Catholic Movie Reviews: Jonah Hex OK, The Backup Plan Evil

Jonah Hex: Catholic Seal Of Approval

I'm not sure if the Rotten Tomatoes covers the film reviews of the United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops. Instead of stars or thumbs-up and thumbs-down, the reviews of the USCCB's Film and Broadcasting office uses the following system:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling.
• O -- morally offensive.

Basically, as long as your film falls between the A-I and the A-III, you're in the clear. L movies are "problematic," and Os...well, the Os are probably gonna send you straight to hell.

The Daily 23 looked over the USCCB's archive of current movie reviews to see which ones "made the grade," and which ones received the dreaded O...

A-I:

• Toy Story 3
• Marmaduke
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
  
• Princess and the Frog

A-II:

• A-Team
• The Karate Kid
• How To Train Your Dragon
• Twilight Saga: New Moon
• Alice In Wonderland
• Prince Of Persia
  

A-III:

• Jonah Hex
• The Blind Side
• Clash of the Titans
• Iron Man 2
  
• Robin Hood
• The Wolfman
• Sherlock Holmes
  

L:

• Date Night
• The Book of Eli
• The Losers
• The Bounty Hunter
• Green Zone
• It's Complicated
  

O:

• The Backup Plan
• Valentine's Day
• Sex In The City 2
• Get Him To The Greek
• Splice
  
• Legion
• Kick-Ass
• Death At A Funeral
• Hot-Tub Time Machine
• MacGruber
• Nightmare On Elm Street
• Shutter Island
• Youth In Revolt
  

What does it take to get the O? Valentine's Day was cited for "Implicit approval of nonmarital sexual activity and homosexual acts." The Backup Plan "contradicts Catholic moral teachings on the necessity of maintaining the connection between the unitive and procreative aspects of marital love." And Nightmare On Elm Street not only contains "a pedophilia theme" but an "an implied nonmarital relationship."

In contrast, while in Jonah Hex "Scores die, by gunshot, ax, fire, dynamite, even rabid dogs" -- it's also "always clear that the bad guys go to hell." And so it's OK.