This Ain't No Disney Movie

This past weekend, I saw the movie Hellboy II. It was a pretty good movie – not as great as the original, but then, many sequels aren’t as good as the initial offering.

Hellboy isn’t for kids, the movie is rated 14A – meaning if you are under 14-years of age, you need an adult to get in.

It is a violent movie, with lots of blood and fight scenes, it isn’t a horror, but it isn’t for kids.

Yet, there were quite a few young kids in the crowd – probably under 10-years-old. They were there with their parents, but they shouldn’t have been.

One was sitting in front of me, and kept standing up to look around the movie theatre, he seemed more interested in the people around him than what was happening on the screen in front of him. Another kid was in our row, and actually came up to my brother to say “hi.”

Then there was a noisy little boy a couple of rows down from us. He kept yelling at the top of his lungs, as if he was talking to the characters on the big screen. Eventually, his mom took him out of the theatre, but he obviously was way too young to even be there in the first place.

What is the matter with parents today?

Granted, there isn’t a manual on good parenting, but even common sense should be able to offer some simple guidance. When I was a kid, my parents used common sense, and I think I turned out alright.

I went to the movies when I was a kid, but my parents never took me to movies which weren’t appropriate for my age.

If this were a Disney movie, then I’d be a little more understanding of seeing little kids running around the theatre. Disney movies are specifically made for kids – and kids will be kids.

So how come some parents can’t be parents?

I think some of these folks came to the movie with their young children because they wanted to see the movie, and couldn’t find someone else to watch their kids. Or maybe they thought – wrongly – that this movie would be something their young kids would enjoy. Or maybe they just decided to watch the movie with their kids on a whim?

Whatever the reason they brought their young children to the movie, it was wrong. It disturbed others in the theatre, and the movie itself really isn’t a kids movie. We’re talking about a movie with the word “hell” in the title – you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that.

Even for those who aren’t bright enough to figure out that a movie with “hell” in the title isn’t really for kids, it was clearly rated 14A – all the posters and even the ticket booth had the ratings clearly visible.

Perhaps it isn’t the kids that need to grow up here. It is the parents.