The Paperboy (1994) Poster

(1994)

Parents Guide

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Certification

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MPAA Rated R for violence and terror, and for brief sexuality
Certification

Sex & Nudity

  • A teenage girl dresses in a skimpy halter top and short shorts. She frequently tongue-kisses her boyfriend in public and sneaks out to have sex with him at night. When Johnny sees her sneaking back into her house early in the morning, he says "bad breeding" with a tone of disapproval - she responds by giving him the middle finger. In a later scene, she has sex with her boyfriend on-screen, but before they can finish, she catches Johnny spying on them through the window. She calls him a pervert and a "fungus".
  • Brian and Melissa kiss and have sex one night. Johnny listens to this on a Playskool walkie-tallkie and begins to scream and cry when he hears them both moaning.
  • Melissa comes home and hears Johnny talking to her young daughter, Cammie. She hears her telling him to "go ahead and touch it". Cammie says "ewww, it's sticky!" Johnny says "whoo, just hold it in your hands!" Melissa assumes that Johnny is trying to molest her, but when she steps into the room she finds both kids holding a miniature tortoise that Johnny bought at the mall.
  • Melissa has a nightmare where she finds Johnny naked in her bed saying "what's the matter, mom?"
  • Johnny develops a perverse and disturbing, very obsessive crush on Melissa to the point where he's buying her flowers, stealing photographs of her and stalking her.
  • Brenda uses the phrase "get your rocks off".

Violence & Gore

  • An old lady is violently strangled to death when Johnny puts cling-wrap over her head. He then has the audacity to calmly eat one of her cookies and steal one of her home movies.
  • Brenda falls from a ladder two stories high and breaks her neck. Johnny excitedly breaks the news to Melissa, saying "well, she was trying to sneak into the house without her parents seeing, and she fell and broke her neck. She gonna be a paraplegic from now on."
  • Johnny frequently has violent outbursts and destroys objects, mostly dinner plates.
  • A dead woman is seen in a coffin at a funeral. Later on, Johnny tries to get Cammie to sleep in one of the empty coffins but she refuses.
  • Johnny harasses an old lady, calling her a witch and saying she's crazy.
  • Mrs. Rosemont tells Melissa that she suspects that Johnny's mother severely spanked him and abused him until he finally snapped and murdered her. Mrs. Rosemont is later killed by Johnny. He kidnaps her dog, Peaches, and fills a burlap sack with ketchup and a side of beef. He whacks at the sack with a baseball bat and Mrs. Rosemont, believing that it's her dog being squashed to death, has a heart attack and dies. It later turns out that the real Peaches is alive and that Johnny didn't harm the dog at all.
  • Johnny whacks his father on the head with a golf club, knocking him out. He then places the man in the basement freezer while digging a shallow grave to bury him in. His head, covered in frost, is seen.
  • Johnny tries to kill Brian by lightning him on fire, but Brian survives the ordeal.
  • Johnny stalks Melissa and kidnaps Cammie. When Melissa rejects him, he chases after her and tries to kill her with an ax, but the police catch him and arrest him. He screams "I have rights! I'm a kid, you can't touch me!" as he is dragged away (this scene is meant to be more comedic than scary).

Profanity

  • Several sexual phrases, mostly made by Brenda. Some sexual innuendo, such as the tortoise scene.
  • Many instances of swearing, again mostly from Brenda. "the little shit", "little pervert", "get your rocks off", "damn it", "fuck" and several other obscene words and phrases are said throughout the film.
  • The middle finger is given in one scene.

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

  • Brenda's boyfriend says that he wants a beer. It's implied that Brenda smokes weed.
  • Melissa and Brian share a bottle of wine in a diner.

Frightening & Intense Scenes

  • The Paperboy is low-budget and not very scary, but could frighten younger viewers.
  • The swearing and sexual content may bother some viewers.

See also

Taglines | Plot Summary | Synopsis | Plot Keywords


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