The Video Store Days #18: Unrated Versions: Comedy Edition

In this installment of THE VIDEO STORE DAYS, we look back at where and why the UNRATED VERSION became big and popular during the adolescent years of DVD.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Director's Cuts and I made mentioned Unrated Versions of films. Well, I decided to follow that up by actually talking about Unrated Versions of film and their rise in the late 90s and 2000s.

Let's get this out of the way first: the difference between an Unrated Version and a film that is Not Rated is easy. A film that is not rated is a film that was not submitted to the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). Not every film has to be submitted but if a film wants to play in the big chain theaters then they have to have a rating from the MPAA. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. Most theater chains will not take a film that has no MPAA rating. 

An Unrated Version of a film has been submitted to the MPAA but the filmmakers either rejected the rating (as in the case of Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD 2 and George A. Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD) or didn't want to have the higher rating (X before 1990 and NC-17 after) on their film because those ratings do more harm to a film than the film being Unrated. 

So, now that we have gotten that out of the way, let's talk about the rise of the Unrated Version.

Unrated Versions have been around for a long time. Ken Russell's CRIMES OF PASSION, Tony Scott's TRUE ROMANCE, and Paul Verhoeven's BASIC INSTINCT all received X or NC-17 ratings from the MPAA and had to be cut down to receive the R rating the studios wanted. When it came time to release the films on home video, the studios allowed the filmmakers to release their original versions. This meant that audiences would get the chance to see the film as it was intended to be seen. This is how Unrated Versions were back then. They were very few and far between but the moniker of the Unrated Version actually meant that you were seeing something that the ratings board thought was too violent or had too much sex.

Then came AMERICAN PIE.

Released in the summer of 1999, AMERICAN PIE was a throwback to the sex comedies of the 1980s but ramped up to modern standards. Sure, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY was the first to do this but it was AMERICAN PIE that made it popular much in the way that HALLOWEEN was the first American slasher film (yes it is up for debate but go with me on this one) but it was the success of FRIDAY THE 13TH that opened the floodgates to what we would know as the "slasher boom of the 1980s". AMERICAN PIE made the sex comedy popular again with the film grossing over $100 million at the domestic box office.

When the film was released on DVD in two versions: the R-rated version that was shown in theaters and an Unrated Version that was created for the DVD release. The Unrated Version was billed as "The Version You Couldn't See in Theaters" which is true because this version wasn't released in theaters but it wasn't a version that was cut down to get an R rating. This version added ten seconds (yes, ten seconds) into the film with the only scene being different was the "pie fucking" scene. In the theatrical version, Jim is caught in the corner of the kitchen, standing up with his dick in the apple pie his mother had cooking on the kitchen counter. In the Unrated Version, Jim is now humping the pie, missionary style, on the kitchen counter with pie all over the counter. This scene isn't as shocking or as funny in the Unrated Version as it is in the theatrical version. 

These ten seconds were added in as a marketing ploy. They wanted to sell more DVDs so they created hype around a version that was created for the DVD and sold it as being a forbidden fruit. But, you know what? It sold. It sold incredibly well. People were talking about the Unrated Version of AMERICAN PIE and how it was much more shocking than it was in theaters. 

The floodgates had been opened. Now every comedy that got a PG-13 or higher got an Unrated Version. ROAD TRIP, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VAN WILDER, and BOAT TRIP all got Unrated Versions even if they were just slapped together to make money on an uneducated public. I was one of those people who always chose the Unrated Version as I thought it was the best choice. I was dumb, naive, and very wrong. The Unrated Version that showed me how wrong I was, when it came to sex comedies at least, was THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN. 

I worked at a video store at the time when THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN was released on DVD and my store got both versions. I chose the Unrated Version and went home to watch it. As my wife and I watched the film, I started to notice that the pacing of many scenes felt off at times. There is a scene where Kevin Hart is arguing with Romany Malco, who works at a Circuit City-like store. They argue about the price of the thing that Hart wants and they get louder and louder until the scene ends. This scene goes on FOREVER in the Unrated Version of the film. I knew that it was going on too long but it wasn't until I saw the R-rated version of the film that I knew I was right. That scene is cut in half in the R-rated version with it flowing much better and actually being kind of funny. The Unrated Version of the scene just goes on and on and on. There are ton of scenes that are like this in the Unrated Version. Since the Unrated Version was just deleted scenes edited back into the film, they ruined the pacing of not only the entries scenes but the film as a whole. This would be the case for the vast majority of Unrated comedies. 

There are examples that disprove the rule. JACKASS NUMBER TWO was released into theaters with an R-rating but it was originally rated NC-17. Well, of course, it was you might say, but it was just for one scene, a scene that is still in the R-rated version of the film. There is a scene where the Jackass guys decide that they are going to drink horse semen. They get someone to procure said semen and then one of the guys drinks it. I know, this seems like it falls right in line with all the other stuff the Jackass guys have done over the years, but this one is a bit different in the eyes of the MPAA. While they look past a ton of stuff these guys do, they do not look past what they would consider pornography. You see, drinking any kind of semen, be it human or horse, is considered to be pornographic in their eyes. The filmmakers didn’t want to cut the scene as it fits so well into the rest of the film, so they went to the MPAA with a compromise: They include the scene uncut except for a small black box that shows up over the mouth of the person drinking the semen and it will show up as soon as the semen hits the lips of the person drinking it. The MPAA seemed ok with this and the film was released with the scene intact. 

When JACKASS NUMBER TWO came to DVD, there were, of course, two cuts of the film. The theatrical cut would be the version of the film that played in theaters and the Unrated Version would be the version without the black box in the horse semen scene. There were other scenes added as well but this was the big scene. I worked at a video store at the time and mothers would always come in on the weekend to rent a film for their kids to watch. Any time they would ask about JACKASS NUMBER TWO and why it was Unrated, I would try to change the subject but they would insist. I would then tell them about the horse semen scene. You would be surprised by how many of these parents would be like “Oh. Ok.” What was really ironic about Blockbuster Video (the video store I worked at when JACKASS NUMBER TWO was released) is that they had a very strict policy of not carrying any NC-17 rated films but were ok with carrying Unrated Versions of films. JACKASS NUMBER TWO’s Unrated Version WAS the NC-17 rated version of the film but they still carried it anyway.

DVDs, Blu-rays (both 4K and 2K, and streaming Unrated Versions are still being released today but not nearly as many as in the 2000s. Comedies are even less likely to get an Unrated Version in the future because of 1.) the lack of R-rated comedies being released in theaters nowadays and 2.) Streaming has taken over so much that there is no need to bow down to any rating the MPAA would give a film. Some streaming services don’t even submit their films to the MPAA anymore. 

Next week I will talk about the action and horror titles that have gotten Unrated Versions and see if they are more worthwhile than comedies when it comes to the lack of a rating.