I remember the first R-rated movie I ever saw. We lived in a town of less than 2000 people, and the banker’s daughter invited me to her twelfth birthday slumber party where we watched The Lost Boys with Jason Patric.
I think her name was Hailey, and I know it sounds weird that I for sure remember what her father’s occupation was, but it was something of a scandal that those respectable people showed a vampire flick (with great 80s music) to a bunch of 6th graders.
Like American Idol’s Brooke White, we weren’t supposed to watch R-rated movies, even with a parent or guardian (I know my mom’s never seen one; not sure about my dad). It’s strange, but also kind of nice that I got to act out quite a bit at college simply by playing pool, drinking Mountain Dew, and watching R-rated movies.
Now I’m older and wiser, and more importantly, have children of my own, and so I don’t want to bring a lot of extra sex and violence and cussing into our home. Not that I let the kids watch grown-up movies even edited, but sometimes they don’t stay in bed when mom and dad are watching a movie. And maybe, just maybe, I don’t need that much graphic reality myself anymore. I still want to watch cool movies, though.
Enter Clearplay, a dvd player with update-able filters for most popular R and PG-13 movies. The dvd player is about 70 bucks, and a year’s subscription (including their entire backlist and filters for that year’s movies) costs about 80. Single filters are $2.99 each.
We recently watched The Kingdom, In the Valley of Elah, and Rendition. Thought-provoking and maddening and heart-breaking movies, and I’m glad I saw them. They were just as powerful without the graphic violence. Perhaps even more so for what was now hinted at, suggested, already-happened. They’re all really about war/terror’s aftermath anyway. Which can be just as horrific without the gruesome images and understandably coarse language. I don’t need movies to tell me what to think about a tragedy, but sometimes it takes a well-told story to help me imagine the human cost of things taking place halfway around the world.
On a lighter note, I watched the Drew Barrymore/Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates on Clearplay and found it charming, whimsical, and totally romantic. Later I rented it again and popped it in, forgetting that I’d seen it first edited. The first crude joke was a jolt. Where was my charming, loveable movie? I don’t expect life to be like a Disney movie (though if it were like Enchanted, I wouldn’t complain), but sometimes I like to kick back and enjoy, without feeling like I’m changing poopy diapers even after the kids are asleep.
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Clearplay’s what works for me this week. Head over to RIMD for more great tips.
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I agree, especially about PG-13 movies. I have a problem with R’s. I still want to know what I missed, and sometimes there are holes in the story when it’s edited. Take Love Actually. It was a pretty cool movie edited. But it was a little confusing, so I ended up reading a synopsis online to fill in the holes and read more than was good for me and felt disgusted with the parts I hadn’t seen. I know, I should have known better.
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This is a great to know. By the way, I love Brooke White. I used to rent movies at Clean Flicks all the time and loved it!
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I have never heard of this! I will definately look into it. I think now-a-days PG-13 can be even worse than R when it comes to language and sexual inuendo’s etc..
Thanks for the tip.
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Awesome tip – we’ll have to look into that. Sounds like it would so be worth the money!
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I really like Clearplay. The edit is seamless and brilliant. Instead of swearing you hear silence, and the graphic violence or nudity is simply skipped over — many times I don’t even realize it.
The way it works is simple: you stick a USB drive into your computer and download filters. Then you rent your movies from wherever, such as Blockbuster, and put them into the Clearplay DVD player. Then you plug the USB filter into the DVD player and voila, it applies the filter to your Blockbuster movie. There is no physical edit to the media (such as with Clean Flicks).
If you want to sign up, see the special discount info and contact email from my post here. If you mention my name and where you heard about the discount, we get an extra 2 free months for every new person who signs up. And I think you get a discount as well.
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I remember at BYU they had edited R-rated movies at the Varsity. I can’t remember if I ever really saw any but then again, I wasn’t too concerned about watching R-rated movies back in the day. My, how times have changed.
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We have been looking into getting something like Clearplay, but I haven’t heard of that brand before. I am not a big fan of rated R movies myself, so it is definitely worth researching.
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My husband and I used to buy movies from Clean Flicks every time we made a trip down to Utah. We were so sad when they closed.
This Clearplay sounds so awesome! I can’t wait to get started. Thanks for the info.
Dick, I’ll definitely mention your name so you can have 2 free months. It’s the least I can do for you guys passing on such valuable information.
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Thanks so much for that! I had never heard of it, but it makes so much sense. And then the kids could watch some of the better movies.
I hate when they make a historical movie that is actually educational, and then throw in a sex scene. Just one, but it wrecks the whole movie for sharing it with kids. So what a great idea!
Visit To Love, Honor and Vacuum today!
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Thank you so much for posting this to WFMW! I am a teacher, and sometimes there are wonderful scenes that illustrate a point I am trying to teach, but Ihave to be SO VERY CAREFUL about thingslike language & nudity (even in high school– especially in high school!). I’m trying to make a point of avoiding unnecessary negative input into my own mind, too. This will be great. Thank you again!
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WE love, love, LOVE Clearplay. We rely on it so much that our oldest son refers to it as if everyone knows what it is.
As in…
” Can you come over and watch “zyx” at our house?”
“What’s it rated?”
“PG-13″
“I have to use a clearplay filter for that movie.”
“Huh?!”
We totally love it. It has changed movies for us.
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get a great deal on clearplay by using this special promotion code DCLYDE. You get free shipping on the product and save an additional 5 to 10 dollars on the player
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I just want to greet my biggest crush ever Jason Patric a “Happy Happy Birthday” i wish him all the best & more power to his movie career,he’s such a great actor to watch for i love all his movies and especially his great acting prowess.Your the best of all for me good luck more!
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