This Movie Is Not Yet Rated
This was a rather interesting documentary (This Movie Is Not Yet Rated) over on the Netflix Instant about the zany methods used to decide what rating films should recieve. The best bit was the animated part with cartoony characters depicting actions and words that would bump up a films rating. A bit more graphic than Jack Valenti's brilliant digression from Freakazoid, but not quite as funny (from Freakazoid- "Then there's NC-17. Mom doesn't want to see an adult movie, so she stays home. But Grandpa was in the army, and he's not bothered by much so he stays, along with Sgt. Scruffy who's just a dumb dog anyway.")
I was hoping for more from this movie...but it fell a bit flat...mostly due to the private detective bits...which after the first couple of segments, I fast-forwarded past. Seriously? I want to hear more scathing witicism about the MPAA, not watch a PI dig through someones garbage or sit in a car for hours outside the MPAA headquarters...did they feel it needed a grittier reality show feel?
Overall, it is worth watching...if you fast forward past the tedious detective bits (well, unless you enjoy hidden camera-in-the-lapel while having lunch to find out names stuff, then go right ahead). But, really, for funny stuff about MPAA and Standards and Practices, nothing tops what's already been done in South Park episodes.
Speaking of Freakazoid, if you ever get the chance, watching it with commentary is great ("Yeah, this line here, 'Pull the string!', yeah, we were watching, what was it, Plan 9? No, Ed Wood, yeah. And we thought it'd be funny to put that in there." "Yeah, because so many children are huge Martin Landau fans." "Yeah, Martin Landau tests well with children.") I understand now all the better why this show spoke to me in the long ago...and still does.
I was hoping for more from this movie...but it fell a bit flat...mostly due to the private detective bits...which after the first couple of segments, I fast-forwarded past. Seriously? I want to hear more scathing witicism about the MPAA, not watch a PI dig through someones garbage or sit in a car for hours outside the MPAA headquarters...did they feel it needed a grittier reality show feel?
Overall, it is worth watching...if you fast forward past the tedious detective bits (well, unless you enjoy hidden camera-in-the-lapel while having lunch to find out names stuff, then go right ahead). But, really, for funny stuff about MPAA and Standards and Practices, nothing tops what's already been done in South Park episodes.
Speaking of Freakazoid, if you ever get the chance, watching it with commentary is great ("Yeah, this line here, 'Pull the string!', yeah, we were watching, what was it, Plan 9? No, Ed Wood, yeah. And we thought it'd be funny to put that in there." "Yeah, because so many children are huge Martin Landau fans." "Yeah, Martin Landau tests well with children.") I understand now all the better why this show spoke to me in the long ago...and still does.