There is a story going around the web today that suggests that upon viewing the first cut of the upcoming Transformers movie, the ratings folks over at the MPAA decided to slap the movie with an “R” rating. Wow… really?
Anyway, instead of re-cutting the film to get the desired PG-13 rating, Michael Bay just had Steven Spielberg make a few phone calls. Our friends over at Filmjunk give us this:
It seems that when the MPAA got a look at Michael Bay’s first cut of Transformers, they delivered a rating of “R” for intense action and violence. Not wanting to cut the film, Bay called on executive producer Spielberg to plea with the ratings board to reconsider their decision… which they did, after some fast talking from Spielberg. Now they have settled on a PG-13 rating for the film instead.
Ok, this is good news. Is there really enough action in this film that it made the MPAA want to give it an R??? Really??? How much freaking violence is in this thing? I was told by one ofthe producers that there wouldn’t be any human blood in the film. Sooooo… how much destruction of a non-human kind has to be in a film to get a frigging “R”?
I feel all happy inside.
First I just want to say I am also excited about this movie being “hard” enough for an R rating and am also jumping with joy.
The thing I find most “funny” is that the MPAA rating can be changed without any cut of the film. This confirms for me that the MPAA ratings are not so quantitative as they would like us to be believe. I have always felt that the rating a movie receives was lacking any scientific approach, and now I am conviced. Are they throwing darts at a dartboard to get the rating? No. But even still, it seems that something as important as a rating should have a few more guidlines in place, and not be so subjective.
Last time an R rated movie had a kids toy line it was Conan The Barbarian; the toy line was scrapped and relaunched as He-Man, lol.
it could possibly be all hype. who knows? i don’t care. the only thing i care about is if my son wants to watch it. he’s exposed to a lot of violence already and those are shows that are not even rated R. i’m curios though, if this movie did have an R rating, how would that effect the toy and memorabilia sales?
Sounds like more marketing bullshit cashing in on Spielberg’s known ability to get his own movies down-rated.
I don’t believe this at all. Can’t wait for the “Unrated” Transformers DVD. Yeah right.
It was Spike who said “Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?” in The Transformers: The Movie, not Bumblebee.
john where are last weeks movie blog uncut shows??
are you not putting them up for download anymore?
Hey, will. I’ve seen the trailer -have you? And yes, I do like Michael Bay movies. Have you even seen one? Prime gets pissed on and Bumblebee helps Shia give his girlfriend some “Sexual Healing. I know what I’m talking about -do you?
Learn about the movie before you defend it.
Lol at Roguepirate’s post. I believe the story over the whole thing being made up. It would make my entire year if Scorpinock impales and throws Duhamel around.
“Oh shit!” – Bumblebee, Transformers: The Movie (animated)
My thoughts exactly, WTF kind of action is going to be there?! I don’t care what anyone says, I’m glad Bay is directing; where else are you gonna get motherfuckin’ action in a motherfuckin’ blockbuster (ah, Snakes on a Plane)!
I like 300, I will see it again. Sorry Big Sam, I talked.
hmm…I guess Scorponock might impale some of those military grunts after all.
YO THIS IS ALL THE MOVIE PEOPLE WANT US TO TALK ABOUT….FILE THIS NON SENCE BULLSHIT UNDER WHO GIVES A FUCK…..THE MOVIE HAS ALLREADY PRETTY MUCH BEEN MADE…I CAN GIVE A FUCK WHAT THEY RATE IT..THEY JUST WANT US TO KEEP TALKING ABOUT IT TILL IT COMES OUT…KINDA LIKE 300….NOW DO U THINK 300 WILL KEEP MAKING THE SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY….NO CAUSE PEOPLE ARE ALMOST DONE TALKING
I bought some eye lid clamps and visine so I won’t miss a frame.
I couldn’t care less whether the rating was PG-13 or R. To remind you guys of how cool Transformers will be, may I remind you guys of the horror pertaining the last live action large robot film:
.
Robot Jox
Starring: Gary Graham (TV’s Alien Nation)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102800/
.
People with various sand levels in their weiners behold and witness the horror that once was……
there is no way that there is so much robot on robot carnage that it could get an R…..
…
I bet this is chinese whispers….like shiea labouf said “man the action is so intense I wouldnt be surprised if it got an r”
or something like that…..
…all my bay hatin’ aside i am incredibly skeptical about this news…i think jaysmack is right….after the news got out about the bumblebee matchmaker scene, the goofy robot slapstick and the dog pee I think this is just a bullshit p.r. rumour to get people forgetting about all that cheesy shit………and hey its working.
…….i know you all want to believe this as R means good apparently but come on……unless they lied about the human blood this film did not get an R. no matter what sheia labouf said…..these people given talking points about what to say….a lot of fans are focusing on how kiddie friendly the film sounds and this is the studios counter offensive…anyway if this did come from sheia then it must be crap as all celebrities lie anyway right john ;p
If this is true, then I’m very heppy for 2 reasons. One, I love R films. Can’t help it, they’re just funner to watch. There are more R or non-rated films in my collection then any other. And to see the Transformers movie, somthing I’ve been dying to see since I was a kid, getting a rating, one of the reasons I loved Gen1 Transformers so much was that it actualy had some good drama in it. And this R rating only reasures me that the movie is going to be full of it and violence. YES Trancformers has finaly reached a true adult level! :D
And reason two. Gives me even more high hopes that the G.I. Joe movie might be action packed and on an adult level. Cuz if if it can happen to Transformers, which is also controlled by a aimed at kids toy company and owned by the same comapny, then why can’t it happen to the G.I Joe movie? ;)
All this probly is just a rumor, it’s just too good to be true. But it’s still nice to think about. *crosses fingers that it’s more then a rumor*
There will not be much swearing in this movie…cetainly not by the cutesy Autobots. The humans may blurt out a holy shit, but this R rating story is pure marketing.
I thought Campea reported himself from LA that there was to be no blood in this flick, therefore robot vs robot action is not enough to garner an R.
This smacks of trying to play both sides of the fence…brutal!
jaysmack,
i havent read, seen, or heard of one thing about this movie that makes it seem at all like a bitch flick. maybe you somehow missed the trailer? maybe you havent seen a michael bay movie? chick flick this is not.
as far as a publicity stunt, shia gave away this info in an interview about surfs up, so im not too sure about that. but also, since its coming from shia, who knows if its true or not.
Now I really want to see this movie. Just imagine….
O.P.- “Say what again mother fucker! I dare you Astrotrain I double dare you mother fucker, say what one more goddamn time!”
I heard about this and I think this is a publicity stunt, (maybe not even true) in order to butch up the image of the movie since the Dog-pissing-on-Prime and Bumblebee-matchmaker scenes have already made the movie look like a bitch flick.
They’re going to have to do better than this if they want to turn around the sour impressions they’ve been getting.
“Maybe there is a “gay” theme between two of the robots in this movie”
Well there are no female transformers in this movie…. so…..
I just want my Transformers now bitch.
Maybe there is a “gay” theme between two of the robots in this movie
well said john
if this is true, it should be great news to everyone, especially if you were worried about the lack of tformers screen time. sure, the humans are necessary and are going to take up chunks of the film, but now we get the hope that when we see the tformers, they are going to give us our moneys worth.
Alfie,
I hear what you’re saying… but in this situation, an “R” is exactly what I want to hear… because all I (and some other people like me) are really wanting out of this movie is a TON of giant robots kicking the shit out of each other.
This isn’t Shakspaere. You’re 100% correct when you say R doesn’t equal good… but good becomes subjective here.
With a project like Transformers… I’m not looking for “Good” (but hey… if it ends up being “good” then bonus), I’m looking to just be entertained. And sometimes, the two can be different things. It all depends on what you’re hoping for out of the movie I guess.
oh and when did r rated violence automatically mean good??
and I am not just using this as one of my normal transformers attacks..I mean in general…..this is something bugs me…..
you hear it all the time about films goingintoproduction “make it R, make it R” …
fuck the rating – just make it good –
worry about the rating once the film is done but don’t make decisions based on getting an r or this or that …. just worry about making it good. I hear directors say that type of shit “we are pushing for a hard r…we wanna make it R”…..generally that is about films they are wanting to market to people who are too young to get because really outside of a child who gives a fuck what the rating is….just make good fucking movies….it could g for all I care just don’t bore me with…..don’t make me cringe with the inane dialogue…..don’t make me squirm in my seat fromlousy acting…..don’t make me shake my head in dispair at plot holes boig enough to drive a truck through….
I just think with all the kerfuffle over the weekend of an r rated film making so much money (you would think no r-rated film made money before) the timing of this news is very suspicious…..
oh eric I have been going on about the ridiculous nature of censorship and what the “moral” majority complain about for ages…
I can turn on t.v. any night of the week and see violence in shows like csi, svu etc etc that are as grizzly as the money shots from 80’s slasher films but janets nipple is enough to cause a fucking meltdown….
it seems to be we can see as much life taking as we want but don’t dare show any life making…..it is weird that violence gets so much leniency and sex is so frowned upon…I would much rather my kid saw a pair of big beautiful bouncing boobs then limbs getting hacked off….
but yeah – i think we should take this R rated transformers news with a gigantic lump of salt…..the hype train begins…..
Get your shit together, John. Only 2% of these “rumours” are actually true.
I once had a chance to read a marketing strategy of one romantic comedy, and there were written black on white among any other thing “initiate in “yellow press” stories about love between cast members”. Frickin’ seriously. Well, I new that something of that sort happens all the time, but seeing this as one of steps in OFFICIAL marketing strategy really does make a difference.
So, don’t be naive, John. You have no idea what these people can come up with.
Jeezuz, it’s just a publicity stunt.
I can’t wait for this Bionicles movie to come out!
Call me crazy…but it’s a GOOD thing to have the crappy MPAA designate violence with an ‘R’. Children shouldn’t see so much violence, whether it’s robots or not (young children CANNOT tell the difference between ‘fantasy’ ,’just for fun’ violence and the real thing).
Check out ‘This Film Is Not Yet Rated’ to see how F-‘d-UP the rating board is, and how they deem it OK to give a softer rating for violence than they do for nudity (if there’s tits, it’s a ‘R”, if 100 people get blown up, it actually may make a PG-13 because of the MONEY the film stands to make from the ‘Young Men’ demographic.
Hi,
Thanks for the 411.
Alfie,
Why do you have to say such negative things. All you do is hate and bit… Ha! fooled ya. I was only kiddin’.
I do agree that this has the slight smell of publicity. That doesnt neccessarily mean it’s not true, though.
Like I said in my post, “if true”.
This information originated from Shia Lebouf during a “Surf’s Up” publicity event on the Sony lot. Take from that what you will. I believe it’s true, but how would I know that for a fact? None of us do, really. See, I can be diplomatic.
P.S. –
Public Enemy was the S-H-I-T!
“Get up and get, get, get down
911 is a joke in your town”
Flava Flav… a reality TV darling… Who would’a thunk it?
I have it on good authority that there is a bit of hot robot-on-robot action. The tank getting it on with the cement mixer for example
this sounds like hype to me and what did public enemy teach us about hype???
don’t believe it…..
Lol, Rogue, that pretty brutal!
I think that now it is PG-13, Spielberg will have to not have so much of the action that we really want! Hell! Give it an R Rating! And don’t make it a movie for kids! Thats what the gay ass cartoon is for!
Make it R Rated and give us what we want to see! Death and Destruction! Lets see some robots fight!
MPAA: “We’re gonna rate this R”
Spielberg: “i believe it was G”
MPAA: “oh our bad, we mean G”
Spielberg: “thats what i thought”
Coming Summer 2009
Bambi 3: Avenging Mother’s Death
Rated G for violence, strong language, and brief nudity
I am happy that it seems Transformers contains enough action to warrant such a high rating, but at the same time this is horrible news as it once again confirms how ass-backwards the MPAA rating system is.
Time and time again they claim to be set to a very high standard rating criteria, yet here they are bending it for a large player in the industry, where as had this occured with a smaller indy film you could be sure that they would not have budged on the ‘R’ rating.
Good news wrapped up in sad package.
that picture is from the game based on the movie
No human blood…..but if people just get stepped on a whole lot without any blood flying……….
No, but the MPAA has been fucky with their ratings before. I still don’t get why School of Rock was PG-13.
Where’d that new pic of Bumblebee come from?
I had not seen that one yet.
Hot Diggety Damn!
This movie is going to rock.
The MPAA gave it an “R” rating because of action and violence. Holy shit, I cant wait to it.
Way to go Steve, you are the effin’ Juggernaut.
“Oh it WILL be PG-13! Whats’s that? Did you mean to say Yes sir, Mr Spielberg, sir? That’s what I thought, bitch.”
Ha! If true, this is friggin’ brilliant.
thats good news….props for bay growing some balls and not changing the film….maybe this wont be as bad as i thought….
peace….
I definately like that Bay had the marbles to stand up for his cut (even though he had to go get daddy) but still, smart move by Bay to parlay Spielbergs clout to put out his movie with a pg-13 rating.
this does seem to be very very good news, i just hope that it isnt misleading as far as the amaount and intensity of the action goes.
i think that this story might be manufactured balogny.
it has that ring to it.
Speilberg slams through a wall and yells “im the juggernaut, bitch”…”change it to PG-13, or i’ll break yo ass in half”
For a better idea of how the MPAA works you should all catch the new Kirby Dick documentry, This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
Its a good movie but the best part has to be that the MPAA illegally copied and distributed this doc to their employee’s so they could be more aware of Kirby Dick and his attempts at discovering their secret identities!! He submitted his flm for a rating and the violated copyright laws by copying his film!!!!!!!!!
But I digress, the film is really about how the studios basically oversee the MPAA, which is why indie films get fucked over and studios flicks get a pass, as far as ratings go, and make no mistake a rating determines how much a film will make in most cases.
They even do split screen to show very similar scenes from two different films, one getting the NC 17, the other getting an R or even worse a a PG 13.
Highly recommended doc!
Nord
Nothing like a hard PG-13 rating. I would have like a NC-17 rating.
Then there would be some carnage!
WHAT!
I guess humans say the F bomb?
Or do we have giant robots shagging young big breasted virgins?
Good luck sellin’ them toys at Christmas now!