MPAA

What do these movies have in common?

Spider-Man
X-Men
Pirates of the Caribbean
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
School of Rock
Meet the Parents
Bend It Like Beckham
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Triplets of Belleville
Best in Show
and
The Ring Two

Nothing jumping out at you? Well, I've seen them all, for one thing, but that's no big deal. With the exception of Meet the Parents and The Ring Two, they're also all movies that my 10 year old and 6 year old have seen. The main reason they're all listed here, though, is that they're all rated PG-13.

Now, I know that PG-13 means "some material may be inappropriate for children under 13," but I don't think there is a rational basis for some of this. For example, we recently saw Goblet of Fire and unfortunately I had forgotten exactly what that year at Hogwarts was about until we were already in the theater. Had I been more prepared, I would have warned my 6 year old that Cedric was going to die. As it was, he got a little teary eyed and for a few days said he didn't want to see that one again. He's over it now and wants to buy the movie, but still - definitely a darker toned movie than the previous ones and I should have paid more attention.

Then there's Spider-Man, which is PG-13 for "stylized violence and action." Um, OK. Spider-Man is pretty darned clean - I'd let the 6 year old watch that before I'd let him watch CSI, Numb3rs, Law & Order, or any of the other cruelty and death series on prime time television.

But - The Ring Two?? Who the hell came up with the bribe money for this one? It never would have occurred to me to allow either child to watch this movie, and to be honest, I didn't want to watch this movie. I don't like being startled and in general don't like horror movies. Every so often I have to watch one, though, because my husband likes them but he won't get them if I won't watch them with him - it's not rudeness on his part, it's that he won't want to get something if we can't cuddle while watching so I deal with it so he can watch something he really wants to see. One of those little things you do in a relationship.

Anyway, we watched The Saw several months ago (hated it), Devil's Rejects a few weeks ago - more of a straight up psycho slasher flick than horror and oddly interesting - and then last week The Ring Two. It's rated PG-13 for "violence/terror, disturbing images, thematic elements, and some language." There is no way - no freaking way - that this movie could possibly be in the same rating world as any of the other movies above. Sure, it doesn't show anyone being explicity carved into pieces in a torture chamber like Hostel (rated R for "brutal scenes of torture and violence, strong sexual content, language and drug use"), but this is the stuff that months of nightmares and family bed arrangements are made of and it really pisses me off that it's only rated PG-13.

That's all I have to say about that.