Editor’s Note: Plugged In movie reviews are split into content sections, and sometimes Plugged In is asked, Why? This series of blogs seeks to answer that and many other questions. We’ll unpack each content section in turn and explain why we believe each is important. We’ll give you a peek at how we think and talk about movies—and in so doing, perhaps you’ll learn something about us, the movies we watch and maybe even how can you watch them with a discerning eye, too.
Our seventh post in this series is about Other Negative Elements. (See previous post on Drug and Alcohol Content here.)
If you’ve been following our Plugged In Talks Content blogs, you know that we’ve found our way to the “Other Negative Elements” (or as we say in Plugged In cubicleville, “Other Negs”) category. It’s a regular part of almost every Plugged In review. And, if that title alone doesn’t tell you why we’re always including it, let me give you some details.
Other Negs simply refers to the things that don’t easily slip into those hack-‘em-slash’em-and-cuss-at-‘em-while-drinkin’-a-beer-and-complaining-about-the-church kinda categories. Often, Other Negs will cover worldview issues, for instance. So, if a movie assumes that the natural order of things demands that bloody-knuckled women should rule the world while men sit quietly at home with their macramé, we’d point that out.
Attitudes are a biggie, as well. How are women treated? What about authority figures? Do kids talk back to their parents? Do parents exasperate their kids? Do characters play mean tricks on each other? All those elements fall under this category, which makes it a pretty important one. After all, movies can make bad attitudes look normal. And you don’t want little Suzy or Bobby thinking that it’s A-OK to light firecrackers in the bathroom, do you?
Potty humor falls into this category, too, which is a big staple for kids’ movies. (If you’ve watched almost any recent kids’ movie, you know exactly what sort of flatulence and scatological comedy gems I’m referring to.) And if a given yuk-yuk fest is all toilethumor, we might even help parse out the different sorts of disgusting gags and gross-outs that’ll splat in your moviegoing lap.
As with all the other categories, we want to be able to give you—the discerning moviegoer or protective parent—all the details you need (without being too foul in the process ourselves). And it’s all in that unified attempt to help you decide if a given pic strays beyond your own personal “I don’t want to see that!” viewing parameters.
So, if you’re sensitive to nasty comments about a certain political party or recoil from someone’s idea of a thigh-slapping toilet-urp gag or blanch at kids stealing change from their mother’s purse, well, we got you covered. And Other Negative Elements is the one stop shopping spot for all of that.
In our next installment, we’ll wrap everything up with—you guessed it—the Conclusion.
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