This past weekend Golden and I watched Mr. Bean's Holiday. It is an amusing, but not a spectacular, film. There is one thing that struck me as unusual about the movie. It is rated G.
Since I have been watching films from a wide varieties of time periods over the last couple of years I have had the opportunity to gain an understanding of how the MPAA movie rating system has changed over time. Most people know that the rating PG-13 was created in the early to middle eighties, and before that the rating system went straight from PG to R. I think that around the time PG-13 was created, the purpose of the rating system was changing from it's original purpose to what it is today.
If you watch a movie from the sixties through the early eighties, the rating system doesn't appear to filter much stuff out that it does today (for example, all of the Bond movies of that era are rated PG), but at the same time, a G rating on a movie didn't condemn it at the box office. Any more, it seems like movies are made to get a certain rating rather than the rating being an clear judgment of the content of the movie.
If a movie is rated G or PG, I involuntarily take a movie less seriously any more. I am now tuned to believe that a PG movie is designed for families, and therefore lacks an intelligent storyline. While I didn't like National Treasure too much because the story went a little overboard, I suspect that I did some mental sabotaging because it was only rated PG.
I think that some movies (especially action movies) made today have no reason to be rated R but some violence or language is added, not to make the story more realistic, but to make sure that the rating is PG-13 or R. The evidence for this is that it is incredibly easy to predict what a movie is going to be rated if you watch the trailer before you find out the rating.
This brings me back to the new Bean movie. Can a movie that is rated G be taken seriously any more by an adult audience? I think it will be difficult because people will go into the movie with an idea of what to expect. Do you agree?
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5 comments:
I noticed that Bean was "G" too but didn't care when I was watching it. I don't think a stronger rating would have saved the movie.
Maybe G rated movies don't spend much time on plot development?? I agree with BB, that a stronger rating for Bean wouldn't have made it better. I hope that "clean" movies can have better storylines.
I agree with you both, golden and dust, that G movies have too basic of storylines in general. That is why they don't usually appeal to adults. But I also know why they are that way, now that my kids are older. Spy kids and Shark Boy/Lava girl did not appeal to me at all, until Woogy made them his favorite moveis. The lack of a good storyline makes it easy for kids his age to follow.
The movie studio may not care if adults take their movies less seriously if rated G or PG because you are not their target audience. It's just my idea, anyway.
I want to watch the documentary - what is it called "This Film is not yet Rated?" it is about the whole rating system and who is involved in making these judgments.
It looks interesting. Have you seen it?
I have heard about it. I haven't seen it.
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