Liz Perle on Marketing PG-13 Movies to Younger Kids

Posted on September 21, 2008 at 10:00 am

Liz Perle of Common Sense Media has a column on Huffington Post takes on the hypocrisy of the MPAA ratings board. Chair Joan Graves says that PG-13 films may carry parental advisory reminders that they have material inappropriate for kids under age 13 but that doesn’t mean that PG-13 movies shouldn’t be marketed to younger kids. Perle points out that this would include “Vicky Christina Barcelona” (threesome) and “The House Bunny” (a lot of sexual humor) as well as the third mummy film and “The Dark Knight.”
And in the Mummy movie, faces melt, a man is about to be quartered, there are several shots of near decapitations, limbs are dismembered, bodies are stabbed and shot, huge Yetis appear as scary CGI panther-like creatures and there are hordes of skeletal warriors (a la Pirates of the Caribbean). And “The Dark Knight?” Even my teen son turned to me and said, “This is NOT for kids!”
We believe that parents are ultimately responsible for making sure they pick movies that are right for their kids – hey, that’s why Common Sense Media exists. And we absolutely love movies. We just think there are right movies for right ages. And marketing mature movies to kids is irresponsible, plain and simple.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Rolling Stone on the State of Comedy

Posted on September 16, 2008 at 8:00 am

The cover of the comedy issue of Rolling Stone has David Letterman, Tina Fey, and Chris Rock and the stories inside include raucous recollections of “notes,” the edits and suggestions from studio and network executives. My favorite is Mel Brooks’ description of carefully writing down all the things that had to be taken out of “Blazing Saddles” and then, after the meeting was over, crumpling it up and throwing it away. Top comedians and comedy writers share their favorite funny movies, their biggest breakthroughs, and their biggest flops. Letterman’s interview has some thoughtful and touching comments on Warren Zevon’s last appearance on the show and his relationships with everyone from Madonna to Johnny Carson and the girls from “The Hills.” rolling stonejpg
Be sure to check out the online extras, including video clips from five comics to watch and nine comedy all-stars have a blast at the photo shoot.

Look Who’s Playing Video Games

Posted on September 15, 2008 at 3:00 pm

NintendoWii.preview.jpg The Washington Post has a great photo of my friend Ally Burguieres playing video games with her mother and sister. The article says:
Women and girls make up 40 percent of the gamer population, according to the Entertainment Software Association, the video game industry’s trade group. And with game software sales at $9.5 billion last year, companies are paying closer attention to the titles women seek out…
For years, the video game industry spent its marketing dollars on trying to get guys excited about the latest sports or shoot-’em-up title. It was generally assumed that women and girls weren’t interested.
But that started to change in 2004, says industry analyst Michael Pachter, when Nintendo launched its DS portable game system, named for its dual screens. Its features stretched the notion of what a video game is — and who might want to play.
Women gamers even have their own website. And this is a delightful Amazon list of games for “women with lives.” It wasn’t that long ago that it was assumed that women would not be interested in games. Sheri Graner Ray, who says she got into the game industry in the first place “Because it was the only industry where I could list 15 years of running “Dungeons and Dragons” games on my resume as valid job experience!” She wrote a book about “gender inclusive game design.” Microsoft’s xBox brochure tells its buyers “Here are some things you might want to tell your wife this thing does.” Maybe with the next upgrade they will remember that women like Ally Burguieres, currently studying for her PhD in linguistics, don’t need anyone to explain it to them. Women are not just playing, they are entering tournaments.
Late last year, Nancy Davies, an 84-year-old woman living in a retirement community, defeated a real-life bowling champion in a Wii Sports tournament. She had been playing for only one year.

What Makes a Cult Movie?

Posted on September 13, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Desson Thomson has a great interview with Scott Simon on NPR about cult movies — what (and who) defines them and what is appealing about them. What do the Coen brothers have in common with “The Wizard of Oz” and “Blade Runner?” Listen to Thomson and find out.

Entertainment Weekly has a list of the all-time top cult classics, though I’d argue that some of them, like “Blade Runner,” “Spinal Tap,” and “Willie Wonka” are now so firmly and widely established they are canonical. The A.V. Club has an edgier list and I like the way they helpfully point out the movies influenced by their choices and give their honest view of how well the films on the list hold up.

I don’t think a movie has to be a horror film or low-budget to be a cult classic. It just has to have a small but passionate audience. The best cult films gradually find a broader fan base — or maybe it just takes a while to find its audience — or for the audience to catch up to it. My favorite cult classics include Office Space and The Big Lebowski, a movie which is now so beloved it has annual gatherings of its fans.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

More on Language from the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Posted on September 8, 2008 at 2:25 pm

“Language packs a punch in culture,” says a column by Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter John Przybys about the debate over Tropic Thunder.
Przybys and I had a long talk about this subject and he quoted me in the column:

Nell Minow, who writes “Movie Mom,” a column on Beliefnet.com in which she evaluates movies from a parent’s perspective, argues that protesters’ ire is misdirected.
“Tropic Thunder” doesn’t lampoon the disabled, Minow said during a recent phone interview, but, rather, the self-absorption of Hollywood and actors who offer one-dimensional portrayals of the disabled and then congratulate themselves for it.
“As a person with disabled family members and whose first job was working with what we then called the ‘retarded,’ I’ve been appalled at movies that get all kinds of critical praise, like ‘I Am Sam’ and ‘Forrest Gump,’ because I think they’re terrible portrayals of disabled characters,” Minow said.
“Too often in movies, the disabled aspect is the character’s defining trait,” Minow continued, and disabled characters exist only to “inspire people and/or give (other characters) an important lesson about compassion. That’s about it, and this is wrong. Disabled people are interesting human beings who’ve got really interesting stories to tell.”
In “Tropic Thunder,” the word “retard” is used to “show something about the person who said it,” Minow said, and the film makes “a very trenchant and powerful argument in favor of the disabled being treated well by showing that the person who didn’t understand was a nincompoop.”
Similarly, even as Downey plays a white actor who darkens his skin to play a black character, the film is “very intelligent in giving the actual black character the power and moral weight in the movie,” Minow said.