10 R-Rated Movies That Should Have Been PG-13

Adult life sucks. Children have it so much easier, with zero responsibility and a serious amount of free time. Despite this, most children fantasize about being older, moaning that they're too young to do anything. To be fair though, one thing that's particularly aggravating for adolescents everywhere is being unable to see all the movies they want due to ridiculous ratings. Watching movies will always be a subjective experience, but the MPAA seem to rate films incorrectly on a regular basis, declaring that it's much better for children to watch a bloody massacre than see a nip slip or hear the occasional bad word. As a result of this prudishly conservative stance, some movies are unfairly rated PG-13 when they shouldn't be and some are rated R, depriving adolescents of the cinematic education they deserve. Whether you believe teenagers need to be protected more from depictions of violence or sexuality is up for debate, but either way, it will definitely come as a shock that the following 10 movies received the same age rating as controversial films such as Natural Born Killers and The Human Centipede. 10) Boyhood (2014) Many critics are hailing Boyhood as the best movie of 2014, calling it a landmark exercise in scope and ambition, yet you have to be older than Mason Jr. is throughout most of the film to actually see it. The R rating was given to Linklater's masterpiece for "language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use.” Admittedly, it would be inappropriate of a censorship organization to openly condone such behavior, but in the real world, it's ridiculously naive to believe that teenagers aren't already aware of all these references and more. In fact, Linklater doesn't even glorify any of the more mature content and it's used sparingly throughout. Call me a cynic, but maybe Boyhood could have had more luck with the MPAA if they'd thrown in a high school shooting or two instead of just some kids drinking alcohol... 9) Lost In Translation (2003) "Has anything else destroyed the hearts and minds of our youth quite so completely as bare nipples? Topless nudity is a problem in movies and must be stopped, especially if the actors are particularly cold on the day of shooting. Not only does this draw more attention to the nipple area, but someone could lose an eye and lord knows the kids of today aren't ready for that kind of horror." The above is an excerpt from a MPAA meeting discussing the brief scene of nudity featured in Lost In Translation. Enough said. 8) Air Force One (1997) Air Force One is one of the most confusing inclusions on this list. The story may be about the American President fighting terrorists on a plane, but the violence is surprisingly tame and the one use of the word 'f**k' falls into the MPAA's parameters for a PG-13. There also isn't any sex or nudity, and the entire movie has an old-school feel which seems to lie at odds with the adult rating. One gets the feeling that perhaps Harrison Ford personally offended key members of the MPAA. Lord knows that the movie Sabrina was an affront to all the senses and that only came out a few short years before. 7) The Matrix (1999) The Matrix film (I like to pretend I live in a world where there were no sequels) featured sci-fi violence throughout its running time, including a number of shoot-outs and fight scenes with badass martial arts... like every comic book movie released in the last ten years. Somehow, though, this one particular film was deemed too violent by the MPAA, who unnecessarily rated it R. Turns out that Tony Stark can kill terrorists, drink alcohol and use bad language, but when Neo and co. do the same, the fragile minds of teenagers everywhere must be protected at all costs, despite showing very little blood on screen during the fantastical fight scenes. 6) The Frighteners (1996) Long before hobbits became cool (sort of), Peter Jackson made his name directing a number of extremely gory and violent horror movies, but his style became less extreme as the years went by. By the time Jackson began work on a comedic ghost story for Universal, the Kiwi filmmaker aimed for a PG-13 rating, but The Frighteners still ended up receiving a R rating for its scare factor. There may be some blood and images of Hell, but the film is actually surprisingly tame compared to the majority of other R rated horrors, aside from the exploding head of course, but Jackson only added that in to justify the rating once it was confirmed. You know what they say: If you can't beat them... 5) Almost Famous (2000) Despite failing at the box office, Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical comedy was a huge hit with critics at the time of its release, gaining four Oscar nominations and a win for Crowe's screenplay. Perhaps Almost Famous would have gained a wider audience though if the MPAA hadn't prevented a huge section of its target maket from seeing the movie, based on its restrictive R rating. Sure, there's some brief nudity and drug use, but these vices are presented here in the form of a cautionary tale, one championed by the late film critic Roger Ebert. The MPAA hasn't made many friends over the years, but few attacked them quite like Ebert, who infamously said that the "MPAA cannot have values; it can only count beans, or nipples, or four-letter words." Ouch. 4) The Breakfast Club (1985) Some may balk at the inclusion of The Breakfast Club on this list, considering that marijuana is used and that the word 'f**k' is said about thirty million times, but realistically, would this really be the first time that a teenage audience encounters such content? Unless you were raised by Carrie's mother, it's unlikely that the lives of the adolescents depicted in The Breakfast Club would be particularly different from teenage audiences of the time, yet the MPAA remain determined to prevent teens from seeing themselves on the big screen, albeit massively caricatured versions of themselves. Still, ginger outcasts need role models goddammit! 3) A Film Unfinished (2010) History can be brutal, but learning about the most difficult events of the past is not only important, but essential. Yael Hersonski’s documentary about an incomplete Nazi propaganda film called Das Ghetto is vital viewing, yet the MPAA gave A Film Unfinished the dreaded R rating on the grounds that it contained disturbing imagery and nudity. The nudity in question refers to a moment in the film when a group of Jews are stripped and forced to take a ritual bath, which is about as far from titillating as one could imagine. The film's distributor Oscilloscope, appealed to the MPAA over the rating, arguing that Holocaust Memorial Museums visited by school children contain more graphic footage, yet they were ultimately unsuccessful in their bid. No one is suggesting that A Film Unfinished would make delightful viewing for five year old children, but surely it's important that teenage students are given the chance to watch this vital historical documentary. It's a sad day when a movie like this is kept from teenage audiences, while a raunchy film like Coyote Ugly is deemed as perfectly suitable with its PG-13 rating. 2) The King's Speech (2010) When does a harmless British period drama receive the dreaded R rating? When that movie features a King shouting 'fuck' in a non-sexual manner to cure his stuttering. Only one 'f**k' is usually allowed in a PG-13, so the MPAA were forced to prevent teenagers from watching the eventual Oscar winner. However, after the award was given, the distributors resubmitted The King's Speech, muting the swear words so that a PG-13 version could be played in cinemas. While it's good that the film eventually received the rating it deserved all along, it shows exactly how ridiculous and arbitrary the MPAA' s rules are in the first place. Why bother rating each individual movie on its own merits when you can just put a f**k counter in place? 1) Bully (2012) In the imaginatively titled documentary Bully, victims speak up about the trauma they've endured at the hands of others while at school. Sounds like an important message, one that students everywhere should see, right? The MPAA disagreed, of course, giving Bully a R rating for the use of violent language, while clearly missing the point of including these words in the first place. Director Lee Hirsch and students from the film itself implored the MPAA to change their rating, even creating a popular online petition that collected thousands of signatures, but the MPAA remained reluctant. In protest, The Weinstein Company announced that they had decided to release Bully unrated, which would restrict its distribution. Eventually, they managed to reach an agreement with the MPAA, who rated the film PG-13 after the bad language was toned down. While it's obviously great that Bully was able to reach a wider audience, helping to promote anti-bullying in schools and cinemas alike, it's infuriating that the MPAA were unable to look past their restrictive guidelines to rate a film based on its cultural impact rather than the use of some naughty words.