Mike's Musings: The R Rating Has Returned!

Before "Titanic" hit the big time, action movies were crammed with lots of action.  The more intense the action, the better.  Movies like "Die Hard," "True Lies" and the "Terminator" movies relished the R rating, cramming in lots of brutal violence and copious amounts of profanity.  That changed when Hollywood realized that teenagers were the new lifeblood of the film industry (at least in movie theaters), and they started toning down the violence and especially the profanity to get the lucrative PG-13 rating.  For a while, that was all we had: action movies with neutered action.  Even horror movies were toned down.  That's fine for teenagers, but what about people such as myself, who have been waiting patiently for years to be able to see an R rated movie with no fear of being turned away by the ushers (admittedly this rarely happened, but I got turned away from seeing "Troy" on opening night, which was my birthday, a movie that I had been waiting with baited breath to see ever since I saw the trailers six months prior).

Now, the R-Rated action movie is making a comeback.  "Sin City" pushed the R rating to the max and earned a killing.  "Ninja Assassin" was also awash in blood and gore.  "Kick-Ass" was also a heavy R film. The upcoming movies "Gangster Squad," "Lawless" and "Dredd" all have R ratings, and handsome budgets too.

Why this sudden change?  I'm not so sure.  Maybe it's the fact that R rated raunchy comedies have been mega successful ("The Hangover" earned nearly a half a billion dollars against a $35 million budget), and Hollywood realized that adults haven't left the movie theaters entirely.  Maybe filmmakers got sick of being neutered by the studios.  I haven't a clue, and to be honest, I really don't care.  I'm just glad that I can see an action movie that has what I'm looking for: intense action and more than two uses of the work "fuck."

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