This week, I watched Match Point, the best Woody Allen movie to come out in a decade. I watched it in the theaters in January and now it's on DVD. It stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Scarlett Johansson. It's well written, well acted & well directed. The story is about a tennis pro (Meyers) who innocently works his way into the upper class of London society by dating and eventually marrying into a wealthy family. He has an affair with his brother-in-law's American ex-girlfriend (Johansson). Further complications develop when he impregnates the lover and not the wife. Don't want to give up too much information, but it's a pretty intriguing and entertaining tale. Rated R.

On the surface, this rating seems acceptable. This is a story of morals, fidelity and consequences. Definitely for adults. Rated R. Fine, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong. The explanation for the rating is that Match Point contains some sexuality. This is true. There are at least three moments of brief passion in the movie between the adulterer and his lover. The passion is visible, a couple nice cleavage shots are there, but nudity is not. Compared with what is shown on television soap operas, the brief scenes could be shown unedited during prime time hours. Match Point has little or no vulgarity or foul language (I can't remember one swear word), and there is no crude humor or drug references. Just as the disclaimer suggests, there's some sexuality. Rated R.

Rated R? Rated Y? Why is it that a movie made for adults has to be Rated R? I assumed the ratings system was made to protect the precious children from seeing boobies too soon or hearing the F-word too much. Now, it appears that ratings delineate between movies for kids and movies for adults.

I have no doubt many under-17 movie goers lack the attention span to ingest a two-hour story of crime & punishment, but does that mean that none of them should be allowed to watch it. Some kids are actually quite astute when it comes to movie watching. Why should they be "protected" from Match Point? Is it because Woody Allen did the movie? Is it because it's too sophisticated for the youth? Is it just a stock rating an adult-themed movie? Rated Y, Y, Why?

Back when I was a movie reviewer for a local (now defunct) weekly newspaper, a kid in junior high interviewed me for a presentation he was doing for school. He asked me about the ratings system, and I told him I thought we should do away with the whole thing. If kids want to subject themselves to graphic sex, drugs, extreme violence, boobies, foul language, adult themes, or in the case of Match Point, some sexuality and good acting, then by all means, pierce those virgin eyes & ears.

The first movie I snuck into was Robocop. I was 15 years old. To this day, it has some of the most graphic violence I've ever witnessed. The bad guys blow off Peter Weller's hand, blast his chest and head, and that was just the beginning. Robocop gets his bloody revenge. It freaked my shit, but I survived. I still enjoy watching that movie every now and again. Rated How?

On the flip side, there is a slight uproar in Congress over the PG rating of Christian-themed movie called Facing The Giants. It's about a football coach who uses God to motivate his players. Congress wants to know why it got a PG rating instead of a G rating. By the way, a G rating means it is suitable for all audiences, and PG means some scenes might not be suitable for children. The Republican Congress folk are accusing the MPAA of giving it a PG rating because of the religious content. The MPAA denies this and states that the movie rating was given for subject matter like teenage pregnancy and other mature discussions. Rated What? Rated Who?

Personally, I don't know anyone who has ever been refused entry to a PG movie, and freaking out over a PG rating is quite silly in my eyes. "Whan preeeze por duh Football Jeeezus mobie." "I'm sorry, three year old boy, this movie is PG. Where is your parent, godfather or guardian?" "I dunno." I know it's just a religious bandwagon thing by Republicans, but why didn't these folks come to the defense of a quality movie like Match Point. In my eyes, Match Point should have been Rated PG or at worst PG-13. Some scenes were not suitable for children, and the dialogue dominates almost the entire picture. But wait, some people spoke with British and Scottish accents! The horror! I'm surprised they didn't slap an NC-17 for intriguing plot twists.

Basically, I'm saying the ratings system is bunk. Watch what you want and enter at your own risk. Not just the movie rating system is dumb, but TV ratings (hey, this show's DSLV, it must be good!) and video game ratings (Rated M for Machismo) as well. It's all been a cop out by the industries to say they care about protecting the kids. Whatever. Many 13-year olds have seen rated-R movies and played some version of Grand Theft Auto. They learn all the bad words on the playground. They learn about sex from all sorts of distorted & incorrect sources. They know about boobs. They are confronted with drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. They lose their innocence a little every day. On top of that, they have to go to school five days a week. Poor kids.

Fortunately, I'm now much older than 17, and no one is concerned with what I watch. I'm responsible for my own behavior. Just like it should be with everyone.

Chris Jungle has not yet been rated.