It's MA15+ for a reason, guys. Check it.

As readers of this blog would know, I recently saw and very much enjoyed a screening of Kick Ass. It featured "Strong violence, coarse language and sexual references". And I was also aware of this when I entered the cinema.

Not so with some of my fellow viewers. In the cinema were three teenage boys (unsurprising) and some adults. In addition to these filmgoers were three young children, none of which could have been older than 8, accompanied by a woman who I presumed was their mother. I was made painfully aware of their presence due to various comments during the trailers of, "Ooh, that's rude," and "I don't get it. That's stupid".

"Well," thought I, "I wonder at what point they're going to walk out (or be dragged out)". A friend of mine experienced a similar situation at a different screening of the same movie.

You may be aware that Kick Ass is rated MA15+ in Australia. What does this mean? It means that Kick Ass may only be viewed by persons over 15 years of age, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian. Basically, it's pretty full-on, and sensitive parents should think twice about takin' the young 'uns.

OK, I'm not preaching to parents not to take their 10 year olds. If you think that they can handle it, they're not going to be scarred for life and they have the basic skills to differentiate between movies and real life, that's just dandy. Go ahead, take 'em to Nazi-Zombie Sex Robots 2 for all I care.

But what really ticks me off is parents who just don't know what they're chucking their kids into.

People, those colourful little boxes in the corner of movie posters and those spinning versions in trailers are there for a reason. Don't take your kiddies to a MA15+ flick expecting Care Bears and rainbows, and don't claim to be morally outraged afterwards. It's your own freakin' fault for being uninformed.
There's a thing called the INTERNET now, that you can use to look up ratings. IMDb has a "Parents' Guide" for most movies detailing any content parents might find "unsuitable".

Be merciful to your fellow human-beings and take your under-15s to something "suitable". Like Alvin & the Chipmunks. Or Old Dogs. Actually, I retract that statement, those movies aren't suitable for anybody.

Right, who wants to go see Nazi-Zombie Sex Robots 2?


Helpful Links

An example of a Parents Guide (contains spoilers for Kick Ass)

The Australian Classification Board Website


PS If anyone was wondering, the kids plus mum were out of the cinema about half an hour in. Hm, the masturbation scene might've tipped mum off.