Welcome to the Weekly Movie Thread, your place on the Avocado to discuss films with your fellow commenters. Want to make a recommendation? Looking for recommendations? Want to share your opinions of movies, both new and classic?

This year, it’s the 40th anniversary of the PG-13 rating. After concerns over the violence in PG-rated films Gremlins and the Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg suggested an intermediate rating between PG and R. This led to the introduction of the PG-13 rating in 1984. The first movie to get a PG-13 rating: the John Milius movie about the Soviets and their allies invading the United States, Red Dawn.

It makes sense for this to be the first film for that rating. The violence was not as bloody as Nightmare on Elm Street, which would be premiering later that year. But you also might not want young kids to watch a film unattended where teens get murdered by occupying Nicaraguans.

With the exception of the “X” rating being rebranded as “NC-17”, this was the last change the MPA made to the ratings system that had been established in 1968. It’s not a perfect system: it seems a vast majority of films had aimed for the PG-13 rating because that’s where the money is. Any alternative, though, seems unfeasible. We’re likely stuck with the current rating system for the next 40 years as well.

Today’s bonus prompt: what do you think of the MPA rating system? Does it need to go? What should it be replaced with?