The MPAA's Top Ten Dumb Rating Descriptions

It's a really cool list but how they didn't add Team America's "graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets." I will never know.

r_rating.jpgOh man, I remember doing this when I use to rent movies from my local video store. I use to always read over those rating guidelines on the back and see just why they thought that R-Rated movie was well... R-Rated... and why exactly would I not be able to view it? These guidelines are in place of course to protect parents against showing children things they shouldn't be seeing and the little descriptions are suppose to help them make a decision as to whether the movie their kids want to rent is actually suitable for them or not. As Allmovie, the guys who put this last together point out - there has never been a standard practice for these descriptions which means that occasionally an extremely weird, humorous and/or totally useless description of a movie is written. The guys over there have spent many hours no doubt putting their heads together and looking through as many old movies as possible to come up with a list of the Top 1o Silliest Reasons given by the MPAA for describing a particular rating. Some are just absolute gems...
10. Mother's Boys (1994) "Rated R for language and for a mother's sociopathic behavior" 9. Indian in the Cupboard (1995) "PG for mild language and brief video images of violence and sexy dancing" 8. All I Wanna Do (1998) "PG-13 for teen sex-related material, language, and substance misuse" 7. The Hunted (1997) "R for strong bloody ninja violence and a humorous drug related scene" 6. War of the Buttons (1994) "PG for mischievous conflict, some mild language, and bare bottoms" 5. Alien vs. Predator (2004) "PG-13 for violence, language, horror images, slime, and gore" 4. Skateboard Kid II (1995) "PG for brief mild language and an adolescent punch in the nose" 3. Bushwhacked (1997) "PG for language and a mild birds and bees discussion" 2. Twister (1996) "PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather" 1. Jefferson in Paris (1995) "PG-13 for mature theme, some images of violence, and a bawdy puppet show"
A cool list but as Cinematical point out, there is one glaring admission here in this top ten list which just has to be discussed. That being the tagline for the 2004 movie Team America: World Police which went like this...
"graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets."
Genius. I do actually think the MPAA do a great job for the most part and they are certainly a necessary commodity but sometimes they are just their own worst enemy in making themselves look retarded.
 
Posted On: 
Editor-in-chief
Editor-in-chief

Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.