The Plague: Rated R movies are changed to PG13 for extra $$$$ and we are the ones who suffer.

By Kristian Harloff

When I saw Major League when I was a kid, my whole world was thrown upside down. I am a die hard Yankee fan and somehow I felt like the Russians at the end of Rocky IV, I was rooting for the wrong team. Major league had me rooting for the Indians, the underdog team with memorable characters and crazy antics happening in every scene the reason this film worked. Crazy shit happens in baseball and in the world of sports. The movie was a hit and it was Rated R because of the language and sexual situations.“Granted once we peel al of this off, she will have stars covering the good parts but you will at least get side boob and the word shitburger in this one.”

Years passed after Ricky Vaughn and Taylor won their first pennant and I always hoped the fictional tribe would come back. Be careful what you wish for, years later (1994 I believe) and Major League 2 was released in PG!

It was a clear attempt to just make a sequel and to take cash from not only the fans from the first movie but younger kids who like baseball. Instead of doing R films with the progression of the Indians into the playoffs and then maybe in the third film, they could win the world series? Nope, instead we get the sterotypical Asian guy (who would be played by Dr, Ken now if they remade this today) grabbing his balls taunting Cerrano. “And you wonder why they had to bring Scott Bakula in here to try to save this franchise”

What a crock of shit, it stripped everything from the original film to make it kid friendly. I am not against PG and PG13 movies, the point I am hoping to make is once you establish a tone for a film and you make fans of sad film, don’t switch it up on us. Major League 2 ceased to be a sports story with real people in funny moments and became a Saturday Night Live skecth and a bad SNL sketch, like SNL when Anthony Michael Hall was on it. “I mean Downey couldn’t even save this ship.”

This was just the start of it. We can talk all day about Die Hard with a Vengence, John McClane is a foul mouthed violent New Yorker who will stab you in the eye with an icicle and tell you to fuck yourself after doing so. So when Die Hard 4 came out, everyone cried foul. It waters down the product and I think it hurts the performances as well. If an actor is used to letting it fly in the other movies from the franchise and then he is censored to say what he feels the character would say, he becomes a different character.“Wait…wait..I know we agreed on the buddy cop angle and helicopter nonsense, I can’t even say Yippee Ki Yay Mother Fucker?!”

There are many films that have done this over the years and I feel that FOX studios is responsible for it most of the time. Again, I don’t think movies should be Rated R just to be Rated R, if you are being gratituitous just to be gratitituous it is just as bad as watering it down. I think that the studios are always thinking money first and yes I get it, it is a business and that’s what suits do.

However, if you commit to the story, let the characters act and speak how the writers envisioned them and if the violence calls to be graphic and it fits the tone, then let it fly and the audience will come. Doesn’t this theory prove true time and time again? I mean look at the first Matrix, Rated R, which was ballsy for Warner Bros, it was a great gamble and they trusted what they had. And even though 2 and 3 were Rocky 5 forgettable, at least they stayed with Rated R and didn’t try to screw us over even more by making it PG13. “If this was a Fox movie, this would have been reality.”

What franchises do you guys thinks suffered this fate? Am I right, wrong, what say you schmoes? For me, I say give us our movies like we want them BUT

if you are going to water down our product so you make a little extra cash, I say F#ck You Jabu.

-KH

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The Plague: Rated R movies are changed to PG13 for extra $$$$ and we are the ones who suffer., 5.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings