Some people just have no taste in movies

Cafe Society
1

*More of a rant, but couldn’t work up enough vitriol for it to be in the pit.

A few months ago my mother, bless her heart, talked me into splitting a Netflix account with her. When I ask what discs she wants sent to her, the reply is always “Oh, whatever you think”.

Well, I hereby resign my post of making suggestions. She have absolutely no taste in film, whatsoever, and I get angry thinking about some of the reasons they give for not liking some of the greatest works of cinematic art in modern times. Below are some of the movies I have sent and her comments regarding each:

Up - “Oh, I didn’t want to watch a kids movie”

Serpico - “They shouldn’t have let him get shot at the end”

Joyeux Noel – “I didn’t want to have to read subtitles”

The Hangover – “It was ok, but there was too much cursing”

Doomsday – “It was too silly” (yet she liked the Mad Max movies)

Inglorious Bastards – “It was too gory”

Avatar – “It was too animated”

District 9 – “I stopped watching 10 minutes in, they shook the camera too much”

Snatch – “Their accents are too hard to understand”

Fight Club – “It was ok, but I wish Ed Norton hadn’t talked through the whole thing”

The Matrix – “I don’t get it. He can fly now?” (I assume referencing the last scene where Neo shows he can control physics)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – “Oh, I don’t like Jim Carrey, he’s always too ‘off the wall’” (as far as I can tell, she has refused to watch any of his movies since Dumb and Dumber)
So as far as I can tell, she doesn’t like comedies, kids movies, violent movies, movies with cursing, movies with CGI, movies with plot, movies without plot, movies based on true stories, movies with actors who have been in things she also didn’t like, or movies that require thought.

When asked what her favorite movie is, the answer was True Lies. I think I’m going to cry.

Anyone else know someone this freaking picky with their tastes in film?

2

My dad probably makes your mom look like Leonard Maltin. He hardly likes movies at all, but when he does watch them, his idea of a GREAT movie is:

-Anything with Martin Lawrence
-Anything written by Nicholas Sparks
-Basically anything with Sandra Bullock.

My sister’s favorite movie of all time is Hardball with Keanu Reeves. That is seriously her idea of a deep, moving story.

As for your mom’s nitpicks: Eh, mostly pretty lame, I agree. But I’ve got to say that Up and The Hangover were awful movies. I don’t think there was a redeeming quality to go around between the two of them, and I say that as a person who generally likes animation and Zach Galifianakis. Snatch and The Matrix are good movies, but both are pretty hard to follow the first time you watch them, so I can’t hold those against her too much.

3

Well, in mom’s defense:

Inglorious Basterds was pretty gory for people who don’t like gore.

District 9 did drive me nuts in the beginning with the shaky camera, and if I had been watching at home on DVD and didn’t know that would end, I might have been tempted to shut it off. You might let her know that is only in the beginning.

Almost every reviewer mentioned that the accents in Snatch were difficult to understand, and I would have to agree it was tricky to follow in lots of places.

Jim Carrey annoys the shit out of me too - but he has been in a few good films. Personally, I didn’t like Eternal Sunshine and thought it was way overrated.
Just because people don’t have the same taste in films doesn’t mean they have no taste in films - just not yours.

Lots of friends/couples have problems when deciding which film(s) to see - one hates Westerns, one hates subtitles, one hates B&W films, one won’t see a film with [fill in blank actor/actress].
Although I will see almost anything (except vampire or zombie films, which I find just stooopid), others are more picky.

4

She didn’t like Fight Club? Imagine that! Force her to watch Trainspotting. That’ll teach her!

Find something more for her demographic. Has she seen Calendar Girls? Secondhand Lions? Only The Lonely?

5

I like Trainspotting.

6

Captain_C, if that’s your idea of an innocuous group of movies for your mom, I’d say that you’ve got a pretty bizarre view of humanity. You’re just sending her movies that you like, not that you think a nice older woman would like. Notice for instance that most of the movies on your list are rated R.

The Hangover - R
Serpico - R
Doomsday - R
Inglourious Basterds - R
District 9 - R
Snatch - R
Fight Club - R
The Matrix - R
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - R

http://www.filmratings.com/filmRatings_Cara/

Stop sending your mom R rated films, first of all.

7

That’s a tough one. I can hardly recommend movies for my friends sometimes, let alone my mom… and she’s doesn’t mind some R-rated goodness (although, she doesn’t like movies that make her “vibrate”… as in nervous or scary. Her words.)

I’ve found there’s two categories for movies:

  1. Movies made by and for people who honestly love movies.

and

  1. Movies made by people who want to make a lot of money for people who just want to kill some time.

And several sub-categories within.

If I get the feeling an individual falls into category 2, I’ll rarely go out of my way to recommend anything, even if asked my opinion about the movie.

8

Send her some Meg Ryan films–You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle. Great cinema? No, but other than being vapid, I can’t think of much objectionable content.

Here’s some more:

Indian Summer
Sweet Home Alabama
Try the Pirates of the Caribbean movies
Clue
The Goonies
Gremlins
Forrest Gump

Steer clear of Tarantino and Fincher. If she complains that the above movies are stupid (while true in many cases) and that she doesn’t like them, tell her to pick her own movies.

9

My Mom’s all time favorite movie is Legally Blonde.

Mine might be Mulholland Dr.

Yeah, we don’t watch movies together.

10

Yeah, I wouldn’t have sent probably any of those movies to my mom. Probably not even Up, since the first 20ish minutes can be pretty heartwrenching.

11

Some people just have different tastes. I don’t like any of the movies mentioned in your OP except Inglourious Basterds but I don’t see any reason to say you have bad taste. It’s an individual thing.

12

I don’t really like CGI movies either. I know a lot of people do but they always feel kind of childlike to me. I liked Finding Nemo but I have to be in the mood for it.

13

I can’t imagine there are many people anywhere who have the same tastes as their Mother, who inevitably grew up in a completely different era of movie culture.

14

What’s the old saying, “There’s no accounting for taste?”

Subtitles – what’s your mother’s eyesight like? I can see short films with subtitles, but if I had to watch an entire subtitled full-length feature, unfortunately, it would give me a terrible headache, I hate to say. :frowning:
So it’s not always about being a snob.

15

My daughter has similar tastes to my wife and me. We don’t agree on all films, but still have similar opinions on about 75% of them.

We raised her to appreciate a good movie.

16

My mom probably wouldn’t have liked any of those (except “Up”) either. I think she liked “Titanic” (I liked “Titanic,” too).

17

I’ve seen and enjoyed every film on your list except Joyeux Noel, and the only reason I didn’t see it was because I missed it when it played Chicago.

But needscoffee has an excellent point, you need some films that she might like. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio might be a good choice. A theater in Kansas City advertised the film offering a money-back guarantee.

18

Well, True Lies was rated R too, so I don’t know if we can say its the ratings she doesn’t like.

But its not like there are a lack of films that are similar to True Lies, there were a bunch of similar films that came out in the same time period. Get her “The Rock” and “Speed” and a couple other mid-nineties action flicks and it sounds like she’ll enjoy them.

The films you mentioned are the ones I imagine would be created if you took the intersection of every American college dorm room’s DVD collection. They might be somewhat different types of movies, but they’re ones that all appeal to a certain demographic, (relatively intelligent, twenty something American males), not a demographic that springs to mind when I hear the word “mom”.

19

She doesn’t like flashy camera work, violence, and subtitles. That sounds reasonable to me.

She sounds like someone who would like something with Tom Hanks in it. I recommend A League of Their Own.

You should find out why she enjoyed True Lies. That might help for future selections.

My mom is also irrational when it comes to liking movies, but I have figured out her system. She doesn’t like violence or movies that don’t agree with her world view, but anything with Julia Roberts in it is automatically watchable.

20

A few possibilities:

Crazy Heart
Duplicity
(500) Days of Summer
Gran Torino
Sherlock Holmes
Up In The Air