MPAA News

Grimsby is a 2016 UK action comedy by Louis Leterrier.
Starring Penélope Cruz, Rebel Wilson and Isla Fisher.

The BBFC asked for category cuts to achieve a 15 rating. The BBFC was a little secretive and just noted that the cuts were to a couple of scenes of crude humour.

It seems that according to a video interview with Sacha Baron Cohen that the film also suffered category cuts in the US to achieve an R rating. It seems that censors from the MPAA were convinced that an 'elephant scene' fell into the category of bestiality. (But surely bestiality would need to be cut at any level and wouldn't be suitable at NC-17 either).

Cohen says that he challenged the MPAA's definition of bestiality and also cut 6 minutes from a 9 minute scene. He suggested that the cuts were a ploy to obtain the scene he wanted and that the cut material had been added just to be offered as cuts in negotiations.

It will be interesting to see if both the US and UK cuts end up being the same version.

US film censors, the Motion Picture Association of America, the major studios, and the National Association of Theatre Owners are the targets of a proposed class action lawsuit that if accepted by judge and not barred by the First Amendment, calls for all movies to be rated at least R if they feature tobacco imagery.

The lawsuit claims that since at least 2003, Hollywood has known that tobacco imagery in films rated G, PG, and PG-13, is one of the major causes of children becoming addicted to nicotine. Disney, Paramount, Sony, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. are said to have been given recommendations from health experts at leading universities throughout the country as well as the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the American Public Health Association, and yet are allegedly continuing to stamp their seal of approval on films meant for children that feature tobacco imagery.

Among the films cited are Spectre , Dumb and Dumber To , Transformers: Age of Extinction , X-Men: Days of Future Past , The Amazing Spider Man 2 , The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug , Iron Man 3, Men in Black 3 and The Woman in Black .

The lawsuit demands a declaratory judgment that the industry's film ratings practices amount are negligent, false and misleading and a breach of fiduciary and statutory duties. The lawsuit also aims for an injunction where no films featuring tobacco imagery can be given G, PG or PG-13 ratings.

Michael Moore's latest film, Where To Invade Next , is a documentary journey across the globe to borrow traits from different countries for America to use.

Cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse, with cinemas in 13 states, has decided to relax its R-rating policy for the film. CEO Tim League said in a statement that the company can't believe the film was ever rated R in the first place:

For the first time ever, we are relaxing our 18-and-up age policy for one film. Why? We simply don't believe Where to Invade Next should have received an R rating from the MPAA. We don't want that rating and our own age policies to get in the way of teens and their parents seeing this film. So, for the run of the Where to Invade Next we will allow teens age 15 and up on their own...yes, it's that important.

Tim League, who is also one of the distributors for Where To Invade Next, insisted that this decision wasn't about selling tickets. Instead, it's about making sure that young American voters get to see the film's message.

Michael Moore had previously gone above and beyond in his attempt to get Where To Invade Next's R-rating rescinded. He wanted it to receive a PG-13 so that it had a better chance to succeed at the box office. However, last year, he lost his appeal after he refused to make any cuts to the film, which the MPAA decreed were necessary.

The MPAA decided to provide Where To Invade Next with an R-rating because of its use of language, some violent images, drug use and brief graphic nudity. But Tim League decided to elaborate on these offences, revealing that Where To Invade Next includes some use of swear words, students enjoying free college education, children eating healthy food in school, Italians on holiday, bloody violence in American prisons, and a naked German man leaving a hot tub.