Batman v Superman's Extended Version: More Movie Rating Madness...

The sales people will no doubt be out there nudging various superhero movie fans in the side - winking up a storm and mumbling a range of suggestive sounds - at the thought of an 'R-Rated' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ... but, as director Zack Snyder has stated several times, unlike Deadpool, there will be no geysers or gore and flashes of flesh. And with word of just a standard issue single 'F-word', it leads to an interesting issue of America's rating system - doled out by the not-so-user-friendly Motion Picture Association of America (check out "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" for more on that).

BvS is getting an extended 'ultimate edition' director's cut - much like Watchmen did - which likewise pushes the running time over three hours. The theatrical version was rated PG-13 in America (for "intense sequences of violence and action throughout, and some sensuality") - and 12A here in the United Kingdom by the now far more open British Board of Film Classification. However, the extended version nabbed itself an R-Rating from the MPAA (no-one under 17) - simply due to added 'intensity' from some extended violence which 'tips the scale', according to Snyder.

Want to know what the extended director's cut was rated in the UK? Does a jump from PG-13 to R in America mean a leap from 12A to 15, or even 18, in Blighty?

Click "READ MORE" below to find out...

The Losers...

I didn't really know anything at all about this flick until just before seeing it. An article in Total Film and the trailer in the cinema the week before it opened when we went to see Cop Out, and that was all I knew of it - but it looked like ruddy good fun - and ruddy good fun was what we got.

I was pleasantly surprised by The Losers, not that it's especially clever or has an exceptionally original script, because it isn't and it doesn't - but it's just a bloody good time at the movies. Big guns, big explosions, big characters with sarcastic senses of humour, and tub-thumping action set pieces.

It's a movie to just enjoy, like eating a take-away dinner on the sofa with a couple of kick ass DVDs on the telly.

My one grievance, though, is the 12A rating. The violence feels neutered - although the neutering is done within reason (a comic book style freeze framing device at times) ... but then again, for a 12A it's pretty bad ass. It's been a while since I've heard "shit" flung around so freely in the dialogue of 12A flick, and there's a damn clear "fuck" thrown in for good measure. The violence swings between stylistic awesomeness and bruisingly bloodless. It'll be interesting to see if they do an unrated version for DVD, but even if they don't, I can easily see myself enjoying the hell out of this movie all over again on DVD.

Wham, bam, thank you ma'am - that's The Losers for you. Pure, boiled-down entertainment.

Iron Man...

An awesome trailer with an arse kicking soundtrack, a slightly less awesome - but ultimately very entertaining - movie with an arse kicking soundtrack. It certainly has its flaws, mainly that at times it feels a bit flabby around the edges. Occasionally you'll feel like you're treading water - as in, "he's still building this thing?" - but fortunately the wit and utter cool of RDJ keeps things moving, even when the plot is slowing down.

It's rated 12A in the UK, which means that under 12's can get in with an adult - and there were certainly plenty of kiddywinks in the audience when me and the lads went to check it out t'other night. Now either I'm getting old, or I'm right in my thinking (I'm thinking it's half-and-half) but it's sometimes very tough for a 12A.

The tough parts aren't too tough for a 12 year old, but due to 12A allowing in kids as young as - well, anything pretty much - the sections which focus on the terrorists are surprisingly grim. Now either a six year old, for example, will either be taken aback - or they won't pay it much attention as they don't understand that, right now in the middle east, there really are scumbags rounding up families and splitting the men from their kids and wives, lining them up against a wall and then shooting them dead ... sadly in real life, Iron Man doesn't crash land from the sky and start kicking arse and taking names whilst some hard rock pummels your ears.

It's a thrashing, bashing, hard rocking super hero movie with a witty tongue. Not the best out there, but far from the worst. It's hasn't got the pace and general drama of Spider-Man, but nor is it the silliness and forgettableness of Fantastic Four 2.

Definitely worth seeing, twice even, and with news that RDJ has signed on for a sequel - which was pretty much guaranteed before the movie even stormed the box office upon release - it's all good.

Mind you, The Dark Knight is coming soon ... hell yeah.