So much for movie ratings... "The R Card"

[Deja Q]

Just watching the evening news:

In the mideast, they're handing out "The R Cards" to underage kids.

Utterly irresponsible, IMHO. Lazy parents...

Maybe I'm a cynic. How is this card of legitimate benefit?

Especially when I remember the day when PG-13 wasn't a rating and when rated-R material of the time is now simply PG material.

[TexasMexican]

1. This is great

When I was a kid my mom would always buy me and my friends tickets to R-rated movies. Theres nothing wrong with a little horror and violence.

This was maybe when I was like 14-16.

However around the time Scream 2 came out, people started bitching about the violence and whatever so the movie theaters got more strict.

So she bought us the tickets but they still wouldnt let us in unless my mom went with us, and she didnt really feel like seeing the movie. My mom talked the manager and he wouldnt budge, saying it was corporate policy and all that bullshit.

So we just went to a different theater and she waited to make sure they let us in.

At the time my mom told me they should make cards to allow minors to see R rated movies with thier parents permission. After all I already had a hollywood movie rental card that allowed me to rent R rated movies.

It wasnt long after that, I turned 17 and it became a moot point, but I'm glad that something like this is finally coming around.

[Catch22Dem]

2. Doesn't bother me at all

I'm one of the people who say to conservatives, "If you don't want your kids to see it, then don't let them see it." Now, having said that, I won't be letting my nine year old go to R movies, but I'm sure I won't have any problem with it when she's 16 or so.

I totally think it should be parents' discretion.

[Deja Q]

7. I agree. It should be up to the parents.

So I'm hoping this R Card business will be properly monitored by all involved. Abuse will happen but it can be kept to a minimum.

In the end, it doesn't matter. Grown adults will watch "The Matrix" and start sniping people thinking that they're all Agent Smith. :eyes:

Or the one incident a few years back where some teens saw a movie where idiots were lined up lying down on the double yellow strip while cars from both sides drove by them. The real life teens probably didn't know the movie was all done by professional stuntmen under controlled conditions. The teens could have been killed and that would have been terrible. And utterly silly as to HOW they died: "Mimicking a movie like the good little monkeys they were." :eyes:

[Catch22Dem]

10. Wasn't that Trainspotting

Where they were lying down in the middle of the road. Fuckin' morons!

[jmowreader]

12. No, it was a Disney movie about a football team

I can't remember the name of this cinematic masterwork, but obviously you got a free brainectomy with every paid admission.

[Khephra]

13. And that film was PG

[Book Lover]

3. Link?

I gather from the replies that this is some piece of paper that someone gives to under-18's to let them see R movies?

[TexasMexican]

4. you are correct

I read it linked on fark.com I think a while back.

[Deja Q]

6. ABC Nightly News (link in message)

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Entertainment/r_cards_040601-1.html


Any child can get an R-card, as long as an adult guardian comes to the box office to apply for the card to lessen the chances of a forged signature and pays the $2 fee.


There's more to the article, but this paragraph stuck out: It means "For $2, we at the movie theatre will happily be babysitters for you - the child still has to pay for movie ticket but we'll entertain them with anything, and we mean anything!!"

I want to believe the argument of "I think he is very mature for his age" and other such comments. But I can't. These ratings were made for a reason and the movie makers have to conform to these standards. And the higher the rating means the more explicit they will get.

Maybe I'm wrong in my opinion... I've been questioning myself down to the core these days...

[Book Lover]

9. Thanks!

I have to say that I am really of two minds here. One part of me says that this card is bullshit, and if I buy my son a card when he's around 15, he'll lend it to his buddy (whose mom would not get him a card) faster than I can say "tits." On the other hand, movie ratings are censorship that has helped lower the level of intelligent discourse in this nation (Kiss the breast, shown or implied - R or X; cut off the breast, shown or implied - PG-13 or R) and anything that helps eliminate them is a General Good, I feel. So, would I buy my son a card? Well, I want him to see "Life of Brian" before he is 18, so selectively, yes. Maybe I'd make a rule that he can see the movie without me, but he has to clear it, just like he will have to clear his reading materials with me... Hhmmm, I really don't know...

[TheMightyFavog]

14. From what I saw in the broadcast....

These cards are photo IDs.

They had a shot of teens getting their photos taken after the parent signed the permission slip.

If it's a photo ID, it'd be extremley difficult for one kid to just lend his card to his buddy.

[eyesroll]

17. Maybe not buddies, but younger siblings?

My sister and I are three years apart. We look related, but not alike. (She's taller, and in way better shape, for one thing.) But it was enough to pass in a photo when we were teenagers (not anymore).

We spilt a Six Flags season pass for a few summers. We kept different schedules, so we never wanted to go on the same day anyway. It worked beautifully.

If I got an "R" card at 16, I could have easily passed it on to my sister, 13.

[Kali]

11. I think its a great idea...

Plus I read they have to show photo id to lessen the lending out factor. I have a kid who was mature enough at 9 or 10 to wath most movies (he wants to direct eventually) I have another who probably shouldn't ever watch anything violent. It should be my choice and I'm like the mom mentioned above - I don't want to go watch everything I would let him watch.

[TexasMexican]

21. "These ratings were made for a reason..."

The reason the ratings were made are twofold, censorship and to make money. That is all.

[TexasMexican]

5. Remember ratings arent the law

Just another thing to remember is that there is nothing legally binding about what a movie is rated.

Its not illegal for a minor to see an R rated movie, with our without thier parents permission.

Ratings are just guidelines that many theaters choose to follow and have thier own policies about.

[Endangered Specie]

8. Any 11 year old kid with half a brain and broadband..

get get not only R-rated, but XXXrated material for free.

[Guy Fawkes]

18. Any 11+ kid with broadband and a hacker friend...

can get pay-for R-rated or XXX-rated material for free...

[Dropkick]

15. When my daughter...

...is old enough to have earned the money (at a real job) for the ticket, she's old enough to see 'em (basically when she's 16). She's 3 now, so this is, of course, may be subject to change.

[Khephra]

16. Personally, my mother would have loved this idea

She started me out on horror, but I grew up in the 70's and 80's back when horror was a bit more...splatterific than it is now. I had an interest in doing special effects make-up, so she understood my interest in seeing the latest film for its effects. After Hammer Horror died out and the Slasher period started, she drifted out while I drifted in, but with her blessings. (She still dresses up every Halloween as a Ferengi, if that tells you anything about her. ;-) )


I knew about sex early, because we lived in a rural area. If you live around farms, you find out about sex earlier than many city kids....some rural people I've known have been more accepting of sexuality than anything else because they've "seen it all down on the farm".

I've had many problems, but knowing what's real and what's fantasy isn't one of them. The one kid I know that became the most unhinged in his adult years was a conservative Christian kid who wasn't allowed to watch even network tv. Once he grew up and moved out he had no clue about how to cope with the rest of the world and withdrew into catatonia.

[Kali]

19. Ha.

sounds like us, hope mine turns out ok - just graduated high school Friday night. Raised very similar to you. Vampire movies at 5, ranch raised, crazy Mom that loves Halloween, especially costumes.

[Khephra]

20. Not to be gross...

But when you are taught at 12 years old about the sexual habits of cats (and other animals you are raising), your children should already have a strong basis in what's real or not.

I'm with Carlin on this...I think we avoid too much shit and in avoiding that "shit" we become suspectible to that is off-stream, so to say.