The Motion Picture Association of America used to just tell you what the film's letter rating was, but it seems that sometime after the PG-13 rating was introduced they starting providing content description such as:
"Sexual content including several suggestive dance routines, partial nudity, language, and some thematic material" - That's from BURLESQUE which was PG-13 by the way.
I was particularly amused by this denotation for last summer's Adam Sandler and Co. comedy GROWN UPS: "Some male rear nudity".
Of course they've got to warn parents about violence, but it's funny when they to explain the violence by genre:
"Bullying, martial arts action violence" - THE KARATE KID (2010)
"Intergalactic violence" - ALIENS VS. PREDATOR: REQUIEM (2007)
I've also seen "Sci fi violence. The only thing that I can guess that that means is when there's alien blood.
Andrea James on the site Boing Boing in a great post entitled "Fun With MPAA Ratings" that the "capsule rational" for 3 NINJAS KNUCKLE UP is simply "For non-stop ninja action."
James mentions one of the all time classics of the form: "Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather" from TWISTER (1996), and also links to a great list by Zack Tropf on Gunaxin Media of "The Twenty Best MPAA Ratings". Very funny stuff.
One that I knew would be on Tropf's list: "Rated R for graphic crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets." - TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE (2004).
When watching the trailers on the DVD of the excellent documentary WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY I saw the denotation "For historical smoking" on the preview for another Disney doc WALT & EL GRUPO funnily enough.
Another favorite: "Comic nudity" - JOHNNY ENGLISH (2003).
Anybody else seen any good ones they'd like to share? That's what the comments section below is for.
More later...
