TRANSFORMERS - REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)

TRANSFORMERS - REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is a sequel to the original scifi fantasy film. Optimus Prime and other Autobots have teamed up with an international military force, tasked with hunting down remaining Decepticons - but these are gathering strength, and a fallen Prime is about to return. The film has been classified at '12' for moderate action violence, language, sex and drug references.

The moderate action violence occurs at many points throughout the work, but is almost all robot-to-robot, and with any personalised human violence containing only well masked blows, or generic type explosions with people flying through the air, but no injury details beyond some cuts and bruises. At one point, a main character appears to have been killed, and requires resuscitation. It was considered that this frequent, but very undetailed, action type of violence is acceptable under the BBFC Guidelines at '12', which direct that 'Violence must not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood ... Sustained moderate threat and menace are permitted'. Moderate sex references such as 'he's just had his cherry popped', a scene where Sam is almost seduced in his college bedroom by a sexy female Decepticon (posing as a human), and a running joke of dogs, and a tiny transformer, 'humping' each other and Mikaela's leg, are mostly comic and throwaway, and are permitted at '12', where the BBFC Guidelines state 'Sexual activity may be implied. Sex references may reflect what is likely to be familiar to most adolescents but should not go beyond what is suitable for them'.

Moderate language includes a couple of directed uses of 'bitch', and a suggestion of strong language - although never anything explicit or actually completed, just 'f'ing', 'mother ...' and 'fu ..' - all allowable at '12'. There is a short, comic scene, where Sam's ditzy mother inadvertently eats a hash cookie that she buys at college, not realising what it is. There is no sight of any actual drug taking - just a brief shot of a packet with a marijuana leaf on it. Whilst the eating of a hash cookie is not openly condemned in the film - although a worried Sam and his dad do try to stop her - the mother subsequently embarrasses herself and her family, and is not at all portrayed as a cool or positive role model. As such, these soft drugs references were permitted at '12', where BBFC Guidelines direct 'Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or instructional'.