Warning: Parental Advisory

I was somewhat interested in watching this movie, especially after seeing a little "Behind the Music"-esque VH1 show about the PMRC and Senate Hearing. Unfortunately, that 30 minute blurb was more interesting than this movie.

Warning: Parental Advisory fails for several reasons. First, it starts off wasting a LOT of time explaining the Blank Tape Tax the Record Industry was so interested in. This has some importance to the story but could have been simply explained quickly. During this waste of time we also have a "love interest" introduced for no good reason. I tuned in to see a dramatization of the events leading to those annoying stickers, not a predictable "love story".

Another big problem was that since they managed to get Dee Snider himself to appear the movie seems to be written around him. We get to hear Dee's entire speech. The real travesty of the movie is that they butchered the best speech of the whole affair: Frank Zappa's! If interested you should do a Google search to find a copy of this. I guess maybe he copywrited it and they could only use an excerpt.

The scenes involving the creation of the PMRC were ok, and in general, the movie moved along at an ok pace. The senate hearing itself should have taken up a LOT more time. The most important part of the story was rushed.

I guess VH1 felt like getting into the "fighting censorship" action by letting Dee Snider actually say "motherf***er" with no "bleep" or "mute". Ewwww, controversial!

Not.

While Warning: Parental Advisory lags when it focuses on the worries and quandaries of the character played by Jason Priestly (he seems like the only character not based on fact in this movie), it gives more than you'd think. Griffin Dunne transforms amazingly into Frank Zappa and plays it with a great deal of realism, along with some lone clichés, and humor. Dee Snider plays himself, and I wasn't covering my eyes, and whoever played John Denver didn't do that bad of a job either. Even Mariel Hemmingway gets props for playing the strident and uptight Tipper Gore who headed the PMRC. These characters come together, more or less, to enact the events that came about in the mid-80's due to rock content. When it makes its points, they are made with a degree of corniness, and also poignancy. Possibly the only good VH1 movie to date. B+

Does anyone have or know where I can obtain a VHS or DVD copy of this film. I know it aired on VH-1 but I have never seen it available. I would definitely use this in teaching about censorship to high school students. I would be interested in this. I read about it being available in Australia. Does anyone know anything else about it? IF you can help please do, you'll be helping young students learn about an important topic. IF you can, thanks, please contact me by email. I did see this movie when it was originally on VH-1 and did tape it at the time but did not keep it. Now it would be perfect for my teaching. I have looked at VH-1 to no avail. Can anyone out there help me? It would be greatly appreciated.

This was not a fantastic film, per se, but it was fun. Griffin Dunne played Frank Zappa quite well (as is to be expected from the under-rated Mr. Dunne), and the other performances were laudable for camp value, if nothing else. Generally, VH1 makes little effort to make their "true life" stories anything other than cartoonish entertainment, and this film was no exception. The framing story of a shallow lobbyist's quest for work of real value was given very little depth, and I am not sure whether this is a result of poor writing or the performance of Mr. Priestly; I would tend to suppose the problem lay in the writing. The film does favor the musicians against the PMRC (no surprises here, as it debuted on a music network), but great care seems to have been taken not to paint the PMRC as malicious -- the closest to slander comes in the frequent characterization of the PMRC as "bored Washington housewives." An interesting side note: after each commercial, we were treated to a "parental discretion advised" warning because of coarse language.

This was a great movie about censor ship and generation gaps. Unfortunately I think the point of this movie will be lost on most people. Those Senate hearings happened in 1985, that is close to 20 years ago now. Basically a full generation has passed. But it doesn't matter, there will still be people that will complain about todays music and movies and how everything is corrupting the children. Back in the 80's it was Prince, Twisted Sister, Cyndi Lauper, 2 Live Crew, and NWA. Today it's Eminem, DMX, Christina Aguilera, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.

Every generation laughs at the pop culture of the previous generation, and every generation despises the pop culture of the next. Back in the 80's people accused kids of hanging out at the mall, wasting time infront of video games and school violence. It's the same thing today. Things never change. People just get older and more mature, but generations don't change.

Again, I bet the message of this fantastic film will be lost on most. To quote The Simpsons, there are too many people running around with the---"What about the children!? Has anyone thought how this will effect the children!? My God what about the children!!!!?" Thinking about the children is fine, but this fantastic movie shows the hyporicsy of certain "moralistic grown ups". The Silent Generation despised the Elvis and Beatles music of the Baby Boomers. And the Baby Boomers like Al and Tipper Gore hated the Generation Xers. Now those Gen X kids from 1985 condem the pop music of Gen Y.