Tammy and the T-Rex is a 1994 USA comedy Sci-Fi film by Stewart Raffill.
Starring Denise Richards, Theo Forsett and Paul Walker.
An evil scientist implants the brain of Michael, a murdered high school student, in an animatronic Tyrannosaurus. He escapes, wreaks vengeance on his high school tormentors and is reunited with his sweetheart Tammy. Together, the couple try to
elude the mad scientist and the police and find a more appropriate vessel for Michael's brain.
The film was originally shot as an R-rated horror comedy, including a bunch of bloody violence and gore, but the producers thought better of it and cut it down to a child friendly version.
However the original R rated version, now tagged as the Gore Cut, has been resurrected and has just been screened at Cinepocalypse in the US. And according to
bloody-disgusting.com , it went down well, adding:
For those who remember the movie from the 90s, the "gore cut" is very similar to the version you saw on VHS. It's got more cursing and more sexual content, but what really differentiates it, not surprisingly, the splattery violence.
Heads are bitten off, people are disemboweled, skulls are crushed, bodies are flattened, all with the kind of gory excess that recalls the splatstick comedies of Peter Jackson rather than the realism of Tom Savini.
The Gore Cut will be released on home video later this year.
The Nightingale is a 2018 Australia adventure thriller by Jennifer Kent.
Starring Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman and Aisling Franciosi.
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an
Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
The director of a brutal historical drama -- containing numerous visceral rape scenes that prompted cinemagoers to walk out of a Sydney screening on Sunday -- has defended her film, saying it's historically accurate.
Aussie film The Nightingale, directed by Jennifer Kent, was screened as part of the Sydney Film Festival to a sold-out audience of more than 1000 people.
Some audience members were so distressed by the on-screen violence, that they yelled out in protest and walked out.
However, Kent responded saying that the unflinching rape-revenge story, set in 1825, contains historically accurate depictions of colonial violence and racism towards our indigenous people:
We've made this film in collaboration with Tasmanian Aboriginal elders, and they feel it's an honest and necessary depiction of their history and a story that needs to be told, she said. I remain enormously proud of the film.
However, it was clear some in Sydney on Sunday didn't feel the level of sexual violence was warranted in telling the story of Clare, tweeting:
The Nightingale made me do something I thought I would never do. I walked out. There was a point when I just needed to take myself away from that brutal space. But I recognised that this is an important film so I walked back in and watched the
rest of the movie.
Viewers also walked out during later scenes in the film that showed horrific levels of violence towards babies, children and mainly indigenous people -- with close-up shots of faces being mashed up, brutal stabbings and even more drawn-out rapes.
Despite the criticism, The Nightingale received a sustained round of applause as the credits rolled at the Ritz last night.
The Netflix film The Perfection has been reclassified in New Zealand as 18+ following concerns raised by a few viewers over its graphic content.
Netflix had rated the film as 16+ with a content note of language, violence, nudity.
New Zealand generally accepts Australian age ratings as a default unless queried. The Australian Classification Board settled on an MA 15+ rating for Strong themes of sexual violence, violence, sex and coarse language.
The film had also caused a bit of a stir in Australia too. Netflix's own classification tool had assigned the film an MA15+ rating. The rating included consumer advice that warned of, among other things, strong blood and gore.
After hearing reports of viewers becoming physically ill, the Australian Classification Board decided to audit the Netflix rating. The director of the Classification Board, Margaret Anderson, confirmed that Netflix was not only right to classify
the film MA15+, but that its strong blood and gore warning was not necessary.
In New Zealand, however, the classification has been raised to 18+ with warnings about rape, sexual violence, suicide references, graphic violence. Chief Censor David Shanks noted that
The film wasn't viewed by any authority until after it had launched on Netflix, which demonstrates a serious problem with the classifications system.
A member of the public flagged the film to the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) on May 26 - when it had already been available on Netflix in New Zealand for two days.
Streaming services are not subject to any formal regime. I can call them in using my powers under the act but it's reactive and usually it's out there and people have seen it before we can get the thing addressed.
Note that the BBFC agreed with the 18 rating, passing the film 18 uncut for sexual violence, suicide references.
Update: Why we changed the rating for The Perfection
The content that most concerns Kiwis is quite different to what gets under the skins of people in other countries, such as Australia, the United States, or most other places in the world.
We have our own culture and values to be proud of, and our own very real problems to deal with.
At our office we try to ensure that Kiwis get all the information they need before they watch a movie or series, so people can make viewing choices that are right for them. Increasingly we are less about censorship and more about empowering Kiwis
to make their own informed choices.
This is straightforward when it comes to traditional media such as DVDs or movies at the cinema, but content on streaming services like Lightbox or Netflix is not currently covered by our legislation, which makes things a little more complex!
A good example popped up this week after my office was told about themes of sexual violence and child abuse in a film called The Perfection. It initially landed via Netflix as 16+ with a note for Language, violence, nudity. This looks to me like
a US rating. I checked with my counterparts overseas, and found that the Aussies initially rated it as MA15+, with the note Strong Nudity, Strong Violence, Strong Blood and Gore, Strong Coarse Language, Strong Horror Themes, Horror Violence and
the Brits gave it an 18, with a note for Sexual violence, suicide references.
That illustrates the issue. Different audiences are concerned with different things. In the States people often want to be warned about coarse language and nudity, but here in NZ Kiwis have told us sexual violence and suicide are topics people
want to be warned about in advance. These are big issues that many in our community care deeply about, and have lived experience of.
Once we'd seen the movie, we knew it had content that our audiences would expect to know about, - including suicide references and sexual violence. The warning note that Netflix had for this one really needed to change to be effective for a NZ
audience. In terms of age rating we felt it was on the line between a 16+ and a 18+ rating, but the range of content and the format suggested the higher age rating.
Fortunately Netflix recognises the needs of our own domestic audience, and do genuinely want to engage with us, and be responsive to a NZ audience. So they were happy to change the information. It is now 18+ with the consumer advice, Rape, sexual
violence, suicide references, graphic violence.
From my point of view, this is just another case illustrating the fact that we're all just working within a legislative system that was designed for media back in the eighties and nineties, and wasn't built to deal with the international
availability of streaming media online.
There is room for optimism as the Government is looking at changing this. We see getting consumer information, particularly as content management tools and support for parents in the future will likely depend on accurate ratings to work properly.
The Iron-Fisted Monk is a 1977 Hong Kong action comedy drama by Sammo Kam-Bo Hung.
Starring Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Sing Chen and James Tien.
Cut by the BBFC for 18 rated DVD in 2001. Uncut and 18 rated since 2019 Blu-ray. Uncut and MPAA R rated in the US.
The 2001 cuts of 1:16s were for sexual violence. The BBFC commented at the time:
Cuts were required to remove eroticising shots of the forced exposure and groping of breasts, and of volume of nudity of victim during a rape scene under the Board's guidelines and sexual violence policy.
93:01s
UK: Passed 18 uncut for sexual violence with previous BBFC cuts waived:
2019 Eureka video
Summary Review: Good Addition
Here is yet another excellent kung fu movie done by Sammo Hung. The fighting is outstanding consisting of multiple kung fu styles facing off against each other, all done with superior speed and precision. Also sword and
other weapons battles round out the action. There are still a ton of fight scenes but not quite as many as some of his other films, probably short by just a couple. The story is good and has decent acting. It is done well enough to keep your
interest throughout and contains some scenes not normally seen in these type of films (nude, rape, a whore house). I was quite surprised with the amount of nudity shown (female). This movie is definitely not for children.
The Iron Fisted Monk is definitely a good addition to any kung fu collection.
Rocketman is a 2019 UK / USA musical music biography by Dexter Fletcher.
Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Taron Egerton and Richard Madden.
A musical fantasy about the fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years.
The Elton John biopic Rocketman was banned by Samoa's film censor last week due to its depiction of homosexuality onscreen. Film censor Leiataua Niuapu Faaui said:
We're concerned with the cultural values and also the Christian beliefs here in Samoa -- it's not appropriate for public viewing,
Samoa recently also edited scenes from a screening of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody n the same grounds.
In Samoa, sodomy is illegal and is punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is a 2019 USA action adventure by David Leitch.
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Idris Elba and Eiza González.
Lawman Luke Hobbs and outcast Deckard Shaw form an unlikely alliance when a cyber-genetically enhanced villain threatens the future of humanity.
In this Fast and Furious spinoff, Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Jason Statham's characters find themselves having to stop Idris Elba s Brixton Lore from unleashing a deadly virus on humanity.
One of the big fights will unfold when Luke Hobbs, Deckard Shaw and Vanessa Kirby's Hattie Shaw team up with Hobbs family to clash with Brixton Lore and his goons in Samoa. Johnson shared how it was initially planned for him to bite and spit out
his opponent's eye. He claimed:
Unfortunately the scene where I bite the bad guy's eye out and spit it on the dirt didn't make it. MPAA ratings board forbid us to show it because it was too violent.
PG-13 movies are granted a fair amount of leeway when it comes to action and violence, but naturally there are some things that are off limits within that rating. Luke Hobbs removing a man's eye from his socket would have been shocking, brutal
and badass, but the MPAA wasn't having it, so we'll have to make due with Johnson's character simply tossing his adversary to the ground and bludgeoning him senseless.
IFCO has published its annual report covering 2018.
It notes that teh number of cinema films passed is about the same as the previous year with 448 releases in 2018. However it reports that video DVD submissions (presumably including Blu-ray) has declined by 15% to 2621 submission in 2018.
IFCO reports on 2 appeals in 2018, both appeals were rejected and the rating remained unaltered. The two films were the 18 rated The First Purge , and the 12A rated Bumblebee.
The number of complaints received by IFCO has always been minimal. IFCO writes:
During 2018, IFCO received 18 complaints from the public which related specifically to classifications awarded. The most received in respect of any one title was 6 in the case of SHOW DOGS, a comedy classified PG for Mild violence, language and
rude humour. Of these, two were from people who had not seen the film.
IFCO has also just upgraded its website to make it a bit smarter. IFCO acknowledged that it needs to up its game in interacting with the public. IFCO wrote in the report:
It is to be hoped that the updated website will be more visited and perhaps encourage people to contact IFCO. All constructive input, whether positive or negative is very welcome and informs as to people's expectations of IFCO service
The Irish Film Classification Office (Ifco) is suffering a rapid decline in revenue as a result of the collapse of DVD sales. The state censor has experienced a 23% drop in income over two years.
In its recently published 2018 report Ifco said the slump in DVDs being submitted for classification meant its financial situation would have to be closely monitored.
The Netflix film The Perfection has been reclassified in New Zealand as 18+ following concerns raised by a few viewers over its graphic content.
The content that most concerns Kiwis is quite different to what gets under the skins of people in other countries, such as Australia, the United States, or most other places in the world.
Rocketman is a 2019 UK / USA musical music biography by Dexter Fletcher. 
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is a 2019 USA action adventure by David Leitch. 
