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A 100 level course. Rather than clog up the rate the last movie thread with re watches I'd figured why not start a thread documenting the movies me and my GF's son are watching.

A little about him. He is not a cinephile, at all. His favorite movies for the longest time were Malibu's Most Wanted, Joe Dirt and Undercover Brother. I believe his fav movie right now is Spiderman 2, he's big time into the MCU and did not like Pulp Fiction at all. Having grown up with me he never trusted my taste in films. He hated horror films and "Everything you watch is awful. Terrible acting, looks like crap and it's all from like the 70's or 80's." No comment. My goal is to just get him to expand his horizons a bit. He never watches foreign films, hates musicals, movies longer than 120 minutes and old b&w films, so my work is cut out for me, but he is enthusiastic about expanding his cinematic universe. I know this will take time and will be starting him out on what I consider genre classics that are, for the most part, easily consumed and well reviewed, just to get a feel for his tastes. We will not be watching The Seventh Seal, 2001 or Solaris anytime soon. Have to build up to them. Once I build up his trust, that I actually do watch some good movies, I may throw an occasional curve at him and drop in some exploitation crap just to keep things fresh and entertaining for myself. He gets to choose any movie I own (300+ library and they're all F'n good!) and I get to choose any movie I want even if it's bad (The Room?) with one catch... people have to actually talk (no silent films). He's adamant about that one. Thems the rules.

So far we have watched these, along with his rating:
 



Some of the movies we are considering
 



I like your movie watching endeavor with your GF's son. How old is he and does your GF watch these films too? Those ratings you posted are they yours or his? BTW I'm betting he really likes Robocop.



did not like Pulp Fiction at all
I would have given up on him after that response, but I admire your tenacity.

Event Horizon (4.5)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (4.5)
Based on his favs and highest ratings so far I suggest the following 'trust building' films:

The Thing
Soldier
Starship Troopers
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man: Far from Home

The Gentlemen
Snatch
Sherlock Holmes
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.



I would have given up on him after that response, but I admire your tenacity.



Based on his favs and highest ratings so far I suggest the following 'trust building' films:

The Thing
Soldier
Starship Troopers
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man: Far from Home

The Gentlemen
Snatch
Sherlock Holmes
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

He's seen everything Spiderman. That's been his fav superhero since I can remember. He's seen The Thing and liked it. Snatch was one he really wanted to see and will probably be one of the first ones we watch but I recommended he watch LSaTSB first. Something about Snatch being a little shinier/cleaner looking that I thought may affect his enjoyment of Lock, Stock. His enjoyment of LSaTSB makes me think he's really going to like Snatch

I like your movie watching endeavor with your GF's son. How old is he and does your GF watch these films too? Those ratings you posted are they yours or his? BTW I'm betting he really likes Robocop.
He's twentysomething and never watched movies unless his friends were going to a theater to see the latest blockbuster. He was more content to hang out at the park and do whatever they do there (They didn't drink milkshakes I can assure you of that!) I think the last year and a half kind of forced him to find other things to do so he started getting into movies. Those are what I think he would rate them and his mom will not be watching many of them with us. She's a bit talky. I threw up Robocop again last night - "Hey, how about Robocop?" Him - "No."





Start things off with one I can watch endlessly and was glad he picked it. If it weren't for the internet I would just assume that everybody who saw this loved it and of course, it's Goodfellas. He was into this from the start and was visibly on edge during Henry's chaotic last day before his arrest. "He's gonna have a heart attack if he keeps going like this!" Scorcese got him!

Favorite scene: Simple little shot of Jimmy, who was also his favorite character, just thinking after the Lufthansa party. "What is he thinking about? My God...He's going to kill everybody! Is he going to kill everybody?" Me: "I don't remember."



Misc. - "Hey, that's the guy from Dumb and Dumber!" Guy who played Frenchy is also Joe from Dumb and Dumber. *sigh*

"Is that Samuel Jackson? I didn't know he was in this" Yep. He's in it aaaand he's out.

Verdict - "That was one of the best movies I've ever seen." Sounds like
to me.



Sorry if you mentioned it somewhere, but how old is he?
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If you wanna ease him into musicals, my go-to recommendation for that is usually Once. He also dug When Harry Met Sally, so try something like (500) Days of Summer.

As far as other more regular recommendations, what about...

Heat
RoboCop
Source Code
The Silence of the Lambs
Seven
Prisoners



If you wanna ease him into musicals, my go-to recommendation for that is usually Once. He also dug When Harry Met Sally, so try something like (500) Days of Summer.

As far as other more regular recommendations, what about...

Heat
RoboCop
Source Code
The Silence of the Lambs
Seven
Prisoners

Was talking with him a couple days ago, mentioned (500) Days of Summer and he's seen that. He's also seen La La Land. Not too surprising, I guess, as Zooey and Emma are two of his fav actresses. If he hasn't seen it yet, I'm thinking Birdman might be an option. Those are all good rec's and a couple for sure we're going to get to but Robocop...he does not want to watch that one. Tried again last night. I think he thinks it's one of my dumb exploitation flicks and he's starting to get a little annoyed that I keep bringing it up.





"Barbed wire? Jesus, Joey" Another big winner from a couple nights ago. We didn't have much time so we hit up a shorter film that packs a lot into it's runtime. I'm talking about A History of Violence. He was into this right from the get go. Viggo Mortenson plays family with Maria Bello and two kids but is he who he says he is? An unfortunate event in small town Ohio brings unwanted attention to the family and some shady characters to town. One of my favorite movies.

Favorite scene - A lot to choose from, he loved the entire ending with William Hurt and everything with Ed Harris but he did remark "That bully beat down was very satisfying" so that's where I'm putting my money.

Verdict -
He really liked this a lot.
Not quite as much as Goodfellas but it's up there. I think it was the family drama aspects, how they were dealing with everything, that grabbed him more than anything else. He was a little surprised at the level of violence, not that there's a lot but what there is is Cronenberg levels.


Last night he rejected Rear Window, Man Bites Dog (his mom recommended this - don't know why but she felt like messing with him), The Virgin Spring and Robocop (again), but he settled on a good one. This next one he enjoyed but had some issues with it, mostly the fx which he felt were a little cheesy/outdated. They are but it's still an outstanding film and I'm talking about:



The Terminator. I think this is a must see movie in the sci fi/action genre. He didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped but he didn't dislike it. He wanted to watch T2 but I'm a big watch them in order believer and rejected that idea even though I suspect T2 will be received much better than T1. The flash forwards and fx were the biggest issue. Everything about Reese, Sarah and the Terminator he really liked but felt the movie lost steam every time Cameron showed us the future.







"Barbed wire? Jesus, Joey" Another big winner from a couple nights ago. We didn't have much time so we hit up a shorter film that packs a lot into it's runtime. I'm talking about A History of Violence. He was into this right from the get go. Viggo Mortenson plays family with Maria Bello and two kids but is he who he says he is? An unfortunate event in small town Ohio brings unwanted attention to the family and some shady characters to town. One of my favorite movies.

Favorite scene - A lot to choose from, he loved the entire ending with William Hurt and everything with Ed Harris but he did remark "That bully beat down was very satisfying" so that's where I'm putting my money.

Verdict -
He really liked this a lot.
Not quite as much as Goodfellas but it's up there. I think it was the family drama aspects, how they were dealing with everything, that grabbed him more than anything else. He was a little surprised at the level of violence, not that there's a lot but what there is is Cronenberg levels.


Last night he rejected Rear Window, Man Bites Dog (his mom recommended this - don't know why but she felt like messing with him), The Virgin Spring and Robocop (again), but he settled on a good one. This next one he enjoyed but had some issues with it, mostly the fx which he felt were a little cheesy/outdated. They are but it's still an outstanding film and I'm talking about:



The Terminator. I think this is a must see movie in the sci fi/action genre. He didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped but he didn't dislike it. He wanted to watch T2 but I'm a big watch them in order believer and rejected that idea even though I suspect T2 will be received much better than T1. The flash forwards and fx were the biggest issue. Everything about Reese, Sarah and the Terminator he really liked but felt the movie lost steam every time Cameron showed us the future.


As a huge fan of A History of Violence and The Terminator, I give this an enthusiastic thumbs up.




After a small hiatus we got back on the horse last night. Actually, this first one we watched a couple weeks ago but I haven't been in the mood to log it. The first one is a classsic, no. 8 on the AFI Sci-Fi Top Ten, from the 90's and is a sequel to the last movie we watched and that is:

Terminator 2: Judgement Day (extended version). I picked the extended version for a couple reasons with the main reason being I want him to get used to sitting through longer movies (over 2+hours) and I think starting off with GWtW is asking a bit much. He liked Terminator but he loved T2 and to be honest I'm not surprised. It looks shiny, the fx are clean and has a bit more humor than the first. He is now interested in the Terminator Universe and is looking forward to more sequels which I have never seen and have zero interest in seeing. Going forward, he's on his own with this series.


Our next film is in a genre that he says he has never experienced. I'm talking about the Western.
Most of the greats are old and the best ones are often epics which eliminate them. My first choice was the quick moving The Ox Bow Incident but I was shot down (old, b/w) and we went with his choice of four guys doing an old west road trip to save a couple people abducted by troglodytes. Of course this could only be:




Bone Tomahawk I was a little surprised this is the one he wanted to go with but, hey, he doesn't like gratuitous/extreme violence at all so I thought what the hell, Bone Tomahawk it is. And that ending got him. This is probably not going on his re-watch list although he did say he liked it for the most part. If I go for another western anytime soon Unforgiven is probably the one I'll go with, after pushing Ox Bow again, of course.




It's a pity he didn't want to watch The Ox Bow Incident, I can't image anyone seeing that not being stirred to some real deep emotions. I seen Bone Tomahawk it's probably best as a b budget fun flick for those who like that type of thing, I didn't care for it. Unforgiven, that's a good choice hopefully that one gets him interested in older films and westerns. I love westerns myself.

Terminator and T2 solid choices you made there! Glad to hear he liked them.



It's a pity he didn't want to watch The Ox Bow Incident, I can't image anyone seeing that not being stirred to some real deep emotions.

I was hoping to get him to watch Ox Bow because I think he would really like it but I also realize, one month in, he isn't going to be over his b/w, old film phobias quite yet. Now throw in a genre he's never seen and I get why he's cautious about Ox Bow. Part of what makes this tricky is he remembers all the garbage I used to watch (eh, I still watch) so I have to also build up his trust as it pertains to what a good movie is. It's gonna take time and I have patience.



He's doing way better than me, I was almost 40 before I stop refusing to watch old black and white movies. Now I can't image not watching them but I use to consider old movies like old bread...moldy.



The one thing I did not expect was a flurry of Sci- Fi right off the bat but I'm letting him choose and that's what he's going for. The first one hits one of his phobias - released before the 90's. It's another sequel about a rescue mission. You see, "there's some juicy colonists' daughters we have to rescue from their virginity." Of course this could only be :




Aliens. Surprisingly, when this was over, he actually said he liked it more than T2. Wow, because I had to do a little work to get him to want to see this. I just kept repeating - "It's not like Alien, it's a bit more actiony". He likes Alien but thinks is a little slow. Right off the bat, as we are introduced to the Marines, he says "so these are all the people who are gonna die?" My response, as it has been forever when someone asks me about something in a movie "I don't remember." He had a good time trying to figure out who to trust in this and he didn't trust Bishop until he got himself ripped in half - "I guess Bishop is okay."



Our second flick is something that doesn't tick any of his phobias and I was actually kind of surprised he hadn't already seen it. It's about a computer programmer/ hacker following Alice's rabbit down the hole and being red pilled.




He didn't think this was the best of the recent sci-fi bunch we have seen but he thought it was the most fun and is the one he is most looking forward to watching again. It's The Matrix. I'm not a huge fan of the Matrix world, this is the only Matrix movie I have seen, but I can see why it's so beloved and if I had a list of movies everyone should see at least once, this would be on it. I think he will be getting on with the sequels, something I have zero interest in.




"I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she'll die."

"I'd like to see some more 80's movies," he says to me. This is one that wasn't even on my radar until I saw it was on Tubi. So I mentioned it and got a rather lukewarm response. "Sounds like a bad B-Movie" he says. Me: "Yeah, it is, if you watch the 50's version. This version of The Fly is a little different and it's directed by the guy who directed A History of Violence, which you loved and it's a lot like Spiderman." I don't feel bad lying to him about stuff like this because I got used to lying to him years ago ("That wasn't me, that was the cat. He's not supposed to eat wet food"). Can't wait seeing what line of BS I feed him to get Cannibal Holocaust playing.

We ended up watching it and, well, everything about this surprised him. He was not expecting much of a story and getting a little attached to both main characters was probably not something he was expecting either but he really liked both Ronnie and Seth. When it was all over he said "I liked Brundle at first, then I didn't like him and wanted him to just die, then I felt bad for him." He really enjoyed how even as Brundle is turning into the fly and things are falling off of him, that he's still Brundle underneath all the goo and makeup, bad jokes and all. I always felt like Cronenberg gets the most out of his 90 minute run time with this one and still do. It never slows down, in fact one of the first things the Kid said is "They jump right in don't they?" uh, yeah, they get moving pretty quick. I get the feeling that this might be his second fav movie we've watched so far (Goodfellas is still no.1) but my guess is The Fly is a solid



Movies rejected yesterday: Unforgiven, Man Bites Dog (did watch the opening scene and then NOPE!), Robocop, Deliverance, Eraserhead (says he's seen it, but no, no you have not seen it)



Still sticking with the 80's movies we managed to squeeze in two more as the outside temps hover around zero degrees. The first is a neo-noir by a famous directing duo - Blood Simple. This is a top 3 Coen Bros. movie for me but I wasn't sure if he'd like the slower pace. Fortunatley, he loved it. He's a talker, so when he started telling/questioning people in the movie on what they should be doing I knew the Brothers had hooked him. Really glad he liked this as I think it opens up some longer, twisty, slow burns.


And we wrapped up with a buddy cop movie. This is one I had to do a bit of talking him into as he thought it was going to be a corny, comedy thing. And it stars Mel, who he is not really a fan of.

Lethal Weapon. This surprised him and I was a little worried that the first forty minutes or so of character building/set up would be a put off after telling him that this is one of the better action movies of the decade. He did say after that it was a slow beginning but picked up after the pool guy shooting. This isn't going to top his fav 80's action flick, First Blood, not by any stretch, but I think we ticked off another classic 80's flick and it wasn't a complete waste of time for him.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Wow, I admire your patience. Interesting peaceful educational methods!

Good thing I don't have a kid because I'd just tie the bugger and force him to watch Satantango over and over again until he loves it, Clockwork Orange style!
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



Wow, I admire your patience. Interesting peaceful educational methods!

Good thing I don't have a kid because I'd just tie the bugger and force him to watch Satantango over and over again until he loves it, Clockwork Orange style!

Patience is a funny thing. I don't know if I have more of it now or I just don't care anymore. Probably a bit of both. Since I'm okaying everything we watch it isn't that bad, yet, but I was hoping he'd be a little more open to some older films, at least stuff from the 70's, by now. I don't know what it is about that rearrangement of numbers that is so weird for him. 1980 is okay but 1979 is ugh...Two things that would make this easier is if the date and runtime weren't on the preview window of my media player. He found their location pretty quick. Don't have kids of my own but if I had some that's how I would have dealt with them (probably why not having any was a good thing). Seeing as he's someone else's child I have to ease up a little on my methods.