PG-13 rating doesn't turn steamy film into family fare

By Andy Seiler
USA Today

"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," starring Lucy Liu, left, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, is full of sexual references, but it's rated only PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America. Darren Michaels

Hey, everybody's doing it. The movie is the latest example of Hollywood's increasingly passionate love affair with racy PG-13 movies.

Of the top 20 biggest box office hits of last year, all but one were rated PG or PG-13. "The Santa Clause 2" was the sole G-rated film to make the list, while "8 Mile," the R-rated Eminem movie, just missed at No. 21.

The major studios have found a secret to success: Avoid the G rating with a four-letter word or some sexual innuendo so that teens and pre-teens won't think you're putting out a "baby" movie. And avoid the R so theater managers won't catch heat for letting under-17s into R-rated films.

The PG rating appeals to teens who find a G rating too juvenile. PG-13 is even better, implying the movie goes about as far as it can without kids having to be taken by parents.

"PG-13 is the commercial sweet spot, and that's what they're aiming for," says Nell Minow, author of "The Movie Mom's Guide to Family Movies" (Avon Books).

Movie-industry honchos call this the triumph of the "family film." "Family product sells, and R-rated product does not," John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, concluded when the top 20 titles of 2002 were announced in March.

But critics of the ratings system say that when you spice up G-rated material or slightly tone down R-rated content, what you end up with isn't "family product" at all.

"Movies that ought to be R are being squeezed down into PG-13 in a cynical attempt to increase the potential audience," says film critic Roger Ebert.

"The G rating has been stigmatized as not being hip enough," adds Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Films.

Consider:

• "The Hulk," the classic Marvel comic-book series, always displayed the stamp of approval from the rigid Comics Code Authority. Yet Universal's movie version is rated PG-13 "for sci-fi action violence, some disturbing images and brief partial nudity."
• "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas," the animated film that opened Wednesday from the makers of "Prince of Egypt," might seem like a surefire G-rated escapade. Guess again: It is "rated PG for adventure action, some mild sensuality and brief language." Even Paramount's "Rugrats Go Wild," based on Nickelodeon TV series "Rugrats" and "The Wild Thornberrys," went wild enough to rate a PG for "mild crude humor."
• "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl," coming Wednesday, will be the first PG-13 under the Walt Disney Pictures family banner. The "action/adventure violence" (as the ratings board describes it) includes the sight of pirates slitting throats and melting down to skeletons.

R-rated movies have hardly died. This summer, "The Matrix Reloaded" became the highest-grossing R movie ever, with $268.9 million and counting. "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" opened Tuesday, and "Bad Boys II" opens July 18. R is the most common rating, but only because so many are low-budget foreign-language films that aren't widely released, or steamy made-for-video movies.

Many observers say that what's getting into the PG-13 category is just as strong as the R-rated films of the past.

"It's a parental nightmare," says Minow, who reviews movies at http://movies.yahoo.com/moviemom. "My Web site would have failed years ago if people thought they were getting the information they needed from the MPAA. 'Dr. Dolittle' is based on a children's book, and they talk about doing it 'doggy-style.' "

Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA, argues that his system is supremely effective.

"If you make a movie that a lot of people want to see, no rating will hurt you," he says. "And if you make a movie that nobody wants to see, no rating will help you."

If, on the other end of the spectrum, filmmakers are toning down racy adult R-rated movies in order to squeak by with a PG-13, that's a good thing, argues Fithian: "I call it a healthy attempt to increase the potential audience, because the elements that are being cut from those pictures are, more often than not, unnecessary to the integrity of the picture."

Meanwhile, independent companies are still getting stuck with the dreaded R, Ebert says. "Serious and thoughtful movies about teenagers are rated R, cutting them off from those they could actually serve," Ebert says. "... I'm concerned with movies like 'Raising Victor Vargas,' 'Sweet Sixteen' and 'Better Luck Tomorrow' that get an R, which cuts them off from teenagers."

In "Vargas," rated R "for strong language," a self-styled teenage Manhattan Don Juan finds that he has a lot to learn about love. "Sweet Sixteen," rated R "for pervasive strong language, drug content and some violence," is about a 15-year-old boy in a depressed Scottish town who turns to crime to help his ex-con mother. And in "Better Luck Tomorrow," rated R "for violence, drug use, language and sexuality," an intelligent Asian-American high school boy leads a double life of mischief and petty crimes.

" 'Raising Victor Vargas' got rated R because they used the f-word three times," says Samuel Goldwyn Jr., whose independent company made the film. "According to the MPAA's rules, you can use the f-word two times or once and get a PG-13, but three times, and it's an R. Explain that to me."

Yet Goldwyn, whose legendary producer father battled the now-defunct (and much stricter) censorship board of the 1930s and '40s, says he knows why the MPAA acts this way. "They're trying to keep every two-bit local censor from cutting the pictures," he says.