Airplane! The Movie

No, this isn't about the disaster-movie spoof. But it is about video releases. Anyone walking the aisles of their local video store will invariably notice that many titles these days are now sold as the regular, "theatrical" release as well as in an expanded, "uncensored and unrated" version with footage that is "too hot to see in theaters". Now I'm not particularly familiar with those movies, nor their content, but I think it brings up an interesting point to the Hollywood film makers. I don't go to see these movies or rent them on video just because they have parts in them (profanity or nudity) that I find offensive. Which is too bad, because many of these films only have profanity or nudity only to garner the PG-13 or R rating. If you want to see them, that's fine, you've got the right. But I don't because I don't want any of that stuff in my head.

Here in Utah, we have a number of video stores offering the rental of PG-13 and R rated movies that have offensive parts edited out. These new ‘clean-flicks’ have garnered a bit of popularity here among those who want family-friendly entertainment. These edits have also gotten the attention of the motion picture studios, who have threatened to litigate against these video stores for editing their movies, claiming copyright infringement. Now while I respect these stores attempt to offer more family-friendly movies, but I don't think that this justifies breaking the law. Two wrongs still don't make a right.

This seems like an ideal place for a compromise. The movie studios ought to investigate releasing alternate edits of their movies with a bit more mild content. Now I'm not referring to movies that I would imagine would cease to exist as edited versions, like American Pie or the 40 Year Old Virgin; but those movies that have brief profanity or brief nudity, which feature them only to get the ratings that the studios believe will attract viewers.

Should the studios make edited, cleaner versions of their films that are suitable for families? Oh, wait. They already do. They edit their movies for showing in long airplane trips. These versions are just what the 'clean-flicks' video stores make, but they are fully sanctioned by the film industry. The industry should make these 'airplane edits' available to the public. If the blockbuster movie store down the street can sell legal studio-produced 'Un-Rated' versions of these films, why do they always have to be the versions that are more extreme? Give us the option of these other edits as well.

A Quick Update: I just saw a commercial for a movie called 'G'. It was rated R. Is this irony?

And I forgot my bad pun of the post: On my last trip to London, I couldn't wait to see the Big Ben clock tower. Why? Because it is the 'tock' of the town.

In the blogginning...

this blog was created by Mark. And Mark saw that the blog had the potential to be good.

As such, I thought I'd lay down some ground rules:

1. I will keep the content here full of words that I find to be easy to spell.
2. I will write topics that are interesting to me. If they are of interest to you, that's a bonus.
3. As a devout and pious disciple of Jesus, I'm not going to write about anything that would be contrary to his teachings.
3a. I'm not going to get preachy or evangelical. I preach through actions and prefer to do any sermonizing face to face.
4. Politics bore me. I'll rarely get political. I'm generally conservative, but I don't hold any party lines.
5. I will limit any ranting and ravings to a minumum. No one wants to here me go on and on about someone who might have cut me off that day.
6. Dumb humor and bad puns will be an occasional part of the blog.
7. Rules can be added to at any time.

That's it. I've only got the rules up for me to follow and to give any reader something to expect.
As soon as I have some deep (or otherwise) thoughts, I'll be posting more.

Thought of the post: "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." -Yogi Berra

Bad Pun of the post: "Some people say that birth is difficult on a baby, but I think they have a soft spot for it".