I recently took my son and his friends to a concert. The drive to the venue was going to be about 2 hours so we decided to rent some movies for the drive there and back. He and I went to the local video store and started doing the slow sideways shuffle that one does there (which is similar to the my-spouse-wants-to-shop-and-I’d-rather-be-somewhere-else-stroll, but different). Anyway, after awhile he came back with a few titles, one of which was rated…”Unrated”. What’s that all about? Of course, it suggests “hey rent me, I’m dodging the rules and therefore you want me even more now because you’re not supposed to have me”! I for one, wasn’t going to be the parent who let my son’s friends (all in their low-teens) have full-access to unrated content — whatever that actually meant. After successfully renting 2 titles that fell directly into the safer “Dad-you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me!” category, we left the store.

Afterward, (and, oh by the way, Linkin Park does indeed ROCK!!) I did some research and this is what I found:
Most times it’s the extra features on the second DVD that contain the higher-rated material. The alternate ending, deleted scenes or the Director’s true vision for the story may live there in some shape or form. For instance, there may have been a scene that was deemed so raunchy, violent, etc. that it bumped what would have been a PG-13 movie into the R realm. If the movie was geared toward teenagers, then the R rating would limit the amount of theatre-goers and the movie might not yield a profit. To combat this the Director films a cleaner/safer/less gory alternative scene, movie is now PG-13 again and profits are up. Fast-forward to the DVD release, the studio now includes the Director’s Cut (containing the extra whatevers) for example, title is marketed as “unrated” and voila, the studio gets to double-dip into wallets nationwide. Party-on Wayne! Party-on Garth! I can’t blame the studios for doing it, but it does erode a graphical system used to quickly communicate information.

I checked with Blockbuster and here’s it’s policy:
“Unrated films not containing material suitable for all audiences are designated by Blockbuster as restricted and marked with a YRP sticker. YRP product is subject to Blockbuster’s YOUTH RESTRICTED VIEWING policy, which requires parental consent for the rental of “R” rated and “YRP” labeled movies.”

So, there you go, “Unrated Ratings”. Put it in the Oxymoron Hall of Fame next to “Jumbo Shrimp”, “Virtual Reality”, and “Rounded Corners”. If you have kids, I hope this post helps you navigate the video aisle a little more easily. By the way, if you visit the Motion Picture Association of America site and type in “Unrated” into their search function you get a big fat zero. Wait a minute, that’s just another oxymoron!