The Film Pigs are back with another podcast jam-packed with wit, humor, and style. Of course, all of those qualities are encrypted using the finest digital stenography so you will have to listen to us talk about movies instead. This episode, we reflect on the demise of the Live-Action Family Film, talk about movie details that annoy us in a brand new segment, put a professional on trial for crimes against cinema, have an exciting one-line audition competition, and more!
This time, on a very special episode of The Film Pigs Podcast:
- 0:00:00 – Intro
- 0:00:40 – Movie News
- 0:04:58 – Gettin’ Shit Off Our Chest
- 0:12:34 – Host Todd Anderson presents this episode’s theme: Live-Action Family Films
- 0:38:28 – Stephen Skelton presents a case to send someone to Movie Jail
- 0:46:26 – The Nic Cage Memorial Bizarre Line Reading
- 0:49:49 – One Line Auditions!
- 1:14:44 – The Bottom Five Worst Live-Action Family Films
- 1:15:42 – A Moment Of Positivity
- 1:16:55 – Outro
The following is just a collection of thoughts I’ve had over the years about the MPAA. I thought I’d share, since you guys were talking about the movie rating system.
The rating system itself is useless. Nobody uses it the way it’s intended. It attempts to inform audiences of the content of a movie by presenting a simple-to-understand four-level grading system. I would rather have no rating system than a system which thinks that movies can be generalized in such a way, as if each letter grade on their rating system can be stretched across and applied to a wide variety of movies. It utterly fails at what it tries to do.
Look at the movie rating on any poster and you will see an elongated box next to the movie rating which states the content of the movie on which the rating is based. This content box is actually far more informative than the movie rating itself, and yet nobody pays any attention to it. The problem should be obvious. The letter rating itself is a distraction from what they should be reading.
And what happens is that because people don’t pay attention to the content warnings, they think that the problem is that the rating system needs to be more informative, even though there is an extended content listing right in front of them.
The problem with both the MPAA and the ESRB is that it’s a reaction and an attempt to cater to people who don’t want to be bothered take responsibility for what media content they spend money on. This is precisely the sort of person that nobody should be catering to. The only thing these rating systems accomplish is to foster even more lazy entitlement.
The biggest problem is that we have this culture clash in America right now in which one side says that violence is more inappropriate for children than sex and another side which believes the opposite. As you go farther up the scale from G-rated to adult content, the ratings become completely nonsensical. There is no hard line between PG and R or from R to NC-17. We’ve all seen movies that could fit into two different rating categories, and whatever standards seem to exist for these (if they ever did) seem to change over time.
There are reviewers all over the place. That’s where you’re going to find the best information about what you’re going to watch. Pick up a paper. Log onto the internet. We don’t need a stupid rating system.
Despite how the MPAA and ESRB operate, I think the intention of the ratings systems are to give consumers an idea of what kind of content they can expect. Unfortunately, with the MPAA especially, the ratings system has become a business tool of the studios instead of the impartial rating system it should be.
I’m not opposed to a content rating system for media – I don’t think it’s realistic to expect consumers, especially parents of young children, to spend the time required to fully vet every piece of content they and their families are potentially exposed to (especially with video games, which can have dozens of hours of content). This doesn’t make them lazy. They simply may not have the time due to obligations of work and family. This is where a rating system can be helpful. The other option is to completely ban certain types of content in the home. A rating system gives choice.
The problem is that the rating systems don’t serve this purpose anymore, they serve the whims of the businesses that attach a certain dollar value to a certain rating, and lobby for those ratings whether or not the content in question should get said rating. This is the first issue that must be solved if ratings are to mean anything useful.
The second is to make ratings more clear, which is something we think the PG-13 and NC-17 ratings have muddied. G, PG, R, and X should be enough. And if you think the letter ratings have overshadowed the actual content descriptors (which is a good point), maybe the descriptors need more prominent visibility and the ratings a color code (green, blue, red, black).
I thought Lemony Snicket’s was pretty good!
Just wanted to say, the whole casting session bit was unbridled genius.
Agreed. That was hilarious.
I have to say, some of my favourite parts of the movie commentaries were when Tonn would tell a story about a bad audition or embarrassing commercial shoot.
Your one line auditions were hilarious. I now look forward to a future podcast discussion about the NC-17 rating, which is, like Pluto, a dwarf rating.
Hate to appoint myself as Nit Pick Cop, but Big Trouble was actually an adaption of a Dave Barry novel. But to be fair, it does read like a poor man’s Elmore Leonard book.
If we’re indeed nitpicking, “nitpick” is one word.
BURN!
Doh! I was thinking of GET SHORTY. Stupid movie titles with matching syllables!
I hate it the hanging-up-without-saying-goodbye thing, but even worse is when people don’t close doors behind them. At the end of Lethal Weapon, Riggs’ new dog hops out of the open door of his truck, and they all go inside for dinner, leaving the truck door standing open. It’s bizarre.
And I’m with God—I think A Series of Unfortunate Events is great. I just watched it again with my 8-y-o niece and nephew, and they loved it. I even find Jim Carrey funny in it, which is rare.
However, overall, I agree with the verdict.
My pet peeves in films are when:
a) Somebody orders food or a drink in a restaurant/bar and only takes one bite or sip of it.
b) They order food or a drink and don’t pay for it!
Happens all the time.
When’s the next podcast?
Should be up today or tomorrow. We had a technical failure which caused rage fits and delayed us a week.