Unrated Versions

A lot of movies on DVD are now advertised as the "unrated" versions, "including scenes not in the theatrical release!" I've seen a couple of these and realized that the unrated versions are advertised as such, not because they necessary include more of the stuff that gets the movie a bump from one rating to the next (PG to PG-13, PG-13 to R, or R to NC-17), but more often because it gives the casual movie watcher the impression that this version moves along the scale toward the NC-17 end. Apparently, this sells or rents more copies of that version. Not that viewers have much choice in whether to rent the theatrical release over the unrated DVD release in many cases, at least at Blockbuster, as usually all the copies of a movie are of the same version, rated or unrated.

Based on the movies I've rented, I'm guessing (I have to guess, since I generally haven't seen both versions) that this is almost entirely a marketing ploy and has nothing to do with the content. I suspect that the unrated version is no better and possibly worse than the theatrical release and that the scenes left out were left out for good reason - they didn't make the movie any better, especially when the theatrical release was mediocre.