Unlike the MPAA we do not assign
one
inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE
and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest,
depending on quantity and context.
Ben Stiller is a Hollywood writer who loses his jobs,
friends, wife and daughter because of his all-consuming addiction to heroin. Co-starring
Elizabeth Hurley, Maria Bello, Owen Wilson, Lourdes Benedicto, Peter Greene, Cheryl Ladd,
Fred Willard and Janeane Garofalo.
SEX/NUDITY 7 - Lots of sexual innuendo. Lots of passionate kissing and
caressing (several scenes show a man and woman in various states of undress kissing,
groping and talking in bed). In three scenes, we see a man and woman having intercourse
with lots of movement and sound (in two of the scenes, both are clothed; in the other
scene, we see the man's bare back and the woman's bare breast). A man kisses a woman's
clothed breast and lays on top of her. A man puts whipped cream on a woman's lips and
licks it off. We see a woman in bed talking to a man that's off-screen but obviously under
the covers (presumably lying on her stomach). Several times we see a woman in a bra and in
a slip; we also see several scantily clad women (in short skirts, cleavage-revealing tops,
etc.).
VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - We see spots of blood on a table and a telephone and a
puddle of blood on the carpet where a person apparently died; a man scrubs the bloodstain
from the carpet. Many times we see blood and bruises on a man's arm while he's injecting
himself with heroin; we often see him spraying his blood on the floor and ceiling with the
used syringe. A man injects his neck (we see some blood) and a woman injects herself
between her legs (it's unclear whether she's injecting her genitals or her inner thigh).
We hear a man being punched by another; later, we see bloody cuts on his face. After
taking drugs, two men repeatedly jump into a plate glass window and then fall down on the
floor. We hear a man vomiting.
the review continues below...
PROFANITY 9 - Nearly 40 F-words, several anatomical references, lots of
scatological references, several mild obscenities and a few racial slurs. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Drug addiction and rehabilitation, green-card marriages,
irresponsibility, childbirth, child endangerment.
MESSAGE - When you're addicted to drugs, you can't care about anything
except getting high.
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we
started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were
not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many
older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please
keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period.
While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are
limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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