Subjected my wife to "Neon Maniacs" the other night. The funny thing? She thought it was pretty amusing! Not a great film, by any reach of the imagination, but enjoyable in a dumb bad movie sort of way. Totally caught me off guard; I was expecting her to start complaining.
Anyone else ever expose someone to a film and get a different reaction than you thought they would exhibit?
I showed DEAD ALIVE to my little brother and his girlfriend. (I try to get everybody to watch DEAD ALIVE.) Her reaction? She thought it was "cute".
Also, I had just subjected a group to SLAPSTICK (OF ANOTHER KIND) and followed it up with STUDENT BODIES. They all laughed at STUDENT BODIES and got the humor. Was it because they just had to sit through SLAPSTICK and anything would have been better? I don't know.
I once showed this really experienced bad movie fan a comedy/musical called Sextette, and he crawled under my mom's coffee table trying to escape from it.
As for Katie, that poor woman. I think you finally broke the taste center of her brain.
Ken, I showed two friends "Sextette." When Marlo says something to the effect of "I work at Paramount all day and Fox all night." they actually went catatonic. (Say it aloud to yourself, if you don't get the horror.) That film is an ugly truth of humanity.
Once, upon seeing "The Abyss," I mentioned that if the advanced sea monkeys had known about "Sextette," they would have sent that wave crashing over the land (in the hope of destroying all copies).
Ick, what a foul movie. Really, one of the few movies outside of John Waters' works that I use the word reprehensible to describe.
Look, I'm not arguing with you, obviously. The West/Dalton rendition of Love Will Keep Us Together is quite possibly the most appalling four minutes of film ever.
My dad hates any comedy that doesn't have Peter Sellers in if - seriously, I had never seen him even smile at a comedy that wasn't Strangelove or a Pink Panther flick. A while back I rented Office Space and he couldn't stop laughing. Turns out he works with a guy just like Lumberg and hates his guts.
My wife thought THE RING was a rea/ly scary movie. I saw RINGU first and for me, that one was much more disturbing. Guess that's the trouble with remakes.
My dad doesn't watch movies. Oh, he'll get an occasional chuckle out of some simple comedies, but I've never seen him watch a whole movie unless it was on a family trip to the drive-in. He only seems to read newspapers, and his TV selections are limited to news, weather, golf and nature shows. Very much rooted in the here and now.
That's why it came as a huge surprise when he actually defended a science fiction movie. This was years ago. A couple from down the street came over, and they were doing grown up stuff. I happened to be watching Blade Runner on TV. Well, our neighbour, noticing the flying cars and other gadgets, suggested that it's all "pretty far fetched." My dad actually pointed out that we don't know what the future will bring, and that some of the things we have today were science fiction once.
I'd say it was my first hint that the old man is a much more complicated person than appearances would suggest.
I showed Sonny Chiba's "the Streetfighter" to someone once who got extremely involved in the plot.
One time my I showed my friend "Dawn of the Dead" and I was excepting him to love it but he didn't like it that much. He said it had too many Gun scenes but he LOVED Night of the Living Dead. He admits though that he was very sleepy and in a grouchy mood when he saw it and says he'd be more than happy to watch DotD again, in a good mood.
My mother would ususally sleep through a movie. So when she told me that she and my brother went to see all of The Matrix, I asked her: "You saw the WHOLE movie, right?"
A better question to me would be, what movie or what kind of movie would you want your family member or friend(s) to see knowing full well they can't stand that movie or that kind of movie? For instance, my mother can't stand any type of grotesque horror of sci-fi movie (no Star Wars, Star Trek or any slasher flicks) or any movie where the talking character is anything but human. I tell her that it is just make-up and costume they are wearing, but there's no convincing.
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Bulls**t, I still can't hear you, sound off like you got a pair.
My mom will watch just about anything, and she has a pretty good grasp of the idea of bad movie fun. She actually recommended Santa with Muscles to me last Christmas.
My dad, on the other hand, is not a movie fan at all. However, the one thing he hates most of all is any kind of police story. He'll watch true crime shows, like City Confidential, but not fiction. Having been a cop for over 30 years, he sees all of the inaccuracy and other bulls**t, and it gets on his nerves. Some people can be amused by a Hollywood distortion of their profession, but not my old man. Being retired since the 80s doesn't seem to have diminished it either. I suppose when the public's whole image of your job, and their expectations of you, are based on this stuff, it might get to be a really touchy area for you.
My oldest brother (also a cop) is the same way, although a bit more tolerant. I once watched him get progressively more p**sed off watching an episode of CSI, until he finally turned the channel in disgust. On the other hand, he loves stuff like Dirty Harry. In his case, I think he just gets annoyed with the crap that is presented as a realistic portrayal.
Try growing up in a medical family. Same story - all those Dr. and nurse -type dramas, Quincy, ER et al, forget it! Now, SF and Sci-Fi was always a-OK. Never missed a Trek or Night Gallery or whatever was going.
Baffles me that Dad loves 'Lawyer' shows, ans sappy mysteries. You would think his experience of the medical and political shows had opened his eyes.
My Grandfather once told my Dad not to waste his time on "all that Buck Rogers stuff - men will never go to the moon!" This is in living memory...
I made my grannie (82) watch "Dagon". She was quite surprised when I showed her the DVD case and she learnt that Paco Rabal was in there -Rabal was a great star when she was younger- and when I told her it was based on some Lovecraft. I had given her some Lovecraft in advance and, to my surprise, she had quite enjoyed it. So I finally showed her the movie -save the skinning scene- and she was quite entertainned with it. I knew my grannie was quite tolerant, but watching her sit through the movie was a pleasant surprise.
My Mom hates most comedies and my friend David tends to mostly watch movies like Casino and The Hurricane. Well one day I was flipping through the channels and Screwed was on USA. I was watching it but the went to take a shower. I come back and Mom and David are watching it and laughing histerically!