Ryan McNeil
Recently, news has surfaced that Sacha Baron Cohen’s next film BRUNO has been hit with an NC-17 rating in America. Colour me shocked.
Baron Cohen, you must remember, is the face and brains behind Borat. Bruno is another one of his characters, a flamboyantly gay TV style reporter who hooks unsuspecting interviewees into all sorts of foolishness in much the same way Borat would. Basically put a mic in front of someone, start entering completely off-handed remarks, and let them dig their own hole.
The reason for the NC-17 rating stems back to an excess of sexual content (say it ain’t so!). At the moment, that’s the only details available.
On the one hand, I’d say leave it be and take the NC-17…but that carries with it a whole bagful of consequences – namely diminished exposure. Theatre chains don’t schedule too many screens for NC-17 films, Blockbuster won’t carry them for rent, and Wal-Mart won’t carry them for sale. If you’re thinking “Damn the torpedoes! It’s art, stand up and say what you want!” I’m with you. Unfortunately, we must also remember that it’s a business, and at the moment an NC-17 rating is a black ball for the business.
On the other hand, I can’t argue with an NC-17 for the sort of movie I envision BRUNO being. BRUNO, and by extension BORAT, are movies that are by no means suitable for kids…and even a good handful of immature teenagers. There’s nothing wrong with them for adults, they just don’t contain the sort of material I’d want kids repeating out of context.
What say you fine folks? Should Baron Cohen’s BRUNO take the NC-17? Should it edit content out and aim for an R? Or should someone pull a Kevin Smith and try to argue their way out of the rating like Kevin Smith did for ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO?
I hope they leave it as-is. I was surprised Borat got an R. There need to be films for adults that don’t involve money shots.
Their going to change it to “R”. Universal isn’t going to give Bruno an NC-17 rating simply because not that many theaters even carry it. That would kill the films box office numbers. I would rather have the unrated version on Blu Ray instead of looking for theaters that even carry the film. Remember that Borat was also hit with an NC-17 rating and eventually got trimmed to an R rating. The same will happen with Bruno.
Yea, I’m with Farzan. No way it stays.
But seriously…c’mon man…”Dirty Laundry?” That’s a song I just didn’t need in my head.
Same goes for “Let’s Hear It For the Boy.” Booo!!
😉