Crop of films too offensive for PG, PG-13 ratings

Say what you will about the comedy hit "The Hangover"… at least the movie is rated R.

To me, the film is much less offensive than other recent comedy releases "Imagine That," "Land of the Lost" and "Year One."

The former is the latest "comeback" attempt by slumping star Eddie Murphy. Despite its seemingly family-friendly PG rating, the comic fantasy is filled with offensive Native American stereotypes.

But that's mild in comparison to both "Land of the Lost" and "Year One." Those two test the limits on what content is acceptable in a PG-13 film.

That includes a continual stream of excrement, flatulence and vomit humor. There are also a lot sexual jokes in both, particularly in "Year One" — which originally got an R rating but was trimmed slightly to get its current PG-13.

Make no mistake, "The Hangover" earns its R rating. But at least there are measures in place to make sure younger audiences can't see it … and so the easily offended won't go see it.

Unfortunately, the other three movies are "fair game."

You can place a lot of the blame for that on the Motion Picture Association of America and its Classification and Rating Administration board.

But you should also blame the studios for the deceptive advertising for each film.

"Land of the Lost" appears to be aimed at families, including children. And presumably "Year One" was trimmed back so teen audiences could go see it.

Now that's offensive.

DON'T BE AFRAID! None of the shorts playing in the Fear No Film Festival have been rated.

Given that, you hope organizers have scheduled some family-friendly programming.

Fear No Film returns June 25 in conjunction with the 2009 Utah Arts Festival.

For four days, Fear No Film will screen more than 50 short films at Library Square, 200 E. 400 South.

More information about the arts festival and Fear No Film is available at www.uaf.org.

BEST IDEA OF THE WEEK: Joining the writers of the next James Bond movie is Peter Morgan, who scripted the witty "The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon."

Now all they need to do is get Morgan's actor friend Michael Sheen — who played Tony Blair and David Frost in those earlier movies — to play Bond bad guy Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and we'll be set.

WORST IDEA OF THE WEEK: A remake of "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) is rumored to be in the works, from screenwriter/director Neil Burger (2006's overrated "The Illusionist").

No. Just … no.

E-mail: jeff@desnews.com