In the summer of 2004, I caught a late show of the Denzel Washington remake of The Manchurian Candidate (pictured). Read the full post.
Jan 29
2007
08:41 PM ET
Why do parents bring little kids to R-rated movies?
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I’ll never forget going to a 10:30 PM showing of “8 Mile” and seeing not one, not two, but three sets of “parents” in attendance with their children, who ranged in age from 3 years old down to being strapped a Baby Bjorn. Really, people? Little Timmy needs to stay up to hear Eminem rap and to watch him screw Brittany Murphy in an auto factory? Yes, the main character’s name was B-Rabbit. No, this does not make it appropriate late-night viewing material for your toddler. Get a sitter, or STAY AT HOME!!!
Reading this article made me a 27 year old male wince at the type of material in these movies. I don’t see them. If these movies can do “permanent damage” with all that sex and violence upon our “poor children” what do you think it is doing to us adults? Some of the same I say, look at our society!
I went to see The Cell and a woman was there with her three year old on her lap. I kept thinking, ‘Lady, what are you thinking? They just pulled out Vince Vaughn’s intestines!’
Walking into the movie theater to see “Apocalypto,” I saw a mother and father with their two small children and a child in a stroller (!) in the back row.
It wasn’t long before (predictably) the kids started acting up. Who could blame them? What were their parents thinking, you might ask. My answer is the parents wanted to see the film, and dragged their kids with them, without any understanding of whether the film was appropriate or not for their children. Maybe they couldn’t afford a baby-sitter, but that’s no excuse.
At a screening of Kindergarten Cop, my mother and I overheard from behind us a woman exclaim: “Well! This isn’t a kid’s movie!!!” about 15 minutes in. We couldn’t stop laughing – could it have been the PG-13 rating that may have given her a clue?
As a new mother, I am very excited that we live in the age of DVDs – if a movie isn’t suitable for the kid to see, wait until it comes out on DVD, and when the kid’s asleep, watch it then! How difficult is this?
I was just complaining about this last week! It drives me nuts when I walk into an R-rated movie and see young children in the audience. Whether it’s sex, violence, or language, there is absolutely NO REASON for kids younger than 10 to be seeing these movies. Not to mention, when I go to an “adult” movie, I don’t want to be disturbed by the sounds of young children and their parents trying to deal with them. I won’t complain about this during a screening of Shrek (no matter how “adult” some of its jokes may be), but I will complain during a showing of, say, a Tarantino movie or the latest Saw. I’ve noticed young children (I’m talking no older than 5 or 6) in two of the most recent movies I’ve seen, Children of Men and The Departed. Are you kidding me? What is wrong with these parents?? If that’s not an example of bad parenting, I don’t know what is. I don’t care how badly you want to see a movie, if you can’t get a babysitter, stay at home with the kids. You’re a parent, act like one.
11:00 showing of DaVinci Code – only PG-13 but still…a family sits behind us and every time the Paul Bettany flagellation scenes come on they laugh..
I was just complaining about this last week! It drives me nuts when I walk into an R-rated movie and see young children in the audience. Whether it’s sex, violence, or language, there is absolutely NO REASON for kids younger than 10 to be seeing these movies. Not to mention, when I go to an “adult” movie, I don’t want to be disturbed by the sounds of young children and their parents trying to deal with them. I won’t complain about this during a screening of Shrek (no matter how “adult” some of its jokes may be), but I will complain during a showing of, say, a Tarantino movie or the latest Saw. I’ve noticed young children (I’m talking no older than 5 or 6) in two of the most recent movies I’ve seen, Children of Men and The Departed. Are you kidding me? What is wrong with these parents?? If that’s not an example of bad parenting, I don’t know what is. I don’t care how badly you want to see a movie, if you can’t get a babysitter, stay at home with the kids. You’re a parent, act like one.
My first “real” job was working at a movie theater, I’ll never forget having to explain to this guy that he couldn’t take his 7 year old with him to see Show Girls (it was NC-17). This guy was FUMMIN’ cursing and screaming at us…I couldn’t believe it…Show Girls for goodness sake?!?!
screenit.com also outlines all the details of a movie, including intense music.
There’s no reason for a toddler to ever see an R-rated movie. The first R-rated movie I saw was Braveheart; I was 12. However, my parents talked to adults who’d seen the movie and we viewed it at home. This way we could pause things if it was too intense, and we could talk about the movie as it progressed.
Teens are another problem entirely. I refuse to go to any movie, no matter what it’s rated, if I think teenagers may want to see it. Get off your phone, shut up, and put your feet down!!
Marykate, I saw “Phone Booth” too (wow, three of the people who saw it on one blog). I still want those two hours back.
The latest instance of this I had was with “The Descent” last summer. Great move – take your toddlers to a horror movie. The parents will get theirs though – when they have to shell out for therapy before their kids will go near a forest.
As so many people’s entries have indicated, there are a lot of stupid people out there, and unfortunately, they’ve been breeding. The question of responsibility is an interesting one though; the ‘R’ rating is “Under 17 not admitted without parent or guardian” (And all the R movies mentioned deserved the rating). Still, the theater should have some responsibility to maintain a quality experience for its patrons. The final responsibility though, must be with the parents to do more research before bringing kids to the theater.
I think that bringing young children to R-rated movies is a form of child abuse and should be treated as such. When you decide to have children, you give up certain personal liberties such as seeing movies in the theater whenever you feel like it.
We saw Smokin’ Aces on Saturday…and about 3/4 of the way through we heard a toddler crying. That movie was so violent and graphic that my wife was mortified at times…what kind of parents would do that to their kid (or to the rest of the theater for that matter)…
I have a friend who has a ten year old son now, but when he was five and under, she would see movies first before taking him, even the G-rated flicks, so she’d know what she’d have to explain to him. I always gave her credit for that. That gets a little expensive, but I’d imagine that it avoids a lot of problems.
Several years ago I went to see “Silence of the Lambs”. There was a child of about 5 years of age directly in front of me. He was quiet and well behaved throughout and watched the movie intently. I, however, could not concentrate because all I wanted to do was scream at the mother and remove the child from the theater. I worried about him every time something horrendous happened.