I also think there's a scene where someone prepares a joint in a toilet, and they are about to smoke it.

I admit, it's probably more appropriate for a 12 nowadays.

Not seen it but I thought it was R rated in the US. But superhero movies always seem to get leniency probably because it's viewed as comic book rather than real violence.

A link to the original BBFC judges' summary for Batman (1989), the first film to be rated 12: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/sites/default/...tman_final.pdf

If you're a film geek, it might be of interest!

I do recall that primary school contemporaries mentioned in class that they had seen it at the cinema aged 8 or 9 despite having been officially too young for it and so I looked it up and it turns out it was the first film to get a 12. For some reason I had thought it was an 18 (not even a 15!) and that 12 ratings came in years later

It was a PG in the cinema, with 19 seconds of cuts to the preparation & lighting of a joint, as mentioned above. Somewhat surprisingly the cuts didn't carry over to the 15 rated VHS, though it was lowered to 12 in 2010.

It would have been made with the American PG rating in mind, and they were (controversially) liberal in handing them out at the time. (There are films like Beetlejuice and Gremlins that were PG in the USA in the eighties and never would have been PG here).

10 Cloverfield Lane at 12A is certainly an interesting one.

I think they might have a problem in that 12A is a broad category now, with films like Force Awakens, Tomorrowland and some of the Marvel Studios stuff which would have been comfortably PG back in the day, and 10 Cloverfield Lane which wouldn't.

I'm a liberal, so i've no issue with parents deciding what their children can watch. But if you have a rating system that is suppose to indicate who should watch a film then the 12A category seems a bit ridiculous to me. There is no way that anyone under the age of 12 should watch 10 Cloverfield Lane - yet the cuts they made to get that rating probably hindered some of the horror aspect of the film.

Haven't seen it yet but I have a strong feeling that 10 Cloverfield Lane was a borderline 12A/15 decision, because after all,
1) One of the trailers was rated 15
2) It's rated 15A in Ireland

It seems to be a film that would better suit a hard 12 restriction (The Dark Knight is another that would be fine for strictly 12+ but which is too much for 12A)

I would have given Cuban fury and London has fallen 12

Taken 1. Should have been a 15.

The extended torture scene (with the nails) was the only reason why it got an 18. The bbfcinsight for the extended version says:

This scene, in dwelling on the torture, exceeded the boundaries of the strong violence permitted by the '15' Guidelines which state that 'Violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury', and tipped the classification into '18'

... so even the BBFC know that it is a very mild '18'.

Further proof: the UK theatrical version was the same as the extended harder cut expect that the extended torture scene with nails was replaced with the milder, PG-13 torture scene using clamps. It was rated 15.

I agree that it should be a 15 (the harder cut was a 15 in Ireland according to my disc). When I first saw it, I was surprised by how tame it was considering it had an 18 rating.

Somewhat off topic, but it'll be interesting to see if The Killing Joke gets an 18 rating.

It's a bit special you see....

A few weeks ago I started watching King Ralph with my 7 year old daughter. Aired during the daytime on Sky. 15 minutes into the film, constant swearing and then a scene in a strip club with nude women. Had to turn the film off, it was rated as a PG.

There are lots of examples of films like that, happily PG back in the day but would almost automatically be 12A now.

It is of course always worth noting, that from 1975-99 the ratings every major film got were ultimately the decision of one man, then bbfc director James Freman, and sometimes he made decisions that were eccentric. It's also fair comment to say directors he respected (Spielberg/Lucas, David Cronenberg, Oliver Stone) got lighter treatment than ones he didn't (Michael Winner).

12's were introduced in 1989. 12As came in later in 2002.

Grease is very leniently left classified as a PG but I'm sure if it was made now it would be a 12A.

It's just been given a 15 rating for strong violence. You have to be very, very extreme to get an 18 rating these days.

You could easily make an 18 rated film from the text of the comic, but can understand why they didn't.

I would not under any circumstances let young children watch Batman: The Killing Joke, and that's from the perspective of someone who thinks the bbfc are too harsh on most things.