(some G/PG ones suck big time)

I agree, and that's such a shame! A "G" rating is, for the most part, a kiss of death because so many of them are so poorly written. I don't understand that.

Then again, as so many have said, if you were to make a literal translation of the Bible into a movie, it would be rated at least "R", as was the case, so to speak, with Gibson's The Passion. Very ironic, indeed!

""The major media conglomerates, and their stockholders, are losing tens of millions of dollars at the box office by making too many ultra-violent, sexually promiscuous R-rated movies,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®. “For every AMERICAN PIE or SIN CITY, there are tons of KINSEY’s, ALFIE’s and HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE’s."

The problem is Hollywood wants all the money it can make regardless if its $100M or $10. In today's society, morality is viewed much differently than it was say in the 1950s. At this rate, in 20 years, there will be 10 times as much as provocative content on the big screen and television. While family oriented might make more money as of recent, you still have viewers that would watch a violent action flick over a feel good G rated flick.

Sadly, the future I see in movies will include more profanity and more detailed, less softcore, sex scenes. Everything has become more accepted as a society. Its sad but theres nothing we can do short of not contributing to that type of content or the support of it.

A "G" rating is, for the most part, a kiss of death because so many of them are so poorly written. I don't understand that.

Well, most G rated films are geared toward kids, so I don't think it's that hard to understand. Yes, there are good G rated films, and there are good films geared toward kids; but writers know that they don't have to try too hard when most of the target audience will happily watch 70 minutes of "booger" jokes.

In fact, promptly after doing so, said target audience will beg its parents to see it again -- which is one of the main reasons that kids movies do so much better. Repeat business. Another is that all those parents (who are taking multiple kids to G and PG movies) don't get to go to any R movies because it's too hard to find a baby sitter. I don't have any kids, but I don't think my sister has been to a movie rated higher than PG since her five-year-old was born.

Disclaimer: My comments about the quality of kids movies and the expectations of most kids going to movies are generalizations. There are exceptions, obviously, and I applaud those exceptions.

Rob

>Sadly, the future I see in movies will include more profanity and more detailed, less softcore, sex scenes. Everything has become more accepted as a society.

OnT: I could live with that if they didn't package everything in "MTV-style" editting. Brief flashing cuts, gratuitous camera shake, motion speedup, short attention span audience...

Which TV station has the worst editting? I haven't watched MTV since it started to suck 15 yrs ago. I want to smash my television whenever I see another jerky lamebrain photo pan on VH1. I'm getting really incensed by those long and unnecessary countdown montages on ESPN's top-20 series...

I love Noggin. Great in-between-show pieces. No commercials. I have no problems letting my kids watch that.

It might be that more summer blockbusters are G and PG. They tend to earn more because they're released EVERYWHERE and kids will openly revolt if you don't take them to see them.

Kids also have more time to see these movies and those who are old enough will go on their own and go repeatedly.

Market forces will definitely keep these movies going, in plentitude. However, filmakers do want to make other films and there are generally enough viewers to make it worthwhile.

Consider a comparison. Chain resturants account for a huge portion of total dining dollars. Does this mean that you want to go to them all the time?

Personally, I often make my movie choices based on whether there were guns in the preview. That's strike one and two for me. Maybe something will happen that'll make me want to see the movie anyway, but usually not.

Rob Mack

I posted before reading your's. I think we're on the same track here.

I too don't have kids. Generally, I see a couple of kids movies a year (Nemo, Monster Inc, Incredibles) but the rest of it is adult. I don't seek out violence or sex in movies. So far my favorite this year has been Kore-eda's "Nobody Knows".

Rob Mack

The I'm more morally rightious than you ultra right wing phony religious tone slowly creeping into this forum is starting to get nauseating. Time for a reality check.

Simple lesson one:
People go to movies that are well made and entertaining. Ratings are irrelevant. Violence, sexual content or lack of it are also irrelevant. With the exception of one or two studios that are famous for it, making a "G" rated movie IS indeed the kiss of death most of the time.

Simple lesson two:
Real violence like the still raging Iraq war now past the two year mark everyone now acknowledges was started based on faulty intelligence and gross mistakes is swept under the rug. We are not seeing the carnage, blood and guts in your face coverage that was splashed across the network nightly news shows as it was during the last great blunder; the Vietnam war.

I just can't help wondering why the looney squad of religious fanatics that stomp their feet and wave the flag as the Texas buffoon puffs out his chest doing his barnyard strud think their kids should be protected from the reality of real wars and real people getting killed and maimed, yet they get their shorts all bunched up over fake violence in the movies or something as natural as sex. Its part of life... or none of you would be here. <wink>

The nice thing about using the "ignore this user" feature is that you can't see that user's post nor the entire thread under that user.

Of course, that's the bad part of it as well. I can't see posts under certain users threads.

Rob Mack

"The I'm more morally rightious than you ultra right wing phony religious tone slowly creeping into this forum is starting to get nauseating. Time for a reality check."

So lets inject political crap then?

It seems as if a certain someone jsut cant stand that other people do not think they way they do and when someone says something that differs from their opinion, resorts to general stereo typing.

My take on morality is just this: what is moral for me may not be moral for others and vice versa. My morals include not making racist remarks to forum members and for some, that is ok in their moral apitude. Does that make me better than you? I think not. Does that make you better than me? Nope. Does it mean people might be more willing to engage in intelligent conversation with me than with you? Possibly.

The fact is that a certain someone loves to create drama everyday regardless of who the posters are. They say certain things on a web board that they wouldnt have the balls to say to someone's face in person because this person would probably get hit, disability or no disability.

Once everyone comes to the realization that others have their OWN MINDS and can think for themselves, the more useful this world would be. I believe in faith but I do not push it on anyone. Hell, I am not even what many consider religious. I dont go to church often and I dont pray regularily but I have faith knowing something far greater exists than what we know. I dont support wars of any kind, that INCLUDES Iraq, religious crusades, etc...

If having a G rating is the kiss of death that makes $100M, then Im ready for my kiss. The reality is, that certain people here act and post as if they are members of the majority when the reality is they are in the minority camp. A seedy televangelist type if you will.

>People go to movies that are well made and entertaining. Ratings are irrelevant. Violence, sexual content or lack of it are also irrelevant. With the exception of one or two studios that are famous for it, making a "G" rated movie IS indeed the kiss of death most of the time.

Uh, did you read the first post? Evidence to the contrary. Your unfounded assertion vs. real data. Hmm.

<Remainder may be skipped entirely for those interested in the thread subject.>

>Real violence like the still raging Iraq war now past the two year mark everyone now acknowledges was started based on faulty intelligence and gross mistakes is swept under the rug. We are not seeing the carnage, blood and guts in your face coverage that was splashed across the network nightly news shows as it was during the last great blunder; the Vietnam war.

So my kids are not going to watch the evening news and I'm going to double-check my news from the international sources. (Not that there is 10 min worth of depth in the evening news anyway.)

>I just can't help wondering why the looney squad of religious fanatics that stomp their feet and wave the flag as the Texas buffoon puffs out his chest doing his barnyard strud think their kids should be protected from the reality of real wars and real people getting killed and maimed, yet they get their shorts all bunched up over fake violence in the movies or something as natural as sex. Its part of life... or none of you would be here.

Get a grip. Two weeks ago, my 5 yr old daughter mistakenly was allowed to watch the last 15 min of the last POS Charlie's Angels movie and I'm still dealing with the ramifications. And my 2 yr old son couldn't sleep one night so he was up watching TV with me and started freaking out over a violent scene I thought he wasn't even noticing, so I had to change the channel and missed the ending of my movie.

I'm not going to bother with detailed responses to your vent, but I will claim that the biggest single factor in one's viewpoint is whether or not one has young kids. That is, if one is paying attention and isn't a horse's rear end. BB I think someone asked you this before and you haven't answered: "Do you have kids, and if so, what age?"

Didn't read much more than the first post here, so forgive me if it's already been stated.

First, I did know that G's make more money - know why?

HUGE HUGE MARKET - instead of making something that is potentially offensive to all ages, they make something that is most likely not offensive to any ages. Then kids want to go see it, parents go with their kids - for each person that wants to see it 2+ people go (though all may want to see it in that group). On top of that - G movies, and PG movies - almost always leave you feeling happy when you leave ( if you were willing to just take it at face value - so to speak ), where as so many R movies are "deep", and "artistic"(and often depressing) - there's nothing wrong with that, but a person can only watch so much of it without getting that way themselves.

I personally have gotten so fed up with those "artistic" or "deep" movies that I don't watch very many of them. I can appreciate them for what they are, but there's enough depressing stuff happening in the world today, that I don't need to spend my "escape from the real world time" watching the same stuff. I go to movies to escape reality (as most do), and I think that many people enjoy a happy movie (whether the critics like it or not).

My .02

Dave

Oops, I meant to mention one other reason that kids movies generally do so much better than "grown-up" movies..

Merchandising.

Not only will the hype of a movie lead kids to want to go to McDonalds / Burger King / etc to get the special not-available-anywhere-else action figure (nevermind that Toys R Us has other action figures from the same movie), but that builds the hype even more.

Rob

Referring to the "G" rating for movies other than those designed for the little kids usually being a kiss of death. I've read of instances in the past where certain films (for grown ups) have received "G" or "PG" ratings and the producers have gone back and purposefully reshot scenes with something added that will "boost" the rating so as to get out from under what they perceive to be "the kiss of death."

Rich, you're absolutely right. Having kids can and will change a person's attitudes on many thing on many levels. It certainly did mine!Those that whine and harp otherwise obviously never fathered and reared any children, not responsibily anyway.

I watched The Incredibles on DVD and it was just that! That was, for all intents and purposes, a movie for grown-ups. Very well done in every aspect!

Many fail to remember that all the of early animations, Disney (Snow White), Warner Brothers (Bugs Bunny), MGM (Tom & Jerry), Paramount (Popeye), etc., were for "adult" audiences. That's why they're so darn funny, unlike so many of the watered down cartoons today.

And then those places selling merchandise drive the kids to the movies. It's a two way street.

So, really, these sorts of blockbusters are special cases that are above and beyond what a normal movie would be. Most movies won't have the sort of huge push behind them that these do.

I don't think that all movies need to be like G and PG blockbusters. If they were then there'd just be less to watch since all of these want to garner a huge portion of the total pie.

That said, I've seen plenty of films that were very good with G, PG and PG-13 ratings.

Rob Mack

The irony of watching people that start or support OFF TOPIC threads in this forum to further a narrow view often with some superior moralistic tone then watching them get bent out of shape if everyone doesn't agree with their perception of real world events is for sure amusing to say the least.

Hint to those that KEEP STARING THESE KIND OF INFLAMATORY THREADS: If you don't want anybody to be critical of your narrow views, maybe you shouldn't start off topic threads in a forum that's suppose to be about Vegas. That simply means if you don't like R rated movies, (sorry topic has NOTHING to do with Vegas), then vote with your pocketbook. The FACT is some of the most watched movies of all time including Mel Gibson's Passion have excessive violence and/or sexual content. The real question is WHY do the same people over and over again keep pushing this kind of topic in a forum like this?

I've seen plenty of films that were very good with G, PG and PG-13 ratings.

Agreed, Rob!

>The irony of watching people that start or support OFF TOPIC threads in this forum to further a narrow view often with some superior moralistic tone then watching them get bent out of shape if everyone doesn't agree with their perception of real world events is for sure amusing to say the least.

I don't get bent out of shape if you don't agree. I get bent out of shape when someone starts a thread with something like "Here is an interesting article with supporting data" and someone else comes along and says "Here is my opinion and it differs from the article" and I have nothing to share <LIKE FACTS AND DATA> besides my opinion and I cannot dispute the article so I'm not even going to address it, I'm just going to share my opinion.

See, I can ignore your tone, but I won't ignore your shoddy failure to present a case for your disagreement.

>SSDD deleted.

EDIT: Just got around to actually reading DSE's editorial and I could not agree more. Very well written.

"The irony of watching people that start or support OFF TOPIC threads in this forum to further a narrow view often with some superior moralistic tone then watching them get bent out of shape if everyone doesn't agree with their perception of real world events is for sure amusing to say the least."

The idiots that sit, look, and wait for threads just so they can impose their thoughts is ironic in itself.

Pmasters,

It seems to me that the trend toward more sex and profanity has actually reversed. Many of the more popular movies, which may be PG or R have far less sex and profanity than movies a a few years ago. These things don't offend me, although I respect that they do others, but most of the time they just get in the way or slow down a film. I hate a movie where the writer uses the F or GD word 80% of the time. It is just bad writing. Same with sex scenes, most are not crucial to the plot, just wasting time.

But again, my perception is that the trend has reversed because people don't see the need for it in a good movie.

Dave T2

As the "starter" of this thread, I haven't gotten "bent out of shape" about anything!

Dare I ask, what's happening?