Spies in Disguise nudity???

[Justin Hamaker]

I had a customer today come out and complain about nudity in Spies in Disguise. This was news to me as we had not had any previous complaints in the 10 days we've been playing the movie. Reading the conservative family reviews it seems there is a scene where you see a large nude main partially obscured on the screen.

I'm curious is anyone knows what time this happens in the movie. I would like to check it out so I can have an intelligent answer when asked.

[Frank Cox]

The BC Film Classification report (which also applies here in Saskatchewan) says this:

The following were determinative to the classification decision:
- Several scenes of violence depicting weapons, physical assault and/or injury.

Classifiers also noted the following:

- Two scenes of nudity, depicting buttocks, in non-sexual contexts.

[Mike Blakesley]

I found this in IMDB.com:
Sex & Nudity

• Mild 14 of 28 found this mild
• A man checks his crotch after his hand shrinks and he screams in horror.
• Discussion of pigeon anatomy (cloaca) and their means of going to the toilet.

[Justin Hamaker]

Before posting I read what it said on some of those blogs/web sites. I was asking to see if anyone knew about what time in the movie it happens so I can check it out for myself.

[Randy Stankey]

I agree that it is good to monitor movies, TV shows and other things to be sure that kids aren't exposed to images that they are too young to understand... But "cloaca?" Are you kidding me?

It's okay to see images of a man wearing a loincloth, hacking people with a sword but we can't say, "cloaca?"

What are we supposed to do? Sit in a white room, all day long, and read the Bible?

Do we have a ratings website that lists all the parts of the Bible that describe murder, rape and pillaging?

If we have to protect children from hearing a scientific term that describes a part of a pigeon's anatomy, why is it okay for us to require them to read a book which describes violence toward women? Is it because one thing is venerated but the other is not?

Yes! It is important to treat the venerated symbols of religion with respect but, when those very symbols propagate a double standard it is important to call them out.

We all understand words, "conservative" and "family" to be good things but, when they are used as code words to stand for intolerance and bullying, it's time to stand up.

If people don't want to see certain things in movies, I'm all for their right to make that choice.

But it is NOT the movie theater's responsibility to be "Morality Police" because there are too many definitions of what "morality" is. It's impossible for theaters to minister to every person's ideas about what is moral or not moral.

I absolutely HATE to see scenes that depict things like rape but I wouldn't give a damn if actors walked around naked for the entire duration of a movie. I don't expect to receive a minute-by-minute account detailing every scene of every movie that depicts something that might trigger me. (Yes, certain things like rape scenes can trigger me... BADLY!)

I also hate it when other people get to use words like "conservative" and "family" or worse... "Conservative Family"... as a dog whistle words that allow them to bully movie theaters to their narrow minded, self-righteous double standards.

Movie theater owners, managers and employees shouldn't have to put up with this kind of BS!

Cinema Paradiso Priest.png

[Justin Hamaker]

Randy, I don't disagree with you. But when something has been brought to my attention, I want to view it for myself so I can at least have an informed response if a customer brings it up to me. I usually would just refer the customer to the rating description unless I was asked about something specific. In this case, if someone said they heard there was nudity in Spies, I would like to be able to describe it. I don't like being put in the position of being the morality police, but I would rather be proactive than deal with an offended parent after the fact.

The exception about "morality policing" is when there is something I think if much worse than what is normally seen in a movie at a given rating. Two examples that stick out are Hearts in Atlantis and The Last House on the Left. With Atlantis I warned a grandmother taking a 3-4 year old about a rape scene. With Last House, I warned parents taking younger teens about the very brutal, and long, rape scene.

[Samuel Newton]

Would this be considered spoiling? I have customers I feel would be much more upset about potential spoilers than the mental well being of their child.

[Justin Hamaker]

Samuel, I don't give away any specifics about how these things fit into the movie. I'm just providing information for parents to make an informed decision.

[Randy Stankey]

There are two things that made me think that this could be a case of zealotry as opposed to somebody with objective concerns.

First, it took ten days for somebody to show up and complain. Most people would have heard, through word of mouth, about the movie and the possibility of content that they don't like or else they would have had time for the reviews to come in so that they could have looked it up.

Second, it's a cartoon. Images in cartoons don't carry the same weight as images from real life.
Cartoon characters like Wile E. Coyote smash into brick walls or get squashed by giant anvils and we think it's funny. Daffy duck gets all his feathers blown off and he slinks off the stage, red-faced, but we don't get all bent out of shape about it. Cartoon imagery gets more leeway when it comes to the depiction of certain things that, in real life, would, otherwise, be objectionable.

Not even cartoons should get a pass on things like rape or graphic violence but I don't think a cartoon butt or a pigeon's cloaca is too far outside the reasonable expectations of most people.

That's why I think this looks like a case that lies more than two standard deviations from the mean.

I understand that you want to watch the scene which the person complained about. I just think that a printed movie summary sheet, available at the box office, which lists the quick synopsis of the movie and a run-down on things that some people might object to is a better solution.

I am only saying that we need to resist the temptation to stick a slip of paper into the film reel every time a priest rings a bell.

[Frank Angel]

As Lenny Bruce once pointed out, in a horror you can show a buzz saw cutting off a woman's breast and no one says boo; but show a man licking the nipple on that breast and they throw pickets up around the theatre.

Anyone watch the halftime Superbowl "show"? Anyone think THAT was appropriate family fair? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pILCn6VO_RU there we were the family and especially with or 12yr old grand daughter, and had to watch Lopez do a simulated anal dry hump with some guy who I would be afraid to meet up with in a dark parking lot. While we were very uncomfortable with youngsters watching all of what I would consider ADULT "entertainment," her mother was applauded. Check out the dry humping at 10:05 on. Yes evidently millions thought this was just a wonderful show. There is no accounting for taste.

And these are not my father's Rockettes, I was impressed with their dance moves, but NO WAY they were not lip syncing. The human body simply cannot do those dance moves and not hear it in the voice. You can't jump up and down and at the same time hold a note unwavering and clean.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

As Lenny Bruce once pointed out, in a horror you can show a buzz saw cutting off a woman's breast and no one says boo; but show a man licking the nipple on that breast and they throw pickets up around the theatre.

Anyone watch the halftime Superbowl "show"? Anyone think THAT was appropriate family fair? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pILCn6VO_RU there we were the family and especially with or 12yr old grand daughter, and had to watch Lopez do a simulated anal dry hump with some guy who I would be afraid to meet up with in a dark parking lot. While we were very uncomfortable with youngsters watching all of what I would consider ADULT "entertainment," her mother was applauded. Check out the dry humping at 10:05 on. Yes evidently millions thought this was just a wonderful show. There is no accounting for taste.

And these are not my father's Rockettes, I was impressed with their dance moves, but NO WAY they were not lip syncing. The human body simply cannot do those dance moves and not hear it in the voice. You can't jump up and down and at the same time hold a note unwavering and clean.

I could go into a lengthy discussion about how the MPAA Ratings board determines what rating a movie should get, but it would stir up a possible political debate. (I worked on the screening rooms there and met with some of the ratings board some years ago.) Suffice it to say that the board consists of carefully selected persons who do all the ratings. (On an related note, I pictured their heads exploding during a certain scene in "Deadpool 2" in reference to the melting down of a character...)

I watched the game but ignored the halftime bore totally, mainly because I can't stand any of the so-called "artists" in the performance.

And of course the whole thing is lip-sync'd.... wireless mics are notoriously temperamental and the HUGE time delays from the mics to the field would make staying in time with the music impossible.

I ran into that problem at a motocross track many years ago, the wireless I was using (a VERY expensive Shure system) had a horrible delay that made it impossible for me to announce from the infield like I normally do. I gave up and retreated to the tower and used a wired mic.

Related story: I once had the "brilliant" idea to mic up a motocross rider during the race. I rented a mic system, chose a rider I knew well who was a very polite and respectful young man. After talking to him and his parents (he was 17), we decided to try it out. I monitored him during the practice sessions and he did great, giving some very funny commentary and having a good time. I thought this was gonna work out great.

So, during the first race, I was listening in and segue way'd my show into "Rider (name deleted) is wearing a mic, let's listen in as he battles with rider (name deleted)." I switched over to his feed...for the first minute, it was going well...then another rider lost control, collided with my mobile announcer....

.....who promptly let loose with string of expletives worse than you could possibly imagine. So much for a family friendly show. I cut his feed and paused before I could think of what to say to the crowd to recover from this debacle. The end result of this idea was a string of complaints, a huge load of embarrassment for me,the rider and his parents, and a sweaty stinky mic pack that took a lot of cleaning before I could return it to the rental shop.

During my stint as a motocross announcer up here I did have riders suggest that since I raced, I should mic myself up during a moto too...once I told them the above story (and knowing me all too well) they agreed it would be a bad idea.

[Frank Angel]

GREAT story, Tony! And there's this; we were doing Yiddish Theatre years ago while the old Jewish thespians from Second Avenue theatre circuit in Manhattan were still alive. The idea was to recreate those wonderful original Yiddish Theatre acts with the original sets (or some duplicated in our shop) and getting the original actors like Fyvush Finkel and Molly Picon and many others to bring back their sketches and skits and stories from the 20s and 30s hayday of Yiddish theatre that had long had been forgotten. It was a great project and lasted for as long as they those old folks were still with us.

I used wired mics for the whole cast of what could sometimes be as many as 10 actors; tracking their entrances and exits could sometimes be a challenge as there were lots of them and sometime at a staccato pace. One night, in the middle of a scene, I hear what seemed to be water running...a kind of very low volume trickling sound; I was very low and I was intensely busy keeping tracks of what mics were about to come on stage and which were about to go off, so admittedly, I didn't pay too much attention to the odd water sound or its origin. Then suddenly comes a booming voice of a wonderful old actor (unnamed) saying, kinda to himself by very audibly, "Oy vey, pretty soon it's going to take me 15 minutes just to take a piss." then a decidedly loud FLUSH -- the sound of urinal flushing filling the theatre. And these seasoned actors didn't miss a beat, one of them yelled in the direction of off-stage left, "Moishi, How many times I have to tell you? Close the bathroom door." Audience breaks into massive laughter -- not even sure if they knew it was the sound mixer's faux pas and not part off the skit. The actor's voice was very distinct so the audience knew who he was. He was a good sport about it. I, on the other hand, was quite red faced and reminded in no uncertain terms by the stage manager, "G-d damit, Frankie, watch those effin open mics!" Yeah...My Bad.

[Randy Stankey]

I couldn't let this one slip by...

This was a running joke when I worked at the Mercyhurst College theater.

Something like this actually did happen, once.

The star dressing room was just off the stage right wing. One of the speakers during a conference went to use the can in that dressing room, unannounced, right before his entrance and the audience got treated to the sounds of the lavatory door opening and shutting just before the operator realized what was happening and closed the mic.

After that, the joke was something to the effect, "Be careful that we don't have another 'Police Squad' moment!"