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...The Best Two Years combines good storytelling with an excellent understanding of its target audience. It doesn't aspire to be anything more than what it is, a low budget film catering specifically to Latter-day Saints, yet within those parameters, Anderson and producers Fred Danneman and Michael Flynn (who appeared as Laban in last year's The Book of Mormon Movie: Volume 1) have put together a charming little film that manages to entertain audiences without (I believe) offending even the most conservative of church members...
...At a recent film festival, 400 audience members were polled as to what rating they thought Saints and Soldiers would receive. Out of these 400, only 5 people (just over 1%) felt it deserved an R rating. 395 felt that it deserved a PG or PG-13 rating. I don't know. Perhaps the ratings board gave it an R rating because they felt teenagers couldn't possibly handle the sight of seeing Kirby Heybourne, who previously has played squeaky clean LDS characters, holding a cigarette in his hand. The fact is that I shouldn't have been too surprised; not after that same ratings board made The Book of Mormon Movie: Volume 1 the tamest PG-13 movie since that rating was added to the system back in the 1980's...
...Quoting the MPAA web site yet again: "The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) serves its members from its offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. On its board of directors are the Chairmen and Presidents of the seven major producers and distributors of motion picture and television programs in the United States. These members include: Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Universal Studios, Inc. and Warner Bros." There is nothing independent about the MPAA. It is controlled by Hollywood's major studios. Furthermore, the official title of the motion picture rating system is the "Voluntary Movie Rating System." It was created as a system whereby the studios would advise parents of the content of the films they released. In other words, the studios are essentially rating themselves. The potential for a conflict of interest is obvious - even though the ratings board is not paid directly by any of the studios. Could it be that this possible conflict of interest is in part responsible for the inconsistencies between ratings assigned to Hollywood-distributed blockbusters and independently produced and distributed films like The Book of Mormon Movie and Saints and Soldiers?...
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...For those who don't recognize Heyborne's name -- or face -- here's a quick role call:
...- In "The Book of Mormon Movie, Vol. 1: The Journey," he was Sam, the brother of Nephi...
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...Heyborne also co-starred in the insider-spoof "The Work and the Story," and later this year will be seen in the boy-band mock-documentary "Sons of Provo," directed by his "Singles Ward" and "R.M." co-star Will Swenson. And he has branched into drama, playing Nephi's brother Sam in "The Book of Mormon Movie" and, perhaps more tellingly, a British soldier in "Saints and Soldiers."...