Movie Ratings

Always one of my favourite things, picking up on where professional journalists with their oh-so-high standards who don't do their research. From the Daily Mail on 50 Shades of Grey:-

If the first version of the film gets an R or restricted rating in America it could be seen by anyone aged 17 or over. A more explicit version may get the much rarer NC-17 certificate, which is reserved for films depicting rape or drug use.

… ah, no. Look, this stuff is on the MPAA website and takes about 1 minute to look it up.

The R rating in America is not for anyone aged 17 or over. It's 17, or for anyone accompanied by a parent or guardian.

The NC-17 isn't reserved for rape or drug use. It's for films that most parents would not consider to be suitable for their children.

The NC-17 is really like our 18 rating, only not many film makers go for it, generally preferring the R rating, which we don't have an equivalent of.

If the clever marketing strategy was followed in Britain the film could seek an 18 certificate for the more vanilla version and an R18 rating for the explicit cut, meaning it could be shown only in cinemas with a special license cinemas, revealed the Sunday Times.

But cinemas could legally change themselves into sex-film venues for 'special events' such as midnight screenings, as long as they get local authority approval, said a former adviser to the British Board of Film Classification.

Again... no.

The NC-17 certificate goes to films like Henry and June, A Serbian Film and Last Tango in Paris. Films that were given an 18 certificate by the BBFC.

The R18 certificate in the UK is almost exclusively (and I can find no exception) about hardcore pornography. You've pretty much got to go hammer and tongs on film to get one (and even then, if it's considered essential to the plot rather than just for titilation you can get an 18). And I can't quite imagine an upcoming, reasonably successful actress like Dakota Johnson doing that.