August 19, 2008

Gratuitous Llama Movie Observation

The Missus and I went to see Iron Man at the cut-rate moovie house down in Fairfax this afternoon. Not a bad flick in an action-packed, mindless way. And Robert Downey Jr., despite his, ah, personal issues, really is a pretty durn good actor.

The thing that struck me, however, was the fact that the theatre was full of kids ranging in age anywhere from four or five on up. Now I know that the moovie is only rated PG-13, but in addition to lots of things going boom, it also has moderately healthy dashes of drinking and sex (what the trade calls "brief suggestive content), language, torture, icky blood-n-guts stuff and the like.

Also, while standing in line I heard the woman behind me going over a list of other movies that her grade-school age kiddies had seen, including Black Hawk Down and The Dark Knight. Niiiiice. Another one had an infant in her arms who cried repeatedly during the show. It may be that there is some equivalent to the "Mozart Effect" produced by hepped up bass licks, explosions and screaming, but if so, I am unaware of it.

Perhaps I live under a rock, but I certainly wouldn't let the Llama-ettes see Iron Man, or anything else of its ilk. Why do so many other parents seem so hell-bent on exposing their children to this sort of stuff as early as possible? And don't blame the Culture: there are no MPAA goon squads out there putting guns to their heads and forcing them to frog-march into the theatres.

Humph.

Posted by Robert at August 19, 2008 03:39 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Iron Man was good--the IED scene caught me by surprise.

Posted by: LMC at August 19, 2008 04:09 PM

You should have seen the crowd I saw at _Wanted_. Five-year-olds listening to an endless barrage of F-bombs, parents smiling along...

Posted by: pandelume at August 19, 2008 05:11 PM

The most violent movie I've ever brought my 10-YO gel to see in the theatre was the first Narnia movie. At home she only gets PG-fare or lower, with exception for Python and Fawlty Towers (bless her soul, she completely gets Python at age 10).

See, if parents did their jobs we wouldn't be having this argument. I can't remember how many times I've needed to use the trope of "well, if Jonny jumped off the cliff would you do it too?"

I blame the damn boomer parents who are petrified of using a simple two-letter word on their broods, NO, just because they hated it when their parents said they couldn't hitchhike to Woodstock. Get me a Waaaam-bu-lance.

Posted by: Captain Ned at August 19, 2008 06:06 PM

Seriously, Rob. Besides BSG, have you not watched television anytime in the past decade?

These people are desensitized, and so are their kids. Not that it'll blot out the psychological trauma and gender-identification issues.

Posted by: tee bee at August 19, 2008 08:13 PM

Sometimes... the parent makes a mistake and takes a child to a movie that is inappropriate.
I took the boys to Jurassic Park back in the day. Weren't they giving out toys at a fast food joint to promote the movie?
When the cow was lowered into the container and chewed up post haste my 5 year old started to cry. We walked out.

Posted by: Babs at August 20, 2008 08:27 AM

I am arguably completely grown up and I find most movies too violent, too morbid, and too amoral. That is what Hollywood is trying to do - desensitize us and radicalize us. It makes it easier for George Soros and his ilk, financially backed by the KGB and others, to convince us that our country is worthless and make us more suseptible to their moral-equivalence messages.

ps. Soros has lots of money, but he and other rich libs act mostly as conduits for the serious money from abroad that is used to influence American elections and culture. I think this is the biggest unreported scandal of our time, and of course it isn't going to be the MSM that reports it, since they are neck-deep in it.

Posted by: sherlock at August 20, 2008 09:46 AM