By:
The Dude on the Right
So on Monday evening myself, Stu Gotz, and some other members of the
Entertainment Ave! staff (including
The
Mystery Dude who is still pissed because I didn’t mention him in my last
Roger Waters’ review even though he was the one who got me the ticket) went
to see "Transformers" at an early screening in a Chicago suburb. My full
review will be coming soon, but quickly, I really liked the movie, found it very
funny, agree with Stu that it’s a solid PG-13 with a lot of violence and sexual
innuendo so keep that in mind in terms of bringing your kids, but I didn’t care
for the finale fight scene because it became to "Michael Bay"-ish, with too many
"slow-motion" scenes," to much "we are now at war," and if they just did the
fight scene in real time they probably could have trimmed about 5 minutes from
the film. Really good film, great effects, and Megan Fox is smokin’ hot.
Like I wrote, my full review comes at a later date – hell, I might actually see
it again before I review it because my local gigaplex has it in Digital
Projection which this movie is sort of made for.
But anyway, then came
Tuesday.
I’m driving around in the dude-mobile and since it is the week of The
4th of July a lot of the radio folks I would listen to are on vacation.
With that comes a lot of channel hopping, and somehow AM 560, WIND here in
Chicago, was still programmed on my radio. I landed on it somewhere in the
host’s discussion about his seeing "Transformers" with a friend of his, and said
friend brought his 10 year old son. Turns out the host was
Michael
Medved, whose website says "Michael Medved is a nationally syndicated radio
talk show host, best-selling author and veteran film critic." While
listening I did not realize Mr. Medved was a "veteran film critic," but as he’s
talking about the movie he mentions that he never grew up with the animated
"Transformers" and kept calling "Bumblebee," one of the Autobots, "Butterfly."
I let that go because that’s a mistake you can make if you aren’t a fan, hell,
they both start with the letter "B." But then he started on a slight rant
about how "Transformers" seemed a little adult for its rating, even stating that
with some of the sexual innuendos going on, well, maybe the movie should have
been given the next rating up. I did a double take at the radio in my car
(yes, I actually looked at the radio in my car, looked away, then looked again),
and said, out loud, to my radio, "You wanted this movie rated ‘R’?" He
then mentioned that because of some of the content in the movie they would have
to "cover the ears" of the 10 year old that was brought along, and seemed
surprised "Transformers" was rated PG. I actually started yelling, again
at my radio, that "the movie is rated PG-13. What the hell are you talking
about?" And as he was finishing up his segment I sort of wished I wasn’t
in my car so I could find his phone number, or at least that the radio folks
would announce it, so I could call him, and inform him, that the movie was rated
PG-13, and rather than admonish the filmmakers for the content, maybe his buddy
should have paid more attention and not brought his son to a movie that the MPAA
says is "Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief
sexual humor, and language."
Still a little flabbergasted at such a huge
mistake about the movie rating I lasted through his commercial break, and
Michael Medved came back on, stating that he had to admit he was wrong, that the
phone lines lit up, and I said "Phew, he’s going to now state the movie was
rated PG-13." Nope, no correction on that one, it seems the phone lines
lit up to correct him that the yellow Autobot that is a Camaro is "Bumblebee,"
and not "Butterfly." He then went on to something about the immigration
reform that still isn’t happening, and I just couldn’t listen anymore because
conservative talk shows aren’t my cup of tea.
Now, I might have given a slight
pass to Mr. Medved and his stating "Transformers" was rated PG, but that was
until the fact I found about he is one, a "veteran film critic," but worse,
still doing movie reviews. He was right, that maybe his friend who brought
the 10 year old might have to cover the kid’s ears, or maybe even his eyes,
during the movie, but rather than blasting the rating of the movie, which he was
totally wrong in stating, maybe Mr. Medved should have been blasting his friend
for not paying attention to the rating of the movie and being a bad parent.
Hell, even The Mystery Dude, who has two kids, both under 13, said he was sort
of happy to see the movie without them so he could decide if they could see it.
I’m stating here that The Mystery Dude is a good parent while Michael Medved’s
friend might want to pay a little more attention to movie ratings.
Again I’ve
gotten too winded in a blog, but when a "veteran film critic," although
according to Wikipedia,
Roger
Ebert has stated "he is ‘a political commentator and no longer a film
critic.’" (and I agree), can’t get a movie rating correct, it’s actually a
disservice to people. I’m not perfect and I make mistakes. Michael
Medved isn’t perfect and he makes mistakes. What almost made me sad, and I
don’t have all of his phone logs, was that his listeners didn’t correct Michael
on his movie rating mistake, they just wanted people to know the Camaro was
"Bumblebee," and not "Butterfly." I guess it seems none of his
conservative listeners that called in cared about the kids. I will give
this disclaimer that maybe, somewhere, during the rest of his show on Tuesday,
he corrected the movie rating of "Transformers," but folks like Michael Medved
make me want to state in my bio that I am a "Worldwide Podcast Host, Veteran
Movie Critic, and The Best Concert Photographer Ever."
By the way, again,
"Transfomers" is rated PG-13. Be a parent. If your kids want to see
the movie, and for God’s, Christ’s, or just Goodness sake, pay attention to the
MPAA ratings. Whatever you do, don’t listen to Michael Medved about
"Transformers." He thought it was rated "PG."
That’s it for this one!
I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!