THE EXPENDABLES (Sylvester Stallone, 2010)

[Luigi]

Awesome pics Jox! The wait for TE is sooo long!

[Jack Caine]

Fuck it, if this isn't going to be an R-rated thing, I'm not gonna bother. We were promised solid action from the get-go and I'm not gonna let Sly allow this movie to be pussified for some teenybopper who's seen the tv-cut of Commando with his cousin. PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND, HOLLYWOOD!

Pardon my french. Make the right choice, Sly--the R-rated choice.

[MikeR]

Fuck it, if this isn't going to be an R-rated thing, I'm not gonna bother. We were promised solid action from the get-go and I'm not gonna let Sly allow this movie to be pussified for some teenybopper who's seen the tv-cut of Commando with his cousin. PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND, HOLLYWOOD!

Pardon my french. Make the right choice, Sly--the R-rated choice.

Why would anyone want the PG13 rating? They just tried it with Terminator Salvation and rather than boost numbers of people, TS turned out to be a bit of a box office bust. Okay it wasn't that good a movie, but if the theory was right, PG13 should have brought a large new audience into the cinema - it didn't. There wasn't much competition out there, and people watch bad movies - so perhaps PG13 ratings don't automatically equate to bigger box offices.

Maybe, and stop me if I'm being radical here, making good movies for a clear audience equates to bigger box offices? I'd kind of like to be able to go to the movies and NOT have to share it with kids.

But then I'd also like to be able to go to the movies and NOT have to share it with people talking to their friends, SMSing, taking calls, eating popcorn, getting up every five minutes...

Yeah I'm a right grouch.

M.

[Jox]

But then I'd also like to be able to go to the movies and NOT have to share it with people talking to their friends, SMSing, taking calls, eating popcorn, getting up every five minutes...

[Moltisanti]

I've pretty much been operating under the assumption that this would be PG-13 for a while now, so this news doesn't phase me. At least it seems as though they're filming it as an "R" which it would be released as internationally (ala TAKEN) while us Americans will probably get a PG-13 cut in theaters and the "R" (or by that time "unrated") on DVD. That sounds different from LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD which was filmed as a PG-13 and then they just threw in some post-production ADR dialog and digital blood for the "unrated" DVD.

As much as I want THE EXPENDABLES to be "R" it comes down to this. What am I a bigger fan of? An R-rating? Or am I bigger fan of Lundgren, Stallone, Statham, and Li?

[Mosquito]

There aren't clear rules for the rating, right? I have the impression that R only comes into action when there's hints of sex, female nudity and/or drugs. Even with PG-13 it can be pretty violent (Terminator: Salvation had FSK 16 in Germany). I don't need red spray and flying body parts (can't say they bother me but I wouldn't miss them). And even if it is PG-13 in the U.S. it might be FSK 16 or even 18 over here. Whereas Borat for exampe is not very violent but has an R rating. FSK 12 in Germany.

Sorry for getting into this well-known discussion. My conclusion just is that even with a PG-13 rating this doesn't mean that we'll get some kind of "Commando in Disney Land". And we seem to kind of agree that "the old guys" will probably not pull the kids into cinemas, so you might not have to be afraid of kids sitting behind you.

[MikeR]

There aren't clear rules for the rating, right? I have the impression that R only comes into action when there's hints of sex, female nudity and/or drugs. Even with PG-13 it can be pretty violent (Terminator: Salvation had FSK 16 in Germany). I don't need red spray and flying body parts (can't say they bother me but I wouldn't miss them). And even if it is PG-13 in the U.S. it might be FSK 16 or even 18 over here. Whereas Borat for exampe is not very violent but has an R rating. FSK 12 in Germany.

PG13 is notoriously hard to pin down and is subject to studio interference on what is and what isn't allowed. The guidelines in the US are that it *MAY* allude to sex, incorporate brief or partial nudity, some strong language (it used to allow ONE F--k), sexual innuendo and humour. You can get away with mature and political themes and have small amounts of terror and intense action (these are also usually flagged).

Actual blood on screen is *very* rare.

Drugs are the tricky one; this is the lowest rating where drugs can be seen or used and then the only one allowed is marijuana.

I can't see how TE can hope to get a PG13 - we know there's a torture scene with waterboarding - that wouldn't be allowed, blood could be edited out, but isn't Big D's character meant to be a total druggie?

As you say, what goes in the US, doesn't necessarily apply in Europe. Germany is much stricter than the UK which has a 12A (12 years and older or under 12 accompanied by an adult*), although our 15 (no one under 15) and 18 (no one under 18) ratings are more strict than R.

HTH.

M.

* Bloody stupid rating in my opinion, it means kids see stuff they really shouldn't and I've been to a number of movies where kids had to leave crying - 'Beowulf' for instance which had violence in excess of many 18s but because it was animated, attracted a lower rating.

[Jox]

There aren't clear rules for the rating, right?

Actually I think there are.

I can't see how TE can hope to get a PG13 - we know there's a torture scene with waterboarding - that wouldn't be allowed, blood could be edited out, but isn't Big D's character meant to be a total druggie?

That's what I thought but I think what the MPAA mostly cares about is the actual drug use which I'm not sure if it will be seen (apparently now just smoking automatically gets an R as well).

[Moltisanti]

They'd have to actually have Dolph shoot up to get the "R." Showing him with some meth in front of him wouldn't do it.

Set report from IGN:

http://movies.ign.com/articles/996/996849p1.html

"This started out as a dark comedy, as a satire," admits Stallone. "Then it became a really hard-R, then it went back. It wasn't until, literally, a week before filming that we just said, 'Okay, let's make it this kind of movie.' It has poignancy, but it's not preachy. It's a dark comedy, but it takes the stereotypes of guys like Jason Statham and shows that for as tough as he is, he has problems with women, or that the only thing I've acquired in my life is a truck. That I can't even relate to human beings anymore. They're very, very tough in their own world and extremely weak in the real world."

More Lundgren-related stuff toward the end of the report.

[Jox]

"The Expendables Set Visit - The Trip That Kicked My Ass"
http://movieblog.ugo.com/movies/the-exp ... ked-my-ass

[Jack Caine]

OUTSTANDING! SIMPLY OUTSTANDING! Those set reports make me think this won't be rated pg13 at all! R-RATING, HERE WE COME! (I hope!)

[Nathan]

Awesome, these set reports are great and it seems they all visited the set at the right time because we're getting a good scoop on Dolph's part!! I think this will be R rated, Lionsgate know what the audience want usually with action movies.

[Mosquito]

All of this is so fantastic. I was wondering... when I was a kid I never got info about a movie before it went to cinemas over here. Then, with the dawn of the Internet, there were sites like upcomingmovies or that Canadian site with "corona" in the URL that offered a lot of useful info of upcoming projects before it fucked up and turned into some random game/movie/ad site. But now there's tons of pics, clips, interviews, blogs and stuff during and even before filming a movie. Never before was so much info available for me about movie that aren't even canned. Is it just me or did the amount of coverage explode during the last two years?

Am I in movie heaven?

[Jox]

I don't think it's particular to the last two years (I may be wrong though). Two happened for sure: internet and "Lord of the Rings" which I think showed how to these kind of things well. Even though it was very different, to me there was always been more or less preview infos and photos for big movies (and smaller, even for big D's stuff like RED SCORPION, THE PUNISHER or UNISOL back in the day) in geeky French movie magazines, sometimes even TV reports on set etc... But that definitely extended to most movies nowadays.

[Moltisanti]

It really is amazing how much info is out there. I've literally been able to follow the filming of THE EXPENDABLES day by day. What's really cool is that because of a site like this one I was also able to get all the news I could ask for even for smaller films like COMMAND PERFORMANCE and ICARUS.

Sometimes I sort of miss how it was when I was younger and the first you'd ever hear about a movie was seeing a trailer in a theater or an ad on TV. Except for really huge films like the 80's and 90's BATMAN series, you knew pretty much zero about a movie until maybe a month before it opened.