Why on earth do people think they have to protect their parents from movies?
Although I have been guilty of the same thing. Once, when I was living at home, I left Von Trier’s “Kingdom” (all 8 episodes) lying out. My dad sat down and watched all of it. I was a little freaked out, but he loved it. I guess after serving on a WW2 battleship, there’s not a whole lot he can’t handle. 
I came in to comment on the same movie. **Doomsday **was a horrendous mess of awesome crappiness. The only way to enjoy that monstrosity of a film is to be the type of person amused by horrible trainwrecks of visual diarrhea. Why in the world would you assume anyone, let alone your mother, would enjoy that movie?
I dunno. I think more questioning is in order. I dunno how one gets to adulthood without having any sense of what kinds of movies his (or her) parents like to watch.
My dad likes wholesome movies without too much cussing, like The Swiss Family Robinson. (He cites that as his favorite film of all time.) He liked Cast Away. I was watching Out of Africa once with a girlfriend one Saturday night and he made us cut off the movie about ten minutes in because Robert Redford says “damn” and “hell” a few times. “Turn that filth OFF!” Out of Africa = filth. :: shrug :: Okay, dad. Whatevs.
My mother likes horror, cheap, crappy horror, slasher flicks, and movies about serial killers. (She is an awful lot like Serial Mom, why do you ask?) She also likes romantic comedies and loved Saving Private Ryan (which my grandfather refused to watch because “I lived it. I ain’t relivin’ it.” Good for him. 
).
Both my parents hate “kids” movies, anything with animation, and any sort of drugs/sex/party movies. I’m not a fan of anything that has a graphic rape scene in it.
Well for the record, she really enjoyed Mad Max, Waterworld, Resident Evil, and the half-dozen other movies that Doomsday blatantly ripped off. I guess it was just too much of a good thing?
Man, I dunno. Doomsday was a special kind of awful. It’s hard to say exactly where it runs totally off the rails that Mad Max laid down, or even where it started adlibbing from Waterworld’s experimental jazz set that used nothing but baby seals as instruments - but it’s definitely a different creature altogether.
They don’t, necessarily - they just think that when suggesting movies for somebody, you should suggest something they’ll like, not something you’ll like.
Well, that’s the thing about people, innit? Sometimes they’ll surprise you.
Yeah, but generally when you’re not paying any attention to their actual preferences it’s because you’re arrogant and inconsiderate. Ask yourself - am I giving this to her because I really genuinely think she’ll like it? Or am I giving it to her because I think she ought to like it?
Who knows? She might like it anyway. I’d never in a million years have thought my dad would like anything by Lars Von Trier, but here we are.
Of course, it’s always possible the other person could think, “Well, if my son thinks it’s good, there might be something I enjoy about it too. Worth a shot, anyway.”
To be fair I did mention in the OP how my instructions were to send “Oh, whatever you think”. My point being that if she doesn’t like the types of movies that I like, she should just pick her own movies!
Thanks for the suggestion Enalzi about the Movies You’ll Like tab. Sadly, since we share the account all the movie ratings are based on my reviews, so no go on that one.
I agree that it’s well, maybe not arrogant, but, I don’t know,* kind of* self-focussed to send your mom movies YOU like instead of what she’d like…
But that pre-supposes that you KNOW what she likes. Which would be a whole lot easier if she COMMUNICATED.
Remember the OP?
He’s doing exactly what she asked him to do. She’s paying the price for not being clearer (and maybe a titch passive-aggresive)…
Hmmm. Maybe this is her plan all along: “I know–I’ll make my poor miserable son do all the work. I won’t give him any clues. I’ll make him agonize over the choices… trying to pick something I’ll like (little does the poor fool know that’s impossible). Then I’ll tear all of his favorite movies to pieces… ha HA!”
“And if he tries to whine to those “Dopies” he talks to online, they’ll rip apart his taste in movies, too! ha-ha-HA!!!”
Hey Captain, is this a situation where you send her movies you watch yourself? As in, getting movies specifically for her that you won’t like is a no-go? Or to put it another way, is it just a simple setup of whatever movies you watch that you think she might happen to like, those get sent over to her?
Oh yeah, and Doomsday was cheese personified. Just because a movie steals from a genre doesn’t mean it’ll capture the quality. This is what does in most remakes.
Set up a second Profile for her.
This thread reminds me of many years ago when Pulp Fiction was fairly new to VHS. It was around the holidays and my dad went out and rented it and another flick for the fam to sit around and enjoy. Dad, who passed away in 98, was never a big fan of the F word. In fact, in the 22 years he and I were on this planet together I think I heard him say fuck twice, and both times it was a complete shock to me.
Anyway, we’re watching Pulp Fiction. As you may or may not know, it has one or two moments of vulgarity. And if I remember correctly, it was right about at the Royal with Cheese discussion that my dad got disgusted and stopped the movie. It was awkward. But have no fear, he rented 2 movies, so we have a backup: Clerks. “Uh, hey dad, you might not want to even bother putting that one in.”
Good times.