Hannibal in Australia

I just thought I'd start a little separate thread about this because I didn't want to read the long one and spoil anything

I haven't seen the movie yet, as it hasn't come out here in Australia yet (not for a few more days anyway). But already theres a whole lot of controversy over the MA rating that was given to the movie...I just hate when they go out and do something like that, it seems like here in Oz we're all a bunch of fine mannered blokes who've lived under a glass bell all of our lives...just makes me !

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Can you explain the movie ratings in Australia? MA is what we in America have for TV, but movies would be R.

Do you have a similarity chart? Thanks

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"Chances are, if your parents didn't have any kids, then you won't either."

I think the rating system is pretty similar, though I could be mistaken.

We have a G for general audiences, then PG (Parental Guidance Recommended), then M (Reccomended for viewing by mature audiences), then MA (Mature Audiences only, 15+) and finally R (Restricted to Adult Viewers, 18+).

They want to restrict Hannibal to an R rating, but I really wouldn't be surprised if they went ahead and banned the film! They're really sensitive over here

MA is 15+? Wow, that seems pretty young (by our standards) Of course, I've been getting rated R (17+) movies at Blockbuster for since I was 13.

I think the first rated R movie I ever saw was Predator at like age 8.

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I think the first R-rated movie I saw was Conan The Barbarian when I was 10 or 11, but I'm not sure that was actually the first R-rated movie I saw. My Dad didn't pay much attention to the ratings, so he ended up taking me to a lot of R-rated movies over the years.

As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure he took me to an R-rated movie prior to that because I remember being surprised when we were going to see Buddy Buddy in 1981 and we got all the way to the theater and turned around and left because it was rated R. I wouldn't have been surprised at that had I not previously seen R-rated movies with my Dad (I think the change in standards for Buddy Buddy was because we had the neighbor girl with us and Dad didn't want to take responsibility for taking someone else's kid to an R-rated movie). To this day, I've still not seen Buddy Buddy.

And I know both of my kids (now aged 7 and 12) have seen R-rated movies. Their mother let them watch Speed when they were like 7 and 3 respectively (they saw it on tape, though, not in the theater. I don't know that they've been to an R-rated movie in the theater). And I've let the older one watch movies like Scream and the Blair Witch Project on tape.

I'm just happy because in 7 months, I can get into an R-Rated movie on my own - woohoo! Hopefully I'll have a car by then, so they'll be nothing to stop me from going to the movies.

When I was a teenager, I was only prevented (by the ticket people) from going to an R-rated movie on my own once. I couldn't get in for Hellraiser, but other than that, I never had any trouble buying tickets for R-rated movies on my own (when I was 14, I was asked it I had my parent's permission to see that particular R-rated movie when I was trying to buy my ticket. But the guy took my word for it when I said yes. I did have my parent's permission, but the ticket taker couldn't know whether I was telling the truth or not).

Yea I don't get hassled too much either, but mainly because I know alot of people that work at the theater I go to.

WOHOOOO, well I actually turned 18 last year so I don't have to worry about that any more !! But, believe it or not, before I turned 18 everyone would ask me for my ID, but since then I've bought cigarettes (for my mum of course), gone to night clubs and by some weird paradox (must be Murphy's Law!) no one has asked me for my ID yet!!! Unbelievable!!

I think it's confidence - you do things you don't realize when you're nervous. If you know you have an ID you can whip out to legitimize your purchase/entry, you don't really act uptight.

Damn, if only I'd known that back then, life would have been really different!

What has happened to me is wierd- I never got carded at the movies when I was under 17. Now that I'm over, I get carded all the time! Don't know why, but it happens!

Sort of similar with me, I can still go and buy a childs ticket, and all they will do is ask me how old I am...on the other hand I can just walk into an R movie and they won't ask at all...wierd

Aaacchhh, looks like I'm jinxed! Just today I turned on the radio to hear that the rating for Hannibal was reviewed and changed from MA(15+) to R(18+)!!

I think it is just *unprintable* that they went out and did something like that, they have effectively barred half of the country from viewing it! I don't think it was all that gory, so now my brother will have to wait until it's out on video (thereby spoiling MUCH of the fun) to be able to watch it, AND he was really looking forward to seeing it in the first place!!

I just resent the fact that they are trying to control almost every aspect of our lives, like something out of George Orwell's 1984! They already have legislation prohibiting a lot of pornography sites (not that I am complaining, just that I see it as an inhibition of our rights, regardless of what it is)!

For people that aren't afriad to wrestle crocodiles with their bare hands (as in Crocodile Dundee), I think it's pretty dodgy indeed...

Hey old buddy Zephyrys
Hope you enjoyed last night I did
I promised you I would be here so here I am
Personally I don't believe in censorship of any kind
After all if someone thinks that a movie is not for a wider audience don't release it publicly for christ's sake
cheers

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