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I’m a big fan of Kevin Smith movies (Even Jersey Girl). So it’s understandable that I’d be excited about his upcoming release, Zach and Miri Make a Porno. I understand that people may have issues with pornography. I get that. And I also get that as thinking sentient human beings, we should be able to make up our own minds about what kind of entertainment we enjoy. I also know that people will always disagree as to what is appropriate. Case in point, have a look at the poster to the left. Take a good look US citizens, because you won’t be seeing it on our soil. Nope. To see this particular poster, you’ll need to take a trip as far north as . . . Canada. Or probably any other country in the world that happens to be screening Zach and Miri Make a Porno. But here in the United States, you won’t be seeing this particular version of this poster.

Now, I was listening to Opie and Anthony’s replay of this morning’s show on XM satellite radio and they had Kevin Smith on. Kevin was of course on to promote his new movie and he talked about the MPAA’s insanity over ratings of films. Originally Zach and Miri Make a Porno received an NC-17 rating. NC-17 is pretty much the death knell for a movie. It virtually assures that no one will see it. So if a director has a racy movie, they do whatever they can to get that NC-17 rating cut down to an R. Kevin Smith is no exception. But he has his limits. After cutting and cutting and cutting and still receiving the dreaded NC-17 rating, Kevin invoked the MPAA’s apeals process. And won. He’s now 3 for 3 in getting his movies re-rated from NC-17 to R. But while the MPAA would allow the movie to now be rated R after his successful appeal, they fired one last shot across the bow. This poster was not to be released in the United States.

Can you tell why? I couldn’t either until Kevin pointed it out on Opie and Anthony. Seriously what about this poster would prompt the MPAA to ban it in the US?

Give up? Notice the tufts of hair at the bottom of the poster? That’s it. The mere suggestion that Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are doing something inappropriate. You can’t even tell if they’re facing forward or backwards. This is insanity. All I gotta say is that I can’t wait for the Director’s cut of the movie on DVD. Crazy.

For another rant on the MPAA and their ratings structure, see Jimmy’s blog.