Once again, the heat has me.
It's warm, it's beautiful. It's only pushing 6 pm. Still lots of the day left. However, I am at a standstill because I have no one to do anything with. Everyone I know is either already out or working! How frustrating is that! I'll probably just end up going down to the gym, cause you know, I'm cool like that.
Today was a good day though - I got to babysit my two favorite kids at the daycare. And they are so good. The little boy just turned three, and the little girl is 7 months old I think. They're absolutely wonderful :).
Tomorrow night we are having a staff screening of War of the Worlds. We were going to see one tonight, however the movie won't arrive until 7 pm and that's too rushed to put it together. So tomorrow night it is. Yippee!
Last night I went to see Batman, and I have to say that I loved it. I don't know if I loved it because it was good, or because I've never seen a Batman before (at least, none that I can remember). Lots of people can sit there and compare it to the original, but where it wasn't really a remake for me, that factor didn't affect me. I simply loved it. I hope they remake the rest (apparently there is more?). One thing I can't understand however, is that it is only rated PG. Because I found it awfully dark and disturbing, and I kept thinking about the first night it opened when I saw a couple go in with their little boy who could have only been about 5 or 6 and the horror he probably went through watching it...
Anyways, I'm off to find something to do!
Today was a good day though - I got to babysit my two favorite kids at the daycare. And they are so good. The little boy just turned three, and the little girl is 7 months old I think. They're absolutely wonderful :).
Tomorrow night we are having a staff screening of War of the Worlds. We were going to see one tonight, however the movie won't arrive until 7 pm and that's too rushed to put it together. So tomorrow night it is. Yippee!
Last night I went to see Batman, and I have to say that I loved it. I don't know if I loved it because it was good, or because I've never seen a Batman before (at least, none that I can remember). Lots of people can sit there and compare it to the original, but where it wasn't really a remake for me, that factor didn't affect me. I simply loved it. I hope they remake the rest (apparently there is more?). One thing I can't understand however, is that it is only rated PG. Because I found it awfully dark and disturbing, and I kept thinking about the first night it opened when I saw a couple go in with their little boy who could have only been about 5 or 6 and the horror he probably went through watching it...
Anyways, I'm off to find something to do!
posted by Fern Wimpley @ 9:59 PM
10 Comments:
At 5:02 AM,
Jody said…
I should have called you! I'm pleased you had a nice afternoon with the kids. And don't get too disturbed over the kid in the movie being upset - connor (unfortunately) has been exposed to all that crap and it does anything but scare him. Sad eh?
At 11:25 AM,
Tawny said…
Ya, I loved Batman too - I have seen some (Not all I don't think) of the others and this one SO kicked ass in comparison. It was really, really GOOD.
And you're right, it deserved more than a PG13 movie - and parents will take kids to see it because they think it's a 'comic book' movie. I don't think anyone told them that Batman is a hero that is seeking vengeance against crime lords and drug dealers because his own parents were murdered on the street. Not a happy movie to take kids too.
Renu was planning on taking her two kids to see it, I warned her not to bring Jagrit - but when they went anyway, I at least told her to cover his eyes when the doctor pulled on his mask. Those scenes freaked even me out.
(AND I heard too that they were so pleased with how this one turned out that they want to remake the rest of them. They SO should but only if they keep Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan as the director.)
At 11:27 AM,
Tawny said…
PS.It's a HUGE problem that kids are going to scary and/or violent movies and they're not being affected by it. It's a sign that they're being desensitized. And that's just WRONG for a kid to be that way.
At 2:43 AM,
Fern Wimpley said…
I agree Tawn!!
That mask was super disturbing! They're talking of who they want to get to play the Joker, and one of the actors that came up was Paul Bettany (the guy in Wimbeldon, and the one in A Knight's Tale that walks around naked). They were saying (they being Q104) that he's too funny and sweet, but I think he'd do a wicked job!
At 12:27 PM,
Jody said…
Just so you know guys - it wasn't me that exposed connor to this adult content, he was 'ruined' long before I came onto the scene... shamefully sad - I remember stacy commenting that Connor seems a lot older than Roisin's Gavin. This is likely due to two reasons 1) He is over exposed to this stuff 2) He is the youngest and gets assistance to this exposure by his siblings as well (see gavin is the oldest of very sensible parents).
At 11:49 PM,
Fern Wimpley said…
I wasn't saying anything about Connor, I was simply saying that the kid I saw going to see Batman seemed a bit too young.
Maybe he wasn't...maybe he could handle it?
Either way, it's up to parents.
At 7:20 AM,
Jody said…
I know you weren't silly... I was just saying that too many kids are over-exposed, including Connor and that he NEVER should have been allowed to see the adult content things he has seen... but what's done is done now.
At 1:24 PM,
Anonymous said…
Yes, sheltering children is certainly the right way to go. I mean we wouldn't want them to learn anything about life, or rather life outside their neighbourhood, this way when they grow up they can know nothing at all, and ignorance is, of course, bliss.
Sorry, I just can't subscribe to that. About the only thing I could "agree" on is it would be better kids deal with real life situations rather than fictional ones so there's no confusion. But that's up to the parent to help their kids interpret what they see. Just dumping a kid in a theatre and taking him home after with zero discussion about what they saw is probably not a brilliant idea.
Canada is about as guilty as the US in this area. Violence is fine on TV, but no Sex. Oddly enough though in Canada, you can have all the swearing you want. Other cultures (much older than ours) seem to have this sort of thing sorted out. The Japanese make the most dark and violent video games and sometimes some of the most dark and scary films, so very pornographic television shows, and yet have no where near the crime rate to suggest this exposure has a negative impact on their society. In fact, one would argue it's a positive impact. Interestingly enough though I believe they have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Perhaps due to desensitization.. effecting their emotions perhaps?
All that said, Jagrit is 2. And that's at least 6 years too few to be watching dark movies. I think I was probably 9 or 10 when I saw Nightmare on Elm Street and from my experience, that's about the limit for my kids and horror/violent films.
The thing I don't get is, Renu won't let her kids watch The Simpsons.. WTF?
Anyhow, Batman Begins really is not a remake. The first Tim Burton Batman was much much different, about the only thing remaining similar is the scene involving his parents death. I think Batman Begins was created as a prequel to the others that could stand on it's own and not be compared but also opens to door to allow another Batman movie with The Joker, then Penguin, Riddler, etc..
At 5:37 PM,
Tawny said…
"Just dumping a kid in a theatre and taking him home after with zero discussion about what they saw is probably not a brilliant idea."
I think that's it exactly - parents need to be responsible for what they allow their kids to see, and then be responsible for discussing it with their children afterwards. If they're not comfortable talking to their kids about the movie's violence or other controversial issues, then they shouldn't be letting their kids see the movie in the first place.
I remember YEARS ago when Stacy was at our place - she must have been 15 or so and really wanted to see 8MM - and while I hesitated about watching it with her, we did - but the next day I made sure to discuss it with her and shared with her what it was about the movie that upset/disturbed me and why it did.
I think part of the problem though is the marketing of certain movies - I'm noticing lately that a lot of trailers for movies seem to be geared at a younger audience, as if the studios are doing whatever it takes to get younger people to them. The fact that Batman Begins had a PG13 rating boggles me - so there was no swearing (which is probably what gave it it's rating) but Stacy's right, it was pretty dark and very disturbing. If I was 8 years old and saw a movie where a kid my age watched his parents gunned down in the middle of the street, I'd be pretty affected I would think.
Anyhow - I don't think that children need to be sheltered all their lives either - Dad was totally against us watching movies with swearing or nudity or violence until we were well into our teens, but we watched them anyway and it didn't ruin us. I think there's got to be a minimum age though - maybe 9 or 10 is okay - because kids are pretty smart by then and able to sort out what they see and ask relevant questions. Anything under that though, really, it's too young. Why try and force your kids to grow up before their time, when they already grow up so fast as it is??
At 12:58 PM,
Anonymous said…
The MPAA's rating system is a joke and as I understand it based mostly on statistics from a movie. They watch it and note a number of "moments", be it forms of nudity, sexual content, innuendo, language and violence and each moment is pre-weighted (like "fuck" is 1 point or something and a bare ass is 2 points). The rating you end up with is the sum of these calculations of these moments, and therefore a films rating. The problem, as I (and most everyone else on the planet) sees it is it does not take into account context.
So BB with zero swear words and zero sexual content and only small bits of visual violence and 3 (I believe) "terror" moments, sneaks under the ratings radar and can therefore been seen by more audiences.
This is how a movie like "Orgazmo" was rated NC17 (which is a joke, the movie is pretty tame all things considered), yet South Park The Movie was CATERED to MPAA guidelines so they could make a more offensive movie byt gain a much lower rating with a much wider range of language, violence and sexual content.
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