Before WWI, Winston Churchill was involved in debates over government spending on dreadnoughts – the Admiralty wanted to build six, Churchill’s party wanted to economize and build just four. As the dreadnought race with Germany heated up and the world built toward war, they increased the building program, leading to Churchill’s famous quip, “The Conservatives wanted six; the Liberals wanted four; we compromised on eight.”
Recently, my wife expressed a desire to see the last movie in the Twilight canon, Breaking Dawn. I wanted to see Spielberg’s Lincoln, also in theaters at the same time. Ultimately, we made two separate movie dates, but it occurred to me that, for this particular case, the perfect compromise movie exists: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Somewhat pleased with my own wit, I decided this would be another movie-themed game. To wit:
Pick any two movies that spouses might disagree on, and suggest a funny “compromise movie” they could see together instead.
No requirement that the movies actually be in theaters simultaneously, or that your putative spouse would actually want to see them.
If you think people might not get the reason it’s funny, spoilerbox it.
Example:
I wanted to see Das Boot, she wanted to see Strictly Ballroom; we compromised on Titanic.
I had to watch fancy dancing, but at least the ship sinks.
I wanted to see Run Lola Run. My husband wanted to see Notting Hill. We compromised on Fight Club. Then we saw the other two movies too. We both loved all three.
Not all women only want to see romantic comedies and not all men want to only see macho movies. Luckily my husband and I both like good movies of any genre.
You’re absolutely right: my wife wanted to watch a poignant drama where Patrick Swayze professes his undying love for Demi Moore, but I’m a light-comedy guy at heart: gimme Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson with quips from Olympia Dukakis, y’know? So we compromised by watching GHOST DAD.
How do you figure? She wanted to see GHOST, and I wanted to see DAD, so we settled on GHOST DAD. (It was nothing like that time she wanted to see THE SHADOW and I wanted to see DOC SAVAGE; we of course went with PULP FICTION.)
She wanted to see Glitter. I wanted to see Showgirls.
We compromised by agreeing that our combined tastes created a massive black hole of cinema suckage, and we should never attempt to watch a movie again lest we doom the world.
My husband likes the romantic comedy genre better than I do. We can usually get along in the categories of science fiction, fantasy, or suspense. Some comedies we can agree on, too. I don’t care for the “serious drama” genre.