One Word Movie

The BBFC does not lie

The best film reviews are those generated by the British Board of Film Classification. OK they probably have to watch porn all day, very carefully, in order to assess how smutty it is. But when they get to watch normal films they are usually bang on the money. For instance, their consumer advice for Rabbit Proof Fence was: contains mild emotional intensity. Fantastic. You really can't slag it off any more efficiently than that.

The consumer advice for The Aviator had me worried, too: "One use of strong language, a moderate scene of injury". And there was me thinking the kind of film Scorsese wanted to make would "contain 847 uses of the Prince of Swearwords, and Joe Pesci stoving someone's head in with a bowling ball".

It's also interesting to compare the assessment of the video version of American Psycho with its sequel, American Psycho II - All American Girl. In the BBFC Top Trumps, American Psycho is rated like this:

Language: Frequent, strong
Sex/Nudity: Occasional, strong
Violence: Frequent, strong
Other: Frequent strong horror
Shatner: None

... Whereas American Psycho II lags sadly behind, apart from one key index.

Language: Some, strong
Sex/Nudity: Some mild references
Violence: Some, strong.
Other: Moderate horror
Shatner: Frequent, strong

Note the masterful deployment of the Moderate horror rating for the sequel. Genius. Incidentally, American Psycho II - All American Girl is directed by Morgan "J" Freeman. Not the same one as stalks Clint through Million Dollar Baby, no, this one is a spiky-haired white twat. In 1993 our Freeman directed a film called "Goddard disait que.." so it looks like his career is heading in the right direction.

posted by Chairman Peyote @ 1:46 PM