CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

85 Alexandra
xx All of Us
53 Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert
57 Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, The
40 America the Beautiful
66 American Teen
74 Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
63 Appaloosa
xx Ashes of Time Redux
65 August Evening
xx Bachna Ae Haseeno
62 Baghead
81 Ballast
55 Battle in Seattle
59 Beautiful Losers
xx Beer for My Horses
47 Before the Rains
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
xx Billy: The Early Years
63 Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
56 Bottle Shock
75 Boy A
55 Bra Boys
xx Breakfast with Scot
61 Brick Lane
64 Brideshead Revisited
61 Bustin' Down the Door
xx Call and Response
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
47 Choke
xx Choose Connor
xx Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
54 CSNY: Déjà Vu
41 Cthulhu
64 Duchess, The
85 Edge of Heaven, The
66 Elegy
33 Elite Squad
52 Elsa & Fred
80 Encounters at the End of the World
26 Everybody Wants to Be Italian
64 Fall, The
28 Fireproof
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
65 Flow: For Love of Water
37 Forever Strong
39 Forgiveness
82 Frozen River
73 Girl Cut in Two, A
62 Girls Rock!
xx Goal II: Living the Dream
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
57 Good Dick
54 Hamlet 2
xx Happy-Go-Lucky
25 Hell Ride
44 Henry Poole is Here
31 Hounddog
53 Humboldt County
72 I Served the King of England
71 I.O.U.S. A
40 Igor
64 In Search of a Midnight Kiss
46 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
67 Jellyfish
xx Just Buried
62 Kabluey
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
78 Last Mistress, The
52 Last Stop for Paul
70 Love Songs
xx Lower Learning
63 Man Named Pearl, A
89 Man on Wire
62 Mister Foe
86 Momma's Man
74 Mongol
80 Moving Midway
46 My Mexican Shivah
xx Nights and Weekends
73 Obscene
80 Order of Myths, The
67 Patti Smith: Dream of Life
xx Phoebe in Wonderland
55 Ping Pong Playa
77 Pool, The
72 Priceless
82 Rachel Getting Married
61 Red
55 Religulous
71 Roman de gare
78 Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
51 Savage Grace
58 Save Me
72 Secret, A
45 Shoot on Sight
57 Sixty Six
55 Sukiyaki Western Django
16 Surfer, Dude
82 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
63 Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
71 To the Limit
57 Towelhead
72 Transsiberian
83 Trouble the Water
83 U2 3D
84 Up the Yangtze
52 Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
79 Visitor, The
61 Wackness, The
xx Whaledreamers
54 What We Do Is Secret
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
67 XXY
55 Year of the Fish
39 Young People F**king
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

This Film Is Not Yet Rated
IFC Films

This Film Is Not Yet Rated reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 75 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.0 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Kirby Dick, John Waters, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, Kimberly Peirce, Darren Aronofsky, Atom Egoyan, and Maria Bello

Academy Award-nominated director Kirby Dick takes on the MPAA.


GENRE(S): Documentary  
WRITTEN BY: Kirby Dick
Eddie Schmidt
Matt Patterson
 
DIRECTED BY: Kirby Dick  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: January 23, 2007 
Theatrical: September 1, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Film Threat Eric Campos
It's vital that everyone who cares about film see this documentary.
Read Full Review
100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Funny, muckraking documentary.
Read Full Review
88
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Fascinating, amusing and ultimately disturbing.
Read Full Review
88
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Kirby Dick's indispensable guerrilla attack on the film-ratings system gives Hollywood a swift, smart and hilarious kick in its institutional, hypocritical ass.
Read Full Review
83
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
It thoroughly eviscerates the MPAA and makes a solid case that the culture has paid the price for its censorious practices. His (Dick's) attacks are the equivalent of shooting ducks in a barrel, but these ducks had it coming.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Has a bright, dishy spirit.
Read Full Review
83
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
A revealing, compelling, scabrous and funny look into a system characterized by through-the-looking-glass logic and Kremlin-style secrecy.
Read Full Review
80
Washington Post Philip Kennicott
Remarkably entertaining.
Read Full Review
80
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
An impassioned piece of activist filmmaking that's as persuasive and entertaining as it is disturbing.
Read Full Review
80
Slate Dana Stevens
The movie is both clever and ruthless at exposing the ratings board's inconsistencies and hypocrisy.
Read Full Review
80
The New York Times Dana Stevens
Feisty, intellectually engaging.
Read Full Review
80
Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman
In the ultimate test, Kirby submits this very documentary to the tender mercies of the MPAA. It gets slapped with an NC-17 for graphic content. He appeals. He loses -- ten votes to zip.
80
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Intriguing and often hilarious.
Read Full Review
80
Variety Todd McCarthy
Never really addresses why aspects of the ratings don't work, proposes concrete improvements or compares the system to those in other countries. Still, picture's bracing, hilarious and out-there elements make it a landmark.
Read Full Review
78
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Yet, like it or not, the MPAA ratings is a system in which we all participate – which makes this film important to see if anything is ever going to change.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Hugely entertaining catalog of MPAA follies.
Read Full Review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter
Gets under your skin as another thought-provoking wake-up call about the power of studios and the corporations that back them.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Ultimately, Dick subordinates scholarship to passion, which may be exactly what it takes to convince mainstream moviegoers that they should care about a system that shortchanges THEM when they go to the movies.
Read Full Review
75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
While This Film Is Not Yet Rated does not suggest an alternative to the ratings board, it does expose this Tinseltown sham to some well-deserved public ridicule.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The filmmaker doesn't exactly let anyone off the hook.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Extremely amusing.
Read Full Review
75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Despite being a little rough around the edges (as is often the case with the work of maverick documentarians), This Film Is Not Yet Rated is more than just an angry diatribe against the MPAA.
Read Full Review
75
USA Today Claudia Puig
There is no question that the organization is a riveting subject for a film.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Any investigation into Hollywood inevitably mutates into a noir.
Read Full Review
70
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Unlike the object of its scathing attention, Kirby Dick's documentary about the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board is merry and bright and loads of fun.
Read Full Review
70
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Dick's strongest points are that these raters receive no training and are given no standards by which to judge movies. Experts in child psychology or media or social studies are not consulted. Nor are they allowed on the board. The days of counting F-words or pelvic thrusts need to end, and in the film's quieter moments, Dick makes this case compellingly.
Read Full Review
70
The New Yorker Anthony Lane
As the movie shows, the whole furtive business of ratings is indeed ridiculous and should be overhauled.
Read Full Review
70
Dallas Observer Rob Nelson
This Film Is Not Yet Rated has a refreshingly snotty sense of humor.
Read Full Review
67
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
This Film Is Not Yet Rated performs a great service, though not especially well.
Read Full Review
63
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
100 percent right about our corrupt and hypocritical industry-controlled movie ratings system. Being right, however, doesn't automatically make for a strong documentary. I enjoyed a lot of it. Yet fully half of what's on screen is beside its own point.
Read Full Review
63
Premiere Jared Shimizu
Raises some probing questions about the secrecy of ratings decisions in a way that entertains and educates audiences with or without agendas to protect film integrity.
Read Full Review
60
Empire David Parkinson
Packed with amusing graphics, animated sequences and damning testimonies, this is a landmark denunciation of Hollywood infantilisation and protectionism.
Read Full Review
50
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The main activity charted in the documentary is a kind of adolescent mischief, as Dick and a private investigator seek to uncover and expose the anonymous MPAA employees.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jim S gave it a2:
I was extremely disappointed by this movie. There really was nothing to 'expose' and no great insights. In the end I had more respect for the MPAA board than the filmmaker who in typical liberal Hollywood fashion finds a way to blame the wrong group. The real blame should be on the big companies that won't back NC-17 movies. That's your real censors.

Chad S. gave it a7:
To my surprise, "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" doesn't climax with the outing of the MPAA board. This very informative doc about the puritanical hypocrites who count pelvic thrusts instead of bullets, somewhat loses its shape after the film's selling point is made. Everything that follows is anti-climactic. The appeals process is interesting, but not as interesting as watching a private detective at work. When Becky says that she loves to spy on people without their knowledge, you wonder if those words were scripted(a voyeur doing work against an industry that's predicated on voyeurism); and also if the filmmaker chose this detective(a lesbian, with a protege who happens to be young and sort of hot) to echo the ratings board's fear of females giving females pleasure. We watch closely for any trace of sexual tension. Well, I did. In "This Film Is Not Yet Rated", much is made about how independent films get the shaft when they face the ratings board. Well, this is our faults. If more people ventured out to films such as "Boys Don't Cry" and "Where the Truth Lies", art would be allowed to be art if commerce wasn't lagging too far behind.

Riren gave it an8:
This movie raises some great questions about our movie rating system and the needlessly shadowy MPAA organization. However, it has some problems of its own. George Carlin discusses our societal problem with enjoying fictional violence and prohibiting fictional sex in his stand-up comedy with greater depth and maturity than a dozen of these directors and producers do in actually discussing it for the film. Almost the entire first half of the movie is devoted to a parade of writers, directors and producers complaining about getting a gratuitous rating for showing a sexual act or semi-erotic behavior - This Film Is Not Yet Rated gets redundant quickly for far too long on this matter. They save the really compelling problems for use in small doses, such as Gunner Palace's R-rating; it was a documentary about what real soldiers are doing in Iraq, that got an R for drug use and profane language. It is much easier to sympathize with a director who is just trying to show the American public how their soldiers work and relax than it is with a director who complains that she wasn't able to show a graphic threeway in her comedy, or that he was chastised for having a girl pick up a bottle with her labia. Several of the things the documentary defends are juvenile, and it's kind of funny to see the film makers be so defensive about it. The Pentagon's possible censorship of war movies gets perhaps 60 seconds in this 95-minute movie. Movie "piracy" gets maybe 90 seconds. The cliche of violence against women gets a semi-humorous musical montage. Yet there's plenty of time to watch the lesbian private investigator talk about her life, sit in the car on camera on stakeouts and play phone tag - this is time that should have been invested in a meaningful discussion of issues raised in the film. The film's biggest problem is the MPAA, the organization that creates and gives ratings. The MPAA is too secretive to have contributed much in the way of interviews, and so it is blasted and jabbed at Michael Moore style. Certainly after the movie they seem to have deserved this treatment, but a thinking viewer can't help but be disappointed that most of what we hear about the MPAA is speculation as to their activities and motives. The most clever part of the movie documents its own submission to the MPAA for a rating, though much like the rest of the film, this part is more entertaining than informative - voices are "re-enacted" to give antagonistic tones, cartoon faces are used to characterize board members, conversations are cut making the director look sympathetic, and so on. Still, for the information the film provides and all the questions it raises, it's absolutely worth seeing. You may even want to make a checklist of all the topics you'll have to discuss afterwards. It definitely provides more of those than your average movie, or even your average documentary.

Mase gave it a10:
BRAVO!! A must see for any American filmgoer. Don't let that it is a documentary scare you off, highly entertaining and informative. One of the most enjoyable and intruiguing movies of the year. Will surely start a good conversation afterwards as well

Joan C. gave it a10:
really sexy! very cool.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: Fantasy Football | Miley Cyrus | MLB | iPhone 3G | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use