There’s something fishy about Die Hard 5’s ‘R’ rating

There was significant uproar when The Expendables II was announced as PG-13.  A core group of guys on the internet contributed significantly to that uproar, I’m proud to say I was part of that group.  It eventually got the rating changed and ‘R’ reshoots done.  The end result, good, but not perfect.  It wasn’t a true Rated-R movie.  Anyway, something similar happened with Die Hard 5, although the negative buzz wasn’t as severe as our campaign.  A general negative buzz about the ‘feel’ of the movie, i.e. another PG-13.  Fears were allayed when a trailer eventually arrived that not only confirmed an R-Rating, but actually put emphasis on it (‘RATED RRRRrrr’).  It was like Fox had learned their lesson.  But letting those doubts slide might have been premature.

Y’see, out of the UK comes a worrying development.  Die Hard 5 has been rated 12A.  This means that not only is the movie fit for 12 year olds, but, generally, staff usually let any kid at all in.  Worse, the film achieved this rating without being cut.  You think that’s bad?  There’s worse still.  When DHINO was released in the UK, they rated it a 15.  So… incase you haven’t put 2+2 together, something is rotten in Denmark.  It’s safe to assume that the R-Rating accompanying Die Hard 5 in the US is, probably, a publicity stunt.  Easy to change a rating.  You can do it Sly’s way – the expensive way – and go for reshoots.  Or you can add the word FUCK here or there, perhaps a CGI bloodshot.

But hold on a minute.  Why make a PG movie, the emphasis being to cast as wide a net as possible at the expense of alienating fans… only to change the rating on a technicality?  Why not just shoot it ‘R’ from the get-go?  I can only assume that Fox have panicked and realised the obvious too late, and are too keen and afraid of reshoots (negative hype).  Possible that Fox have belatedly did some research – The Expendables II  passing $300,000,000 makes this an easy task – and found that Die Hard shouldn’t be soft-assed shit.

UPDATE:  It seems that the BBFC is the problem here.  According to DenofGeek, the cut that they were shipped would’ve been rated ’15’, or generally speaking, ‘R’.  The cuts were apparently use of the word ‘FUCK’, ‘MOTHERFUCKER’, bloody gunshot wounds to the head and scenes of brutality against a restrained individual (I’m betting a bald-headed one).  This makes more sense, the earlier rumor that they did not make cuts to it seems to have been false.  In either case, good job I will not be seeing this movie in the UK.