The silliest movie complaints sent to the BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) deals with all official complaints made about movie certificate ratings. Their job is to classify all films released in the UK, inform fans of the reasons and assist cinemagoers in their future movie decision making.

Sometimes they receive legitimate complaints from viewers upset by violence or sex, especially in flicks with the 12A certificate.

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However, they also get sent ridiculous complaints by idiots. We trawled through their archives and picked our favourites.

These actually happened.

“I don’t like Daniel Craig”
After the release of the gritty James Bond reboot ‘Casino Royale’, one punter wrote in to the BBFC to complain that he did not like Daniel Craig as the new 007 and demanded the return of Sean Connery. This same person also claimed that the “two females were the worst, most unattractive side-kicks” they had ever seen in a James Bond film. Such a charmer…

“Their pyjamas were too clean”
In 2008, the moving flick ‘The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas’ received a rather peculiar complaint. The film followed the son of a Nazi concentration camp commandant who makes friends with a Jewish boy. One cinemagoer was outraged that the ‘pyjamas’ (the prison uniforms) were “too clean” and “ironed” in the film, and this was a sanitising of the Holocaust and an insult to survivors.

“Kids went to the toilet too often”
Several elderly film fans watching ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest’ complained about young children being too noisy, crying and even going to the toilet too often. As annoying as it may be, we’re not so sure the BBFC was the right place to address their complaints.

“My friend fainted”
While watching horror flick ‘Eden Lake’, one begrudged viewer was outraged that the movie was so scary it made his female companion faint during the screening.

“Judi Dench should never swear”
Film fans were shocked and appalled that Dame Judi Dench would ever swear on camera. Things came to a head when she played ‘M’ in the new James Bond films but according to the BBFC “almost every time Dame Judi swears in a film, regardless of its category, we can expect a number of complaints”. Preposterous.

“It was a bad movie”
Disappointed customers returning home from ‘Disaster Movie’ wrote to the BBFC to say that they should have been warned that the film was so bad. This is a common complaint apparently.

“The popcorn was too expensive”
Clearly the BBFC has no authority over ticket or popcorn charges... or maybe not. According to the film classification bods, they receive loads of letters from out-of-pocket cinemagoers furious about how expensive a trip to the movies is.

“Her X Factor performance was too sexy”
Four ‘X Factor’ viewers were so appalled at Christina Aguilera’s raunchy routine on the show that they felt the need to complain to the BBFC about her role in the film ‘Burlesque’. They claimed that Aguilera was not setting a good example for kids and shouldn’t be cast in a 12A. Unfortunately, none of them had seen the film, which kind of scuppered their argument

“I’m going to kill you”
The BBFC had to take legal action against some complainants after death threats were sent to staff members who banned Japanese horror ‘Grotesque’. Even after such serious events, the BBFC's statement was characteristically sardonic. " We take a very dim view of such correspondence”, they said.

“A shadow looked like a vagina”
Two audience members thought they saw a little more than they bargained for during a screening of James Bond flick ‘Quantum of Solace’. They claimed to see a fleeting glimpse of a lady’s genitalia, but in actual fact it was just an unfortunately shaped shadow on a thigh. 

Have you ever complained about a movie? What is your biggest complaint at the cinema? Vent your frustration below…