Help me find cleaned up movie channels

[LuvOrlando]

So does anyone out there have a list of TV channels that clean up movies before showing them?

My kids are pre-teen and are past cartoons and cutsy but not ready for all the cussing that happens in some otherwise good movies. I'm stuck in limbo here. So I have been trying to find movies to watch as a family that have been cleaned up but it's been an uphill battle.

Here is an open request to the movie industry, how about offering cleaned up versions of all your hit movies for families? All the movie minus nudity and severe cussing? You would sell all the old stuff to an entirely new audience... the sales would be huge. I am so tired of walking out of a movie thinking, "My kids would LOVE that, if only they didn't say *(*&^ or do %#@" . I would so buy them, I'd have 2 sets of everything! Isn't that a win win for everyone?

 

[SydSim]

I totally understand what you're saying. My best friend thinks I'm crazy because I don't let my 12 year old watch any old thing. I monitor her movies, and so many of those pg-13 movies are just a sneeze away from "R".
I'm not trying to shield her from life, but I do believe that there should be a slow progression to things as children grow up.

ABC family channel has some fairly decent things. The "N" network, I suppose that's Nickolodeon's tween station, has many shows, but not movies.

Sorry, wish there were more.

 

[shortbun]

Well, you're not going to like what I have to say but there are tons of movies your kids can watch and if the PG13 are inappropriate for their maturity level, stay away from them. Personally, I subscribe to 'screen it' and a couple other parental sites that really lay it all out there as far as what gives the film it's rating. You can NOT just go with PG13 as there are some really strong ones that I'd cut from my son's repertoire just as I'd allow a few R because they earn it from fantasy violence and more than one expletive. I've given up seeing everything first and sometimes if I can't get a good feel for a film, I'll see it WITH him and make sure he's getting the necessary explanations/parental outrage from me. I've made a couple of mistakes and apologized to him. His friend's parents mostly let theirs watch anything; I'm holding out on graphic sex as he's only 14. I don't want the film makers to 'clean up' anything unless it's just to not put those scenes in to begin with but they sell movies. I think parental sensorship is great but I don't want to go by someone else's filter AND imho, the CD's/songs with words bleeped/erased are just stupidly obviously still very salacious because everyone knows what those words are - everyone!!! I think it makes it worse-not better to make a big deal of it. Just do or don't allow your child to listen or watch.

 

[SydSim]

Well, you're not going to like what I have to say but there are tons of movies your kids can watch and if the PG13 are inappropriate for their maturity level, stay away from them. Personally, I subscribe to 'screen it' and a couple other parental sites that really lay it all out there as far as what gives the film it's rating. You can NOT just go with PG13 as there are some really strong ones that I'd cut from my son's repertoire just as I'd allow a few R because they earn it from fantasy violence and more than one expletive. I've given up seeing everything first and sometimes if I can't get a good feel for a film, I'll see it WITH him and make sure he's getting the necessary explanations/parental outrage from me. I've made a couple of mistakes and apologized to him. His friend's parents mostly let theirs watch anything; I'm holding out on graphic sex as he's only 14. I don't want the film makers to 'clean up' anything unless it's just to not put those scenes in to begin with but they sell movies. I think parental sensorship is great but I don't want to go by someone else's filter AND imho, the CD's/songs with words bleeped/erased are just stupidly obviously still very salacious because everyone knows what those words are - everyone!!! I think it makes it worse-not better to make a big deal of it. Just do or don't allow your child to listen or watch.

What you said is right on, so no drama from me! I think the three of us are sort of on of the same mind set

 

[Mickeyistheman]

I agree, I think its really a shame that the TWeens are really not able to see something that is fun and more their speed. Filmmakers today only see $$ signs.

Just out of curiosity what won't you let them watch, what I mean is, where do you set the line of unacceptable?

Do you let them watch a movie such as Twilight?

Is Transformers too much?

I am just curious, a very good friend of mine is starting his own production company and we were talking about this exact situation a few weeks ago.

 

[suejai]

I agree with Shortbun on this one. I tend to just not allow DS14 to watch certain things. I'm still regretting letting him start watching Family Guy, mostly for the mysoginistic attitudes.

But to the original question, I know TBS edits movies. Sometimes to the point were you wonder why they even chose to air a particular movie because the bleeping is so ubiquitous. I tend not to watch movies on this channel because they cut so much out, but it might be what you are looking for, for your kids.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

I completely agree...and some of the time, the teens will actually realize they're too mature for them on their own. I remember my mom taking me to see Parenthood the day before school started when I was 12. There was a scene with an "adult toy" in it. I walked out of the movie theater and would not come back (she sat in there and watched the rest of the movie by herself.) I was way too embarrassed to watch that kind of thing with my mom.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I'm not over the top with censorship to be honest. I have allowed Twilight and probably some others many parents would frown over because of varying degrees of tolerance, same goes for video games. Sometimes we'll allow a movie if there are only 1 or 2 spots where stuff goes downhill because I can just skip over the spot but in others its so pervasive there is no way around it unless someone beeps it out. I skip over suggestive scenes in stuff like the Bourne Identity series ans Ocean's 11 but ones like Tallagada nights we walked out on from the theater. I KNOW my kids know the words, I'm no dope, but I think there is a world of difference between them hearing something in the street and me giving it a nod by sitting net to them as they watch it, KWIM?

TBS is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, are there others that are similar I can comb through on my TIVO? I think my kids would love movies like Die Hard and Speed, even Terminator but, as I recall, the cussing is just too much and everywhere. I don't mind the bleeps and scene cutting much myself. If DH and want to see it I can pick up the real one but, at least for me, the cussing does nothing to 'add' to movies at all. To coin a phrase used by Sponge Bob, I don't think the 'sentence enhancers' are necessary

As for TV, I tend to TIVO almost everything I like on TV because things go over the line for me and it's so relentless that I can't avoid it. I love House and think my kids would love 99% of it but they can't watch because of all the references he makes to illicit women. I get it, the guy is a genius and a pig, how many times do they really have to beat that drum??? In Plain Sight and the Closer would be great too, if only I knew when they were going to do those darn bed scenes. Don't even get me started on that adult toy commercial on TV now, bleck yuck gross... like I want to hear where the old broad found hers, YIKES! Turns my stomach every time.

 

[barkley]

just want to pass on that there can be a problem with some edited versions of movies-the way they edit the movie can actualy make what was originaly a pivitol scene with a minor adult themed reference transform into a scene without the reference but a wholy unintended (by the editor) theme.

we had this happen with the movie "torch song trilogy". not nesc. a movie allot of kids would even be interested in-and probably some parents would not want their kid watching it period, but in our case dh and i happen to love the movie and happened upon it being aired on tbs or wgn (one of the stations that edits stuff shown during certain hours of the day). in the case of this movie there was a scene with some profanities and sexual orientation slurs which i guess the editor could'nt figure out how to edit so it was cut from the print we saw. by cutting that scene and tieing the scene that preceded it and followed it together-it changed the story line from what (at that point in the movie) was a totaly non sexual relationship between 2 characters to appear as though they had met and gone to bed toghether immediatly. it changed the whole tone of the movie-and if we had'nt seen it previously it would have made it insanely confusing (because it conflicted with what happened/was said in subsequent scences).

so some good and some bad comes with edited versions on tv.

when dd (15) was getting to the age where she wanted to watch some 'older' stuff dh and i went through our dvds to see what we had to start her off-we initialy thought we were crazy with some of our suggestions thinking the stuff was going to be stupid and outdated, but she ended up loving watching some of the old 'brat pack' type movies, some serious flicks and dumb comedies. now, some of the ones we let her watch are pg-13 and r, but if you compare them with what is considered pg-13 and r today they come off as much tamer.

there are websites you can go to where parents purposely track what's in current movies and will detail down exactly what kind of scences and language is used-i have a girlfriend whose a member of the lds church and relies on these heavily. i remember when 'napoleon dynamite' was released and she was thrilled that a movie her teen son and friends wanted to see had been given positive rankings.

 

[AshleyW]

TBS censors all their movies, the Chiller channel does as well (although it's all horror movies on that channel) and I *think* that TNT and USA do, too.