quotes from the review], "it is a perfectly fine summer entertainment piece, which all in all is a bit disappointing given that, with this director and with this cast, it could have been more."

THE all-female reboot of “Ghostbusters” is neither a defiant feminist triumph nor the embarrassing failure that legions of online trolls predicted it would be when the film was announced two years ago. Given the vitriol that has followed the film since its inception, it does well simply not to be a colossal misstep. Director Paul Feig, the go-to guy for female comic blockbusters (which says something in itself) assembles a crack squad of female scientists to take on the paranormal. Each member of this eclectic group unquestionably matches the talent and comic sensibilities of the original 1984 cast.
....
In many ways the new version captures the spirit of the original, given that its key characters are underdogs. Though rather than the world-weary man-boys of the "National Lampoon" mould, we have high-achieving nerdy women intent on proving their own worth.
....
The original “Ghostbusters”, with its dry wit and outsider heroes, represented a seismic shift in the comedy/blockbuster arena. The new film, with its boiler-suited, funny and very capable women is meant as a seismic shift too—but ends up more as an enjoyably forgettable goofball of a film. This is fine, and certainly a fun night out. But when you have the chance and talent to make a statement about how Hollywood and audience tastes have moved on, perhaps Mr Feig should have strived to make something more compelling than a carbon copy with some women in it.

 

[ticapnews]

Temple of Doom caused the PG-13 rating.

I just wish we could go back to the era of comedies having two fleeting expletives and one brief "nudity for comic effect" scene without earning the R rating, like Airplane!

Kill as many people as you want and remain PG-13. Show a bare breast and say hello to R.

I cannot recommend "This Film is not Yet Rated" highly enough if you want to understand how movie ratings work, and the undue amount of influence religion has on the process.

 

[Handyman]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Kill as many people as you want and remain PG-13. Show a bare breast and say hello to R.

I cannot recommend "This Film is not Yet Rated" highly enough if you want to understand how movie ratings work, and the undue amount of influence religion has on the process.

Agreed

 

[The Rube]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Agreed

Seconded.

Two F-bombs? R rating! IIRC it was "Be Cool" that specifically pointed that out, too. And South Park: Bigger, Longer, And Uncut definitely satired.

 

[aparch]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Seconded.

Two F-bombs? R rating! IIRC it was "Be Cool" that specifically pointed that out, too. And South Park: Bigger, Longer, And Uncut definitely satired.

The fact that Matt Stone wrote this memo proves how out of touch the ratings board is: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/ps-this-is-my-favorite-memo-ever.html

And then you have this gem from Fight Club:

The original "pillow talk"-scene had Marla saying "I want to have your abortion". When this was objected to by Fox 2000 Pictures President of Production Laura Ziskin, David Fincher said he would change it on the proviso that the new line couldn't be cut. Ziskin agreed and Fincher wrote the replacement line, "I haven't been ****ed like that since grade school". When Ziskin saw the new line, she was even more outraged and asked for the original line to be put back, but, as per their deal, Fincher refused.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

The fact that Matt Stone wrote this memo proves how out of touch the ratings board is: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/ps-this-is-my-favorite-memo-ever.html

And then you have this gem from Fight Club:

Exactly.

IIRC, it was Team America by the South Park crew, where they inserted scenes they KNEW would be cut, in order to keep other scenes intact, because the latter scenes were less offensive, but really very offensive all the same, and would have been cut from the movie.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

In what specific ways should ratings be handled differently I.e. how is the current method not working? I honestly have never paid attention so have zero frame of reference.

 

[Handyman]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Well there is zero oversight which is what most people have an issue with. It has been a while since I saw the documentary but I believe the "Ratings Committee" or whatever it is called has ultimate power. (outside of the appeals board) Many of the members dont have kids or have kids that have grown up, and it is pretty obvious they bring their personal biases with them when they watch and rate a movie. (the movie points out how Heterosexual conduct is rated lighter than Homosexual) The rules they go by are so Draconian it is actually quite laughable. (I have heard directors say they cut out 1 second of blood spatter and it was the difference between R and PG-13)

Even worse though is the inconsistency and double standards. As was said show one nipple and its R but show people blowing up and have not too man swear words and you are good at PG-13. I am not quite sure what you could do to fix it, but there needs to be better guidelines set up that are public so everyone knows what is going into these decisions. Transparency is what is really needed. Maybe have the Academy select the members with input from the various Guilds and unions and theater owners. Let a parent watchdog group be part of it as well to make sure the deck isnt rigged. Give real explanations and make them answerable to someone publicly.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

In what specific ways should ratings be handled differently I.e. how is the current method not working? I honestly have never paid attention so have zero frame of reference.

From a developmental psychology perspective, there are two really serious problems with the ratings today:
-- sadistic violence is severely underrated.
-- the entire ratings system is suffering from what you might call "grade inflation"

From a different thread:

A Clockwork Orange is perhaps the most disturbing and yet enthralling movies I've ever seen.

Those kinds of movies really should have a rating of something like "NYA-21"; they can have a profoundly troubling effect on the adolescent mind. Yet our bizarre rating system basically rates a movie "NC-17" for explicit sexual content and for nothing else.

A sensible, helpful rating system would be based on the typical emotional maturity of children of various ages in the developmental cycle, their ability to handle not only explicit sexual content but sadistically violent content as well. Blowing stuff up is one thing, the scene in the original Robocop where the bad guy uses a shotgun to blow off Murphy's arms and legs one joint at a time is another.

G, PG 13, PG 15, NC-17, NYA-21 would be an example of a system that would be more in line with developmental stages, and the ratings categories could be simplified to a set of more objective standards.

Another option would be to adopt some of what they do on TV, where they have a multi-category rating based on language, violence, and explicit sexual content, so that you would have ratings expressed in three categories.

L15/V17/S17 for example.



This is the official website of the organization that actually rates films, and it explains the ratings categories in more detail: http://filmratings.com/what.html

From a Q&A on the MPAA website:

FILM RATING

Do I have to have my film rated in the United States?

The rating system in the United States is a voluntary system.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

The ratings system is voluntary, but to release an unrated movie basically means death at the box office. There have been directors in the past who have released a "cleaner" version of their movie at the box office, in exchange for having their cut be the DVD version, etc.

 

[Handyman]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

The ratings system is voluntary, but to release an unrated movie basically means death at the box office. There have been directors in the past who have released a "cleaner" version of their movie at the box office, in exchange for having their cut be the DVD version, etc.

Yeah an unrated movie wont even be shown most times in major release. Most theaters would never risk the screen for a movie only a minute few would see. It would go to art house places like The Uptown.

 

[unofan]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

The MPAA's ratings board is the equivalent of a school board - it's full of busy bodies who want to impose their will on everyone else: in this case, the movie- watching public.

Violence is grossly underrated, bad language is overrated (2 f-bombs being an automatic R, for example - again, does anyone in their right mind think The King's Speech is less appropriate for a child than The Dark Knight?)

The sex part is just out and out bizarre. Boob and butt shots will be anywhere from PG to R based on who knows what, but a ***** or vagina is auto R. Make out scenes ok for PG, post-coital probably PG-13, but they will literally go frame by frame to determine when anything in between is too much and becomes R or will threaten the box office killer NC-17. A prince kissing a princess will be G, but two princesses hugging will probably be PG13.

They also never use NC-17 for pure violence, as far as I know. Torture porn like some of the Saw sequels probably deserve it, in my opinion, but as noted above, it already takes an absurd amount of violence just to bump it from PG13 to R.

And yes, it's voluntary, just like the RIAA and the Video Game industry's ratings are voluntary - the first amendment keeps the government out of such things. But being legally voluntary doesn't mean it's actually "voluntary."

 

[Handyman]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Violence is ok as long as there isnt too much blood. Blood is a huge no no for the MPAA these days.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

The MPAA's ratings board is the equivalent of a school board - it's full of busy bodies who want to impose their will on everyone else: in this case, the movie- watching public.

I guess there is a difference between theory and execution, eh? There are other organizations that also give out movie ratings, because the members of those organizations would like to know ahead of time what kind of film they might be showing to their young children or teens. Even squeamish adults would appreciate an honest rating about violence.*



While the current evaluation system is arbitrary, inconsistent, and mis-aligned with its stated purpose, the industry also maintains a rating system to foster good will with the movie-watching public. Were they to upgrade their standards into something more objective and formulaic, it could actually be something useful. As you noted, too many movies that really should be rated NC-17 (or even higher!) for sadistic violence, just aren't. It isn't the amount of blood, it's the amount of deliberate cruelty, that should be determinative.



and another factor that should be determinative is empirical research on what we know about developmental stages of growth. children who have not yet reached the stage at which they can figure out good vs evil on their own definitely need some parental protection from scenes in which deliberate evil acts occur.

For example, there is no reason for a Catholic elementary school to show The Passion of the Christ to middle-school children, it's too violent for them. For a Catholic high school, it might be okay for upperclassmen (probably not for underclassmen, even), certainly it would be fine at a Catholic college.




* (when my wife and I watched the original Robocop together, I knew to skip over the shotgun-destroying arms and legs scene right to Murphy in the hospital).

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Violence is ok as long as there isnt too much blood. Blood is a huge no no for the MPAA these days.

I assume you are describing the current rating system and not prescribing what you would like to see in a better rating system....

 

[Handyman]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

Well seeing as I said it was a no no for the MPAA yeah you would be correct...

 

[French Rage]

Re: Batman Vs Superman, And Oh Yeah, Suicide Squad: Movies Thread

I was watching a video about Saving Private Ryan, and in the scene where the two soldiers are trying to surrender to the Americans and get shot (the "look, I washed for supper" bit), apparently they are yelling in Czech that they are Czech and not German, and haven't killed anyone (as they would have been forcibly conscripted by the Germans). Interesting twist.