Do You Want To Know The Rating Of A Movie?

With so many movies hitting the theater it can be a bit of a challenge deciding which ones are appropriate for your family and which are more adult orientated. Don’t you want to know the rating of a movie so you can make a sound decision?

Since 1968 there has been a rating system in place for all movies that are released. There are many online sites that provide movie ratings for you making it quick and painless to determine whether a movie is appropriate or not.

But first you need to understand what the movie system ratings are and what they mean. You’ll quickly find there is a great deal of room for interpretation. G is for general audiences meaning it is suitable for all ages and that there is nothing in the movie that most parents would find offensive.

PG is parental guidance suggested meaning there may be some material that is not suitable for children. PG-13 strong recommends Parental caution meaning there may be material that is inappropriate for children under the age of 13. You as the parent who knows your children best will have to determine if your child is mature enough for the content or not. PG-13 can have many scenes of violence and course language and you will need to consider this when choosing whether the movie is appropriate for your kids.

R is restricted and means that anyone under 17 must be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian. NC-17 means no one under the age of 17 can be admitted. With R rated movies it is important that you as a parent explore the movie in-depth to understand what element has caused the rating be it sex, violence, drugs, or language, and then determine if your kids are mature enough to see the movie.

The rating system is voluntary and it is sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Association of Theatre Owners. Its objective is to provide parents with information in advance of seeing a movie to give them the ability to make a sound decision as to whether the movie is appropriate or not.

The rating does not reflect whether a movie is good or bad. It is not a critic and it is not intended to approve or disapprove of any movie. The ratings are supplied only to provide additional information for you the parent.

The ratings are determined by a special panel that consists of men and women that are parents. They view each film as a group then have open discussions to determine what the appropriate rating should be. There is criteria used to determine suitability. Language, nudity, sex, drugs, violence are among the criteria considered. The panel also considers how often these elements appear in the movie. With each rating is a list of reasons why the film received that rating. For example you might see PG-13 may contain course language.

Having a movie rated is entirely voluntary so there is no law that says a film maker must submit their movie to the panel. If a film producer receives a rating that they are unhappy with they do have the opportunity to re-edit the movie and then have it rated again. Sometimes it’s just a matter of changing a couple of scenes to take a movie from P-17 to PG-13 and for many producers this is important especially relating to the potential revenue a movie can generate.

As a parent the best thing to do is access as many reviews as possible so that you have a good understanding of the movie and what critics have to say about it. You’ll learn a great deal of valuable information this way.

There are several sites online that provide moving ratings and reviews. Kids-In-Mind is an excellent resource and designed with the kids in mind so the movie ratings are based on what’s appropriate for children. Rather than rating by age they use sex and nudity, violence and gore, and profanity as their basis for rating. Very useful!

Screen It also offers reviews for parents providing free information that helps you make the right entertainment choices for you and your family.

The Internet Movie Database is a complete review site reviewing movies and television. They provide short bits of information relating to the movie as well as their rating. They also have message boards available and you can buy movies on their site.

There are plenty of other good resources online so you can do your research with little effort. Don’t you want to know the rating of a movie so you can decide if it’s right for your or your family?

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.