Are USCCB movie reviews hyper-sensitive?

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JackVk

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I often read the USCCB’s movie reviews. While many of them seem reasonable, some seem to take things too seriously, forgetting that movies aren’t always real.

Two cases-in-point:
  1. Nacho Libre, a PG-rated movie in which Jack Black plays a Mexican friar who takes up wrestling, and becomes a role model and breadwinner for the kids at the orphanage where he serves. The USCCB gave it an O (for “morally offensive”). This seems like too much.
  2. Prometheus, the prequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise. They also gave this one an O, because it is told in the mythos that the human race was created when one humanoid being (called an “Engineer”) drinks a potion that causes him to melt, and his DNA forms the human race.
I understand the atheistic implications of it, but remember that science fiction is just that: fiction. History Channel nutcases aside, I don’t know of anyone who seriously believes we were created by aliens.

What do you think?
 
I think the USCCB has to be strict, because it has to set the absolute standards.

The law sets the speed limit.

Individual officers and traffic court judges have some leeway in how they enforce and interpret each situation.
 
First it should be noted that the USCCB doesn’t do the reviews anymore; the reviews have been taken over the last few years by the Catholic News Service.

I think the reviews are a good guideline, in general, but they aren’t infallible. In the specific case of Prometheus, I disagree with the “O” rating because** (spoiler) **the main protagonist holds on to her faith in the end (she asks for her cross necklace back which had been taken from her). I actually thought the movie on the whole was less offensive than Alien 3, which had a ton of F-bombs, and ended with the suicide of the protagonist, yet got an A-III rating. And I say all this as a fan of the “Alien” film franchise.

I haven’t seen Nacho Libre.
 
I usually go to Fr Robert Barron or Sister Rose for a review.

While I like the USCCB, their reviews really don’t make sense to me.
 
They are not rules you must follow but suggestions and guidelines for making your own judgements. I find these reviews very helpful and usually listen to them but not always.
 
I always read the CNS movie review before I watch a movie especially with our kids. I find it on point almost all of the time.
 
JackVk said:
What do you think?
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I think that their reviews are too lenient and a whole lot more movies should be rated condemned. They should restore the oath that Catholics took in Church to avoid condemned movies and state clearly that this oath must be followed under pain of mortal sin.
 
Tomdstone said:
I think that their reviews are too lenient and a whole lot more movies should be rated condemned. They should restore the oath that Catholics took in Church to avoid condemned movies and state clearly that this oath must be followed under pain of mortal sin.
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Didn’t work then. Won’t work now, actually even less so now. And I thought the “Condemned” rating went away, to be replaced by “Objectionable.” And in effect doesn’t that raise a subjective movie review to the level of infallible doctrine: based on this (lay person’s?) review of such-and-such a movie, it is a mortal sin to see it. With the Oath Against Modernism gone, it’s hard to see the “movie oath” coming back. Thought the Church was getting away from treating its adult members like children.
 
I’ve not seen the movies mentioned in the OP, but I do sometimes feel called to repost what I learned from a priest who was once upon a time the movie reviewer for the diocese.

An O rating does not mean that Catholics may not view the movie. It means *if you go see this movie, expect your morals to be offended *(and the unspoken addendum: *if your morals are *not offended, you should probably look into that).

Save me a seat on the aisle,
🍿
tee
 
As others have said, the movie review office shifted from the USCCB to CNS. But as CNS is also under the auspices of the USCCB, it is really just an internal shuffling. It’s still the same group doing the reviews (which are laymen, not the bishops themselves).

All that said, I think their reviews are meant to be descriptive more than anything. And on that level, I think they do a reasonably good job. They’re not about “condemning” movies or even telling people what they ought to watch. They more or less attempt to lay out those aspects of the movie that may clash or support various aspects of the Catholic faith.

They’re not infallible by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t always agree with their ratings either. But it is helpful to have that snapshot of potentially objectionable content. Then I can decide whether or not it is something worth spending time watching.
 
Joe_5859 said:
They’re not infallible by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t always agree with their ratings either. But it is helpful to have that snapshot of potentially objectionable content. Then I can decide whether or not it is something worth spending time watching.
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Now that you mention it, I suppose they do look for the good in movies, even ones they give an O Rating. Sometimes, I think they don’t give it an O when it is an artistically good movie (like the Godfather, which they gave an L). A lot of cheesy movies (slashers like Friday the 13th or shoot-em-up action flicks) get O’s, since all they have going for them are cheap thrills or torture porn, instead of real action or true horror.
 
JackVk said:
Now that you mention it, I suppose they do look for the good in movies, even ones they give an O Rating. Sometimes, I think they don’t give it an O when it is an artistically good movie (like the Godfather, which they gave an L). A lot of cheesy movies (slashers like Friday the 13th or shoot-em-up action flicks) get O’s, since all they have going for them are cheap thrills or torture porn, instead of real action or true horror.
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I just checked the old USCCB movie site for the Godfather films. I had thought – and I was right – that the first two Godfather movies got a rating of A-III. The third movie got an A-IV (the rating later replaced by L), probably in large part for the unflattering fictional portrayal of certain members of the Church.

Unless the movies have been re-rated L recently, and if that’s the case, could you please point me to the source?
 
Tomdstone said:
I think that their reviews are too lenient and a whole lot more movies should be rated condemned. They should restore the oath that Catholics took in Church to avoid condemned movies and state clearly that this oath must be followed under pain of mortal sin.
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What about morally objectionable shows on cable channels like HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax? “Dexter”? “Game of Thrones”? That’s essentially pornography - much worse than any movie the USCCB has rated “O.” So, there seems to be a double standard at play here - so many fingers pointing at the movie theater - an “O” for Gone Girl (one of the trippiest movies I have seen in years) when the characters CLEARLY have ‘issues’? Really? Where are all the “O” condemnations for all the sinful shows on HBO?

Oh, and by the way, there are only two Godfather movies - the third one doesn’t count. 😃

As viewing habits shift from theaters to cable/Netflix/Hulu, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to wonder why there aren’t any ratings for TV. When will TV content get comparable ratings? The content of so many premium-cable TV shows is much, much worse than an R-rated movie like “Gone Girl.”

🍿
 
randomuser said:
What about morally objectionable shows on cable channels like HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax? “Dexter”? “Game of Thrones”? That’s essentially pornography - much worse than any movie the USCCB has rated “O.” So, there seems to be a double standard at play here - so many fingers pointing at the movie theater - an “O” for Gone Girl (one of the trippiest movies I have seen in years) when the characters CLEARLY have ‘issues’? Really? Where are all the “O” condemnations for all the sinful shows on HBO?

Oh, and by the way, there are only two Godfather movies - the third one doesn’t count. 😃

As viewing habits shift from theaters to cable/Netflix/Hulu, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to wonder why there aren’t any ratings for TV. When will TV content get comparable ratings? The content of so many premium-cable TV shows is much, much worse than an R-rated movie like “Gone Girl.”

🍿
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Well, to be fair, they never claimed to be anything more than movie reviews. They haven’t billed themselves as a comprehensive multimedia review site.

I think you’re right about the amount of junk on TV and the usefulness of reviews for such shows. However, it would be much more time intensive. Hollywood releases somewhere around 300 movies a year. And each one is probably 90-180 minutes long. Even if they reviewed every single movie (which they don’t), they could conceivably watch and review them all.

TV is something else entirely. There is far too much content to sift through. And as soon as you review one TV show, they might turn around and have an episode that completely undermines that review. The reviewers would basically have to review each episode on its own. Now, that could be useful, but it would also be very costly and time intensive.
 
randomuser said:
What about morally objectionable shows on cable channels like HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax? “Dexter”? “Game of Thrones”? That’s essentially pornography - much worse than any movie the USCCB has rated “O.” So, there seems to be a double standard at play here - so many fingers pointing at the movie theater - an “O” for Gone Girl (one of the trippiest movies I have seen in years) when the characters CLEARLY have ‘issues’? Really? Where are all the “O” condemnations for all the sinful shows on HBO?

Oh, and by the way, there are only two Godfather movies - the third one doesn’t count. 😃

As viewing habits shift from theaters to cable/Netflix/Hulu, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to wonder why there aren’t any ratings for TV. When will TV content get comparable ratings? The content of so many premium-cable TV shows is much, much worse than an R-rated movie like “Gone Girl.”

🍿
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I don’t watch cable TV so I am ignorant of these programs you mentioned. But, yes, I agree that there should be a separate rating system in effect for these programs also. IMHO, Catholics should take an oath in Church to avoid this type of entertainment.
 
Tomdstone said:
I don’t watch cable TV so I am ignorant of these programs you mentioned. But, yes, I agree that there should be a separate rating system in effect for these programs also. IMHO, Catholics should take an oath in Church to avoid this type of entertainment.
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I’m afraid I’m not familiar with your posts Tomdstone. Is there a [sarcasm][/sarcasm] intended here?
 
A few of the movies Tinsletown makes are family entertainment but Hollywood and the entertainment they churn out is mostly evil.

Hollywood is run mainly by evil and wicked people who exploit human sexuality and violence and put the sex and violence in the movies so you’ll fork over your money, purchase your ticket, and now they got your money, and you get 90 minutes to 2 hours or so of “entertainment” in return.

Hollywood attacks the Catholic Church, they attack the Family, they attack our Youth.

Not necessarily saying don’t watch any movies but beware and remember the American Catholic Church’s boycott of Hollywood in the 1930s and the Pledge Against Hollywood and the garbage it produces that was said in parishes for a few years after the 1930s Boycott.

One of the Pope’s wrote an Encyclical on the Movie Industry and Entertainment.
 
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