Kevin Smith Details Ratings Battle With MPA Over The 4:30 Movie

Kevin Smith's new film, The 4:30 Movie, was unsuccessful in appealing its R rating to the MPA.

By Spencer Perry

Fan-favorite writer-director Kevin Smith has gone to bat with the Motion Picture Association over his movie's ratings many times before. Unlike a lot of other directors however, Kevin Smith has a winning record. With his first movie Clerks he successfully appealed an NC-17 rating down to an R, with his 2004 movie Jersey Girl he argued an R rating down to a PG-13, his 2008 comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno was also argued down from an NC-17 to an R, and his 2016 movie Yoga Hosers was brought down to a PG-13 from an R simply because Smith publicly announced his intention to appeal; and all of them were reduced by an MPA appeals board vote without cuts being made to the movie.

Kevin Smith's next movie, the upcoming The 4:30 Movie, is his next project, and previous weekly bulletins from the MPA confirmed that the movie was given an R rating which Smith planned to appeal. Speaking on the latest episode of the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Smith confirmed that he had already gone through the appeals process once again with the MPA. The twist is that when trying to argue The 4:30 Movie down to a PG-13 from an R, he wasn't successful this time.

"The 4:30 Movie is done. Today I just had an MPA appeals hearing for the rating," Smith said. "They gave us an R rating on a movie that I intended to be PG-13. My argument for the appeals was very much that I was like there's three things I know how to do in this world: I can play foosball really well, I know how to walk two German Shepherds on a tandem leash, and I know how to make an R-rated movie. I said, so I know not how to make an R rated movie as well that's why I intended to make a PG-13 movie with this the fact that you guys made it R means that this sweet little paean to youth about 16 year olds in 1986 who hop from one theater to another who, yes, make a lot of sex jokes but no more than any other teen movie, is the equivalent to The Human Centipede... How on Earth are these two movies in the same category?"

Smith revealed that even though cursing does happen throughout, The 4:30 Movie doesn't even check the one F-Bomb per movie that is allowed for PG-13 movies in general. He went on to reveal there's no sex or nudity in the movie either, and that it was largely "pervasive inuendo" throughout the movie that the ratings board objected to.

"They just said 'Yeah, but it was just like a lot of inuendo,'" Smith added. "But I was like, yeah of course, but there's no more innuendo than in the average like 8 PM sitcom....They were kind of admitting too they're like 'Well, yeah there's soft Rs, there's hard Rs, and you're right we had a hard time coming up with the rating on this,' and they were also not 100% committed to it."

Kevin Smith continued, adding that he modeled the guardrails around The 4:30 Movie based on how they crafted his movie Jersey Girl, strictly thinking with a PG-13 movie in mind. 

"I was like look I know we're never going to figure this out on this phone call but what what you're telling me is like a movie like this can be rated the same as a movie like Human Centipede, perhaps the system is faulty, or at this point, let's be honest, unnecessary."

Smith summed up his thoughts on the loss with the ratings board as only he could too, adding: "You win some, you lose some, and I've won a lot with them. I came close though that's the thing... There's nothing honestly that I could have said to make the difference, I don't believe so."

The 4:30 Movie is coming to theaters this summer courtesy of Saban Films.

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Set in the summer of 1986, The 4:30 Movie is a coming-of-age story about three sixteen year old friends (played by Austin Zajur, Nicholas Cirillo and Reed Northrup) who spend their Saturdays sneaking into movies at the local multiplex. But when one of the guys also invites the girl of his dreams (Siena Agudong) to see the latest comedy, each of the teens will learn something serious about life and love before the credits roll.

The cast features an all-star ensemble that includes Ken Jeong, Sam Richardson, Genesis Rodriguez, Justin Long, Jason Lee, Rachel Dratch, Kate Micucci, Adam Pally, Harley Quinn Smith, and Method Man.

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