Rated R for a reason

Opening on Valentine’s Day weekend, Deadpool broke numerous records, grossing $132.7 million. Strangely, a portion of those sales would come from those one would not expect. Children and parents have seen one of the greatest movies of the year together, both with very different reactions. This difference in responses is primarily because seeing this movie should not be a family activity.

One simple thing that parents may have overlooked is the R rating. This movie is restricted for a very good reason, well many reasons actually. Strong violence and language, sexual content and graphic nudity run rampant throughout the feature. This is everything inappropriate for a 10-year-old to see. Sure it is a superhero movie from Marvel but the regular audience is not the intended one. This movie is for mature audiences and the rating makes that clear, but parents seem to not have checked it out beforehand. We have movie ratings for a reason. Our movies are rated to keep the wrong audience out of the theatre. If a movie is restricted it can easily be concluded that it is felt by the Classification and Ratings Administration (CARA) that a film is not appropriate for children. Simple solution? Google the movie before you take your kids.

On the lighter side, Deadpool is groundbreaking for its movie genre. Its opening weekend success has paved the way for more mature films of this nature. So hopefully, for those of us that enjoyed a R rated hero movie, there will be more to come.