While a film's rating generally isn't, per se, an indicator of quality, it does serve as a reflection of content. It's for that reason PG-13 slasher/horror cinema is a bane for many a gore-loving fan ' and why early rumors that The Expendables 2 could likewise be 'appropriate' for the under-18 crowd sent the folk who love old-school, testosterone-fueled entertainment up the wall with anger.
Costar Chuck Norris' comments about the Expendables sequel's planned rating (or, rather, comments attributed to him) were the initial source for that firestorm. Writer/star Sylvester Stallone attempted to temper the outrage with a promise that Expendables 2 will still be a 'Grand scale Ass Bashing' even with a restrictive PG-13 Rating. However, just a couple months later, Sly announced the sequel will be Rated R after all (despite his own claims to the contrary).
The whole issue spawns from the fact that 1980s and '90s-era action fare tended to be heavy on the bloody kills, f-bombs ' and, on occasion, additional gratuitous material (see: the hotel fight scene in Commando). Hence, in order to be a proper throwback to that 'archaic' style ' and resurrect 'basic male-pattern badness,' as Stallone called it at the Expendables 2 Comic-Con panel ' many film geeks feel the sequel has to include those adult-friendly elements.
Expendables 2 director Simon West offered the following assurance on the matter to JoBlo:
'['The Expendables 2' is] a very hard R, actually. The rumor got out ' I'm sure there were some financial people who wanted it to be PG-13 because they thought it would somehow make more money or have a broader audience, but there was no way. I mean, when you get these guys on the set, they can't say a line without putting the F-bomb in it, and they can't pick up a gun without blowing several limbs off.'
West's reference to miscellaneous 'financial people' kind of comes off as back-peddling in disguise, similar to when Stallone dismissed the PG-13 Rating story as the result of 'odd rumors and hearsay' (as opposed to' well, himself). The online backlash to that idea could've conceivably given the film's backers reason to pause and reconsider an R-Rating for Expendables 2 ' even after Sly had already gone into damage control mode.
All things considered, though, few people probably care about why Expendables 2 is now being trumped up as a surefire R-Rated affair ' so long as what West is saying (see below) actually pans out:
'There was no way this film could ever work other than an R, because that's just not what it is, and I think the core audience that loved the first one would just be outraged if it wasn't an R. It would be so sanitized, and such a weird version of it. I can't see how it could ever be PG-13. There was a rumor out there or some pressure out there because somebody thought they would somehow make it a family movie. It's more a dysfunctional family movie.'
The previously-unseen Expendables 2 footage shown at Comic-Con was heavy on balls-to-the-wall shootouts and nasty killings (despite being edited for content). Moreover, what was shown suggested that West's claims are indeed accurate, and the film could surpass its predecessor with regards to the explosion/body/one-liner count ' and really, that's exactly what most people are hoping for from this sequel, right?
The Expendables 2 opens in U.S. theaters on August 17th, 2012.
Source: JoBlo
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