But in good news, Kevin Smith saw an early screening of “Watchmen,” and had this to say:

I saw “Watchmen.” It’s fucking astounding. The Non-Disclosure Agreement I signed prevents me from saying much, but I can spout the following with complete joygasmic enthusiasm: Snyder and Co. have pulled it off.

Remember that feeling of watching “Sin City” on the big screen and being blown away by what a faithful translation of the source material it was, in terms of both content and visuals? Triple that, and you’ll come close to watching “Watchmen.” Even Alan Moore might be surprised at how close the movie is to the book. March can’t come soon enough.

That being said, he tends to be a generous reviewer. But still… It’ hope for non-suckage next year.

I’d lean hardest on the third one. It’s Hollywood in general, I think, that’s really made the push towards doing to the R rating what they did to the NC-17 rating, trying to turn it into something theaters won’t carry. The ironic thing is, I don’t think this is even the fault of the Moral Guardians, but rather just the desire to fill pocketbooks more and easier, since then there’s four whole years of demographic you can pack into the theater without them having to bug their parents to come along.

I’d disagree that Hollywood is overly-hating on the R-Rated films. There have been a few well-made, very-successful R action flicks in the past few years… from The Matrix and Gladiator to Sin City and 300. That being said, PG-13 does bring in more money - it’s targeting a larger, much less discriminating audience with more time on its hands. Let’s face it - kids are more easily entertained by crap.

It could be very well that the only way they could get the budget for the film was to promise a PG-13 rating. I’m not defending that approach - I think that if Hollywood put 10% of the effort into improving writing that they did improving CGI, our biggest problem would be deciding which of the 5 unmissable movies opening each weekend we’d want to see.

The Matrix was rated R?

Maybe they got the PG-13 rating without having to compromise on kick ass killing spree’s.  I am hoping that the MPAA has finally realized that explosions and killing is too common place in our society so they are relaxing their standards.  I heard that as long as you don’t show too much blood, they will allow for the PG-13 rating.
Just my two cents.

As Joe Bob Briggs put it:  An ‘R’ rating means you get yer boobies for free”

There was a movie that explained the ratings game, it was a hoot.