Films That Barely Got by with a PG-13 (1 Viewer)

[Ryan L. Bisasky]

wasn't that before pg-13? Also, isn't there an f bomb in the PG rated Big?

also in 2001, there are a few uses of "damn" and "hell" which today would easily give it a PG rating.

I was actually today watching "the cat in the hat" (i had nothing better to do, also wanted to see if it was that bad (it is), and was surprised at some of the things that movie got away with for a PG. I can't imagine after the movie, parents having to explain certain scene's to their kids.

 

[Timothy Alexander]

Beetlejuice=1988
PG-13=1984.

 

[TheLongshot]

I think you are allowed one use of the F-bomb, if I remember correctly.

Jason

 

[Brett_M]

The Beastmaster (again with Tonya Roberts in the buff)

The swordplay in that flick was not bloody at all but other elements of the film pushed the limits a bit.

Nonsexual nudity + nonbloody swordplay = PG in 1982.

Come to think of it, Jaws has some elements that puch the limits, too (beyond the deaths).

I remember watching Jaws uncut on TV for the 20th anniversary and the picture was so clear, you could see Chrissy's bush and nipples as the camera approached her from the depths. I almost gasped...then uttered "Sweet." (The brightness was tuned very high on the TV, I guess.)

 

[Kevin Grey]

Pretty sure the nonsexual part is why Titanic was able to get by with a PG-13. Had Kate Winslet been nude *during* the sex scene= R-rating.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Two that I was surprised to find were rated PG-13 instead of R were:
The Ring: Very bloody when horses were shown and generally very scary.
The 6th Day: Very violent in the chase scenes.

Also, back in 1981 there was a movie called "Student Bodies", a satirical horror movie. It has one scene where one character looked at the screen and said (paraphrase):
"Since R-rated movies make more money than PG rated movies....Fuck you." and it was rated R.

 

[BarryR]

Damn and hell still make it into G rated movies; still, I'm appalled the MPAA gave THE ARISTOCRATS a G!

:b

 

[PeterK]

ahhh. Good old canada. a movie has to be particularly gory and/or have very graphic sex to get an 18A.
Just about anything with normal sex/nudity and swearing get the "14A" rating. Not that it really matters to me anymore. but If I was a 13-17 year old in the states it would suck cause I wouldn't get to see all the teen movies like american pie 1-3, not another teen movie, wedding crashers, and 40 YOV.

 

[PeterK]

Isn't that referenced to in "be cool"

It went something along the lines of,
"did you know that you're only allowed to you one f-shot before a movie is rated R?"
"really? what do you think about that?"
"fuck it"

and that was the only time fuck was said in the whole movie if i'm not mistaken.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

They didn't, did they.

I could have sworn the film was never rated because they knew it would get an NC-17 if it was rated.

 

[Joe:C]

I'm glad other people noticed too. I watched this several months ago (this was the first time I'd seen the non-basic cable version in many years), and wondered how this wasn't rated R.

I'd also like to mention Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I would think a decapitation and a bloody hand being removed from somone's back would be enough for an R rating.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Spielberg got away with a severered human arm and goat leg for Jurassic Park as PG-13.

 

[BarryR]

Of course I'm jesting re THE ARISTOCRATS. A film has to be incredibly foul in the language department to be rated NC-17, and this particular film scales new heights (or lows?).

Personally, I think $%$%^&##$77##@@*@*&^%%&&*^%%$$#@#!!!!

 

[ThomasC]

Meh.

 

[Kevin Grey]

That's no worse than the severed arm in Star Wars.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Good point.

I've never really understood some of the ratings given out in the 1960s-1970s though. The aforementioned Andromeda Strain, Planet of the Apes, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I still shake my head that Vanishing Point is PG with a nude biker chick in it.

 

[Ryan L. Bisasky]

I was watching "the Notebook" last night, am kind of surprised they got away with a PG-13. Maybe the mpaa missed this, but for the second love scene, turn the brightness up, and when Rachel McAdams takes her shirt off, you can clearly see her nipple. I'm no prude or nothing, and am glad they snuck it in, but knowing the mpaa's fear of t&a especially in sex scenes, i am surprised they got away with it.

 

[Joe McCabe]

I thought the first PG-13 film was Dreamscape?

 

[JeremyErwin]

Have you forgotten Red Dawn? A true classic of ... well, anyway it's emblematic of reagan era paranoia. (and as this is an apolitical forum, I'll just note that Superman IV, 2010, and so on are similarly dated...)

The film's director, John Milius, allegedly was the inspiration for John Goodman's character in The Big Lebowski.

 

[Chad A Wright]

What I love is movies you've seen on TV a million times and then get them on DVD only to discover the things that were cut out. I'm 25 and honestly didn't know there was a huge bare chest in Airplane until I bought the DVD last year. It only got a PG.

Police Academy is another one. It's rated R, but the only version I had ever seen was the one I recorded on the TV way back when. That tape was worn out until I picked up the anniversary DVD. The nudity is shocking when you've grown up with this film, never knowing there was any nudity at all.