BBFC decisions you agree/disagree with...

[caib2003]

Originally Posted by liam1221

Watching Episode 3 today, it was good as ever, But the 12A is pushing it, I think. Anakin is literally a burnt corpse by the end, Yeah he's alive but its really gruesome. Would've thought they'd bump it up to 15.

I honestly don't see a problem with it at 12, It's not bloody or gory it's just distressing, and only slightly graphic. PG is pushing it tho

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by caib2003

I honestly don't see a problem with it at 12, It's not bloody or gory it's just distressing, and only slightly graphic. PG is pushing it tho

If I'm gonna be honest, even as a young kid I wasn't too shocked by it despite having not been too used to graphic content. I feel like it is the exact sort of content I would expect from the 12 rating (although the PG rating by the IFCO was a massive mistake that I think might've been fuelled by the perception of Star Wars at the time)

[j bird]

Apparently an episode of Andor Season 2 contains a scene of

[Show spoiler] implied sexual assault/sexual threat

I haven't watched the series but I doubt the moment is too strong, seems like difficult subject matter for a long running 'known quantity' child orientated series such as Star Wars. Could this potentially be the first 15 rated piece of Star Wars media?

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by j bird

Apparently an episode of Andor Season 2 contains a scene of

[Show spoiler] implied sexual assault/sexual threat

I haven't watched the series but I doubt the moment is too strong, seems like difficult subject matter for a long running 'known quantity' child orientated series such as Star Wars. Could this potentially be the first 15 rated piece of Star Wars media?

Granted, I haven't seen show, but from what I've read it definitely sounds like it is outside the boundaries of the 12 rating,

[Show spoiler]with the attempted sexual assault victim outright says "he tried to r*pe me"

. From what I've heard as well, Andor as a whole is darker than the previous movies and shows, so I wouldn't find a 15 rated episode too out of place.

[Azizi23]

Originally Posted by ghoul-star

Granted, I haven't seen show, but from what I've read it definitely sounds like it is outside the boundaries of the 12 rating,

[Show spoiler]with the attempted sexual assault victim outright says "he tried to r*pe me"

. From what I've heard as well, Andor as a whole is darker than the previous movies and shows, so I wouldn't find a 15 rated episode too out of place.

I'd love to see a 15-rated Star Wars film, just to see what's it like (but I know its unrealistic).

Off topic but, I have yet to watch Sinners, but from what I've heard it does sound like a strong 15.

[doomgen]

Originally Posted by Azizi23

I'd love to see a 15-rated Star Wars film, just to see what's it like (but I know its unrealistic).

Off topic but, I have yet to watch Sinners, but from what I've heard it does sound like a strong 15.

I thought Sinners was largely comfortable at the higher end of 15. the violence in the third act does get pretty gory, with lots of arterial blood spurts, but I’d consider it less visceral than something like 30 Days of Night or Freaky. the only part I take issue with due to inconsistency in their usually draconian suicide guidelines is the

[Show spoiler]vertical wrist cut with gushing blood

not being mentioned anywhere in the short or long insight, when Undone gets an 18 for a black vertical line on a cartoon character’s arm from a healed cut.

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by doomgen

I thought Sinners was largely comfortable at the higher end of 15. the violence in the third act does get pretty gory, with lots of arterial blood spurts, but I’d consider it less visceral than something like 30 Days of Night or Freaky. the only part I take issue with due to inconsistency in their usually draconian suicide guidelines is the

[Show spoiler]vertical wrist cut with gushing blood

not being mentioned anywhere in the short or long insight, when Undone gets an 18 for a black vertical line on a cartoon character’s arm from a healed cut.

I'm wondering if the lack of any mention of the

[Show spoiler]wrist cutting

in the insight for Sinners is due to the same mistake they made with neglecting to mention the one in Terrifier 3. Where they ended up overlooking it due to the high levels of blood and violence in the film that distracted from it (of course Terrifier 3 is in a different league of violence from Sinners, but still)

[doomgen]

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/learn...pwwc0xmdi5njgx

a completely innocuous educational series about learning French got a 12 for a middle finger gesture on a BILLBOARD, as if there wasn’t already enough evidence that the BBFC are currently in the most shamefully embarrassing state since the Ferman era.

[CyanBeam]

Originally Posted by doomgen

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/learn...pwwc0xmdi5njgx

a completely innocuous educational series about learning French got a 12 for a middle finger gesture on a BILLBOARD, as if there wasn’t already enough evidence that the BBFC are currently in the most shamefully embarrassing state since the Ferman era.

I believe the Red Dwarf episode Mechocracy gets a 12 rating for an image of a character holding up their middle finger, even though the image is taken from the earlier episode Nanarchy, which got PG!

Incidentally, another Red Dwarf episode, Marooned, originally got a 15 before 12 was introduced, for a discussion of a character losing their virginity at 12 years old, the remastered version, with the same dialogue, then got a 12 certificate. In order to get the episode rerated as a 12 for DVD, a few seconds model shot was seemingly added as an easter egg to the end of the episode so it could be re-rated 12 as an extended version. On Blu-Ray, the easter egg was moved to another disc, meaning the entire set got a 15 rating for the original version of Marooned, while it seemingly would have been a 12 if the easter egg had remained after the episode!

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by doomgen

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/learn...pwwc0xmdi5njgx

a completely innocuous educational series about learning French got a 12 for a middle finger gesture on a BILLBOARD, as if there wasn’t already enough evidence that the BBFC are currently in the most shamefully embarrassing state since the Ferman era.

We went from The Simpsons Movie passing at PG with a middle fingers gesture, brief uncensored genital nudity, a robot committing suicide via gunshot, and a character holding a bong, to this. I still don't really understand how the BBFC considers a middle finger to be 12-level now, yet the word 'sh*t' to still be PG-level "mild language", which I have always disagreed with (I don't mind it being used in PG works, but growing up I always remembered it being considered a stronger swear in society itself, at least moderate level)

[_Seth]

Originally Posted by Bes30

Agreed on these Connery points. FRWL is borderline but should be okay as a stronger 'PG'. Connery is a bit rapey in Goldfinger and Thunderball as well; I've no idea how that neck break made it into the latter without making it a '15' until at least the 80s. Baffling.

I think almost all of the Moore Bonds have something in them which is a bit much for the 'PG' today:

Live and Let Die has the flick knife murder (with focus on the knife) in the opening scene (always been cut on tv as far as I can remember) and the slashing of Bond's arm to attract the shark (originally cut for the 'A').

The Man with the Golden Gun is gratingly sexist throughout (Goodnight's treatment) and has the dodgy scene with Bond threatening to break Maud Adams' arm and slapping her about, plus Scaramanga touching her up with his gun barrel and a slightly rough fight scene; not to mention Chew Me's scene! Strong '12' these days imo.

The Spy Who Loved Me has moderate violence throughout, occasionally a bit sadistic; Moore letting a man fall to his death from the roof for a laugh and Stromberg's lengthy shooting spring to mind. There are also pictures with full frontal female nudity in the background on the submarine!

Moonraker is okay at 'PG'. The dog hunting Corinne Clery is a bit upsetting but discreet.

For Your Eyes Only has a few bits of moderate violence which felt more like a '12' to me. A woman is run over by a car and there are a couple of gritty fights.

Octopussy has a few bloody bits and female rear nudity but may scrape a 'PG' if it's lucky? A borderline one but I suspect it would get a '12' now.

A View to a Kill has moderate and sadistic violence including Walken laughing whilst machine gunning his henchmen (for a surprisingly long time). Solid '12' material for me.

The Moore films virtually all feature surprisingly clear female nudity in the opening credits too.

Was just looking for opinions on this because I've been doing a James Bond marathon. I'm particularly surprised by The Man With the Golden Gun. These films were re-rated in 2012 and Diamonds Are Forever was understandably upgraded to a 12 because of the bikini strangulation scene and Bond calling whatever her name was a *****, yet how on Earth was The Man With the Golden Gun not upgraded? Surely 2012 standards were similar to today and it's on a level with Diamonds Are Forever

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by _Seth

Was just looking for opinions on this because I've been doing a James Bond marathon. I'm particularly surprised by The Man With the Golden Gun. These films were re-rated in 2012 and Diamonds Are Forever was understandably upgraded to a 12 because of the bikini strangulation scene and Bond calling whatever her name was a *****, yet how on Earth was The Man With the Golden Gun not upgraded? Surely 2012 standards were similar to today and it's on a level with Diamonds Are Forever

My guess is that it just came down to Diamonds Are Forever and The Man With the Golden Gun having different examiners with different perspectives, and possibly a bias in the case of the latter upholding its PG. This was the same year the original Indiana Jones trilogy was resubmitted, with Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade upholding their PG ratings, so I guess this was still towards the end of when some level of leniency was granted to classic older works.

[Jackie Scanlon]

Harold Lloyd's Speedy was given a 12 for the middle finger, so they're at least consistent with that. Might be the only thing they're consistent with...

[_Seth]

Originally Posted by ghoul-star

My guess is that it just came down to Diamonds Are Forever and The Man With the Golden Gun having different examiners with different perspectives, and possibly a bias in the case of the latter upholding its PG. This was the same year the original Indiana Jones trilogy was resubmitted, with Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade upholding their PG ratings, so I guess this was still towards the end of when some level of leniency was granted to classic older works.

Raiders of the Lost Ark definitely needed upgrading to a 12, how on Earth that could be considered a PG is mind boggling, but Last Crusade is pretty tame from what I remember, at least comparatively.

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

Harold Lloyd's Speedy was given a 12 for the middle finger, so they're at least consistent with that. Might be the only thing they're consistent with...

Even though isn't that an American taboo? Our equivalent is the 2 fingers...

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by _Seth

Even though isn't that an American taboo? Our equivalent is the 2 fingers...

Middle finger is a taboo in most western countries and some other countries around the world. It probably originated in Europe thousands of years ago.

[doomgen]

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

Harold Lloyd's Speedy was given a 12 for the middle finger, so they're at least consistent with that. Might be the only thing they're consistent with...

it was originally a U (and indeed this is what shows on the BBFC database) but Criterion must have resubmitted it and not filled in the paperwork that would make it show up on the site, as plenty of their releases have short insights that aren't shown on the BBFC site.

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by doomgen

it was originally a U (and indeed this is what shows on the BBFC database) but Criterion must have resubmitted it and not filled in the paperwork that would make it show up on the site, as plenty of their releases have short insights that aren't shown on the BBFC site.

I think that's more likely to do with the (now not so) new BBFC website still not yet fully populated with pre-change data as there are loads of films completely missing from the site even though they've been submitted in recent years (but prior to the website overhaul) or have long-existing older releases. They've previously said it's a work in progress and everything will be updated eventually, but the cynic in me thinks it's them being purposely vague. Either that or they lost a chunk of the old data and can't get it back and won't admit to it - I've spotted some films that are on there with newer DVD and blu ray releases but missing old cinema and VHS classification data.

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

I think that's more likely to do with the (now not so) new BBFC website still not yet fully populated with pre-change data as there are loads of films completely missing from the site even though they've been submitted in recent years (but prior to the website overhaul) or have long-existing older releases. They've previously said it's a work in progress and everything will be updated eventually, but the cynic in me thinks it's them being purposely vague. Either that or they lost a chunk of the old data and can't get it back and won't admit to it - I've spotted some films that are on there with newer DVD and blu ray releases but missing old cinema and VHS classification data.

It frustrates me that the final 9 episodes of The Sopranos are missing from the website. The Untold Story still hasn't been added either despite how much it is discussed here

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by ghoul-star

It frustrates me that the final 9 episodes of The Sopranos are missing from the website. The Untold Story still hasn't been added either despite how much it is discussed here

It has led to people thinking certain films haven't ever been submitted because they are completely absent from the database, which I would suggest is potentially a problem in itself. The example I always use is Keoma, which on the old website had its entire release history (and Keoma has had a lot of releases since it originally came out), including separate entries for the pan and scan and widescreen VHS releases and even the betamax release, but on the new website it just doesn't exist. Cult Films released it here on blu just last week and there's nothing for it.

They currently pride themselves on being clear, open and transparent, but I think they're generally even more secretive than they used to be, they just give the impression of being more open by sharing a few case studies. Big whoop.

[doomgen]

Originally Posted by ghoul-star

It frustrates me that the final 9 episodes of The Sopranos are missing from the website. The Untold Story still hasn't been added either despite how much it is discussed here

The Untold Story is on the database, but you have to click "show adult content" to bring up the entry. this should just be for pornographic works, which The Untold Story definitely isn't, as I don't recall there being any sex that was actually consensual from what I saw of the film.