My daughters and I have had MUCH more memorable and fun discussions laughing and making fun of awful movies we’ve seen than we’ve had discussing good movies.
Sharknado was a freakin’ side-splitter when we watched it.
Begged my dad to go see “Weekend Pass”. He knew it was gonna suck.. he went along for it..even bought me a hot dog afterwards.. he told me he knew it was gonna suck.. in response I started watching better movies picked by him..
Whether a movie is good or bad has very little to do with whether a kid will like it. This, for example, explains the success of John Hughes.
How old is she? If watching what does appear to be a really bad movie is the worst suffering she ever puts you through, it’ll be fine.
Besides, it is important to have movies you loved as a kid but realize as an adult were awful. I’d be a very different person without my shameful attachment to License to Drive and Can’t Buy Me Love.
Her disappointment would be my concern as well. Snarking on bad movies is fun, but only if you’re not horribly disappointed. However, most kids tolerate bad movies waaaaayyyyy better than adults do!
You could tell her " some reviews say it’s not a terrific movie, but it could be silly fun. Will you be really disappointed if it’s kind of a dopey movie or will it be fun anyway?"
Take her to see the movie is my suggestion as well.
I remember my wife and I taking my daughter to see Garfield–and if I can live through that, then you can survive this. Good luck.
I’ve sat through hundreds of horrible kids movies. I’ve even watched direct-to-video Barbie movies with my daughters. We saw the Smurfs twice! So it’s not that I refuse to watch terrible movies with them.
But RIPD is something I was actually interested in until the bad reviews came in. Modern action movie with Jeff Bridges as a dead Rooster Cogburn, with a Men in Black plot? That could have been a great movie. And for some reason, I can tolerate things I don’t like better than I can tolerate bad examples of things I do like. For example, I can drink any sort of terrible cheap wine, because I don’t really get wine. But I’d rather go thirsty than drink bad whiskey, because I really enjoy good whiskey. So sitting through a terrible kids movie that has nothing in it for me is easier than sitting through a terrible action movie that I wish was better.
But yeah, if she really really wants to see it, I’ll take her and her sisters. And remind her of it when it’s time to pick out my home.
First, I have to agree with other posters: If this is her birthday wish and she actually wants to be seen in public with you, this is a precious opportunity. No matter how good or bad the movie, you will treasure this time together.
Next, after you get home from the movies, get a copy of the TV series Dead Like Me. (There is also a movie by that name, but I don’t know anything about it.)
I don’t know anything about RIPD except all the ads I keep seeing. But it sounds like a ripoff of Dead Like Me with added violence and without the warmth and humor. But I could be wrong.
Dead Like Me was produced by Bryan Fuller. It’s got charm, subtle (and overt) humor, and pathos. You’ll like it. After the movie bombs, suggest maybe watching a couple of episodes at home with your daughter. I think you’ll have a good time.
Dude, it’s not like movie reviews are gospel. You said you had wanted to see it originally. So she loses two hours on her birthday. Big deal. Hey, you might end -gasp! - liking it!
There are the the opposite examples, like Killing Them Softly. For some reason, critics loved it. Apparently it was supposed to be a “black comedy” but I didn’t get that at all; I found it to be a colossal piece of tired, derivative shit.
It looks bad in that “This has all been done before already” way not the painfully awful Manos the Hands of Fate way. Enjoy the company and see the movie.
Oh, and to address the “At least she wants to be seen in public with you” - once we get to the movies, and I’ve bought the tickets and snacks, the girls generally request that I sit on the opposite side of the theater from them. After picking my heart up from the ground and cleaning the footprints off it, I usually agree to sit one row behind them.
Speaking as someone who had to sit through the first two “Twilight” movies before her daughter outgrew them, I feel your pain.
The hardest thing for me was trying not to be snarky about the movie to her when I knew she loved them to pieces and she knew her adored older sister thought they were stupid. My only real regret is that she started feeling ashamed of her own preteen taste once she got into her middle teens. So if you go, and you hate it, try to keep from letting that override her opinion if she loves it.
And, God willing, in a few years when she outgrows it, you can watch the DVD with Rifftrax, like we did with Twilight.
They made a movie as a way for them to end the series since it got cancelled after the second season. The movie was ok, some of the characters did things I thought was out of character, but I think they got the ending right.