16 Days of Birthday, Day 16: The Best R16's I Watched Before I Was 16

So yes, today is the day. The day that I am finally 16...the age I have been waiting to see since my Dad first bought the local Blockbuster. Now the only movies I can't get out myself are the R18's...but no one seems to make those anymore. The censors never stopped me, though. I've been watching R16's for the past five years. But today I'm watching In Bruges, on my brand new blu-ray player (yay!), which just so happens to be an R16...and the first one I have ever watched legally.

To celebrate myself finally being 16, I shall list 16 of my favourite R16's. And I'm sure some censor Nazi will come along and arrest me for watching all of these movies while being underage...or something like that.

American Beauty
Age watched at: 15
Sam Mendes' brilliant debut feature which won a whole swag of Oscars and has some brilliant performances by Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey is a movie which I can't wait to own now I can go out and buy it for myself. Hey, it might not be 1999 any more, but this film still has some relevant things to say about the modern world.

Black Swan
Age watched at: 15
The funny thing about this movie is that I told everyone that they have to be very mature in order to handle this movie. This was coming from someone who wasn't legally allowed to watch it! Oh well, I watched at least 5 times as a 15 year old...and I still think I'm more mature than others!

Blue Valentine
Age watched at: 15
This movie was supposed to be an NC-17 in the US, which is the equivalent to an R18 here, all thanks to one not-so-bad sex scene. Wow, the censors sometimes get pretty touchy! I still feel pretty emotionally damaged by this film, though. I cried far too much at the end, and just about made a vow that I'd never get married.

Carrie
Age watched at: 11
As I said in last night's post...I got pretty obsessed with this movie. Which was dumb since it was an R16 meaning I couldn't get it out every time I wanted to watch it. I also think this was the first 'true' R16 I saw, with all the language and violence and whatnot.

The Departed
Age watched at: 13
I watched this one when it was on TV because of my devotion towards Leonardo DiCaprio. It's fair to say, I really do love this film - it's one of my favourite Scorsese movies. Now I can buy it, and watch it over and over again!

District 9
Age watched at: 14
Oh, this movie is just hilarious. Wikus van der Merwe is pretty much my idol - everything he said pre-prawn days was bloody funny. Unfortunately, the amount of cursing and violence in this movie tried to ensure that little 14 year old me shouldn't have been watching this movie...but there's no way that I could have waited to see this brilliant sci-fi for another two years.

The Godfather
Age watched at: 15
Of course, this movie is essential for every person who even wants to consider themselves as a cinephile, so I didn't really want to wait much longer than I did to watch it. I actually watched part of it back when I was 12, when it was on TV once. It's fair to say, the only thing that worried me about this movie was the fact that I took so bloody long to see the film.

The Hangover
Age watched at: 14
The Hangover is probably one of my favourite comedies. I pretty much love gross-out comedies, and this one is the best. It was my favourite movie for quite a while (yes, I realise that might be worrying, but I did watch it every day for a month), but now it's a movie which I like watching when things get a little on the tough side - it always cheers me up.

The Hurt Locker
Age watched at: 14
I'm probably going to go buy this movie very soon. Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar winning bomb disposal film is one which I really like for a whole lot of reasons: Jeremy Renner, the manliness of it all and the heart it has. Thanks to it's censor rating, I had watched every other Best Picture nominee before I got around to watching the winner - and while I don't think it was as good as some of the other nominees, I was definitely on Team Hurt Locker rather than Team Avatar.

Inglourious Basterds
Age watched at: 14
I should really stop choosing favourite directors that always make highly-censored films. First there is David Fincher, who hasn't made anything too bad in a while but I'm sure that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be an R18; then there is Quentin Tarantino, who has never made anything under an R16. I was pretty pissed that I couldn't watch Inglourious Basterds when it first came out, so as you could imagine, I was pretty excited about the DVD release. Luckily, my expectations were reached.

Knocked Up
Age watched at: 12
As I said, I love gross-out comedies. Judd Apatow was at his best when he made Knocked Up, the hilarious pregnancy tale starring Seth Rogen before he lost weight and Katherine Heigl before she became the new Jennifer Aniston. I remember I got a poster of this to proudly display in my room as a cool R16 that I saw - I thought I was so grown up.

Let the Right One In
Age watched at: 14
In last night's post I shared with you the first review I ever did on this blog, which just so happened to be about this film. I feel like this movie is a little too tame to be an R16, but it is a really violent and sadistic film beneath it all, rather than being a lot more up-front about it.

Magnolia
Age watched at: 15
I only watched this movie for the first time around three weeks ago, as Tyler from Southern Vision wanted me to watch it so much (it's his favourite movie), and I genuinely loved this movie. Paul Thomas Anderson has quickly become one of my favourite directors, and all three of the films of his that I have watched are to be added into my top 100 - this one probably coming out on top. Such an epic multi-plot film, featuring a side of Tom Cruise that I didn't ever think I'd see.

Memento
Age watched at: 14
Ah, well, this is my favourite movie of all time, so it's a bit of a no-brainer on this list, huh? I think that Chris Nolan should make some more R16 movies now that I am 16 and I could watch them with no strings attached. He's a good man, so he'll listen to me.

Pan's Labyrinth
Age watched at: 14
So yeah, this is a fairytale, right? Well it is, but not the kind that gets given a G rating. Instead, it's the kind that literally scared the bejesus out of me and featured some very beautiful-yet-odd images. I need this movie in my collection, pronto.

Psycho
Age watched at: 11
Back in the day, I used to be a real censor Nazi. I used to be so touchy about people my age watching R16's. One day Mum was like "Oh, I think it's time for you to see Psycho", so I was like "No Mum! It's an R16! I can't watch it!" After fighting with her for a while I finally got it out and we watched it together. There was my first introduction to Alfred Hitchcock. We've both watched many Hitchcock movies together, and I pretty much love them all...and I love my Mum, too.

Taken
Age watched at: 15
Okay, so this is just a fun one. I was like the only person in Dannevirke who hadn't seen this movie, until I watched it around a month ago. As you may know, I'm going through a bit of a Liam Neeson phase, and while he may star in some really crappy movies these days, Taken is seriously the shit. Like, I could watch Liam beat the crap out of everyone he comes across all day - but alas, this movie was enough. He was badass in this movie, and the movie itself was surprisingly very good!

What are some of your favourite movies that you watched underaged? And now this marathon is over, did you enjoy it?