The Five Worst Movies To Watch Together On Father’s Day (Or Any Other Family Holiday)
Posted by: Leonora Epstein
Filed in:
news
8:45AM, Monday June 15th 2009
Celebrating holidays with a family movie night is a great American tradition. There’s basically no better way to spend time with family than to sit in a room, not talking or even looking at them. It really takes the pressure off. Yet, pick the wrong flick, and you may open a can of worms. If you’re contemplating movies to watch with the clan for Father’s Day (or any other future family holiday), you should be sure to blacklist the following…
- “Juno”: On your own, watching cute Ellen Page in this story of good morals makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. With your dad in the room, he’ll likely be thinking, God, I hope Sally has never had an abortion, while you’ll become obsessed with thinking, Is he wondering whether I’ve ever had an abortion? If mom’s around, this can potentially turn into another safe sex talk or, depending on how old you are, a “when are we going to become grandparents?” talk. Both horribly awkward discussions when there’s an abortion clinic on the TV.
- “Father of the Bride, Parts I and II”: In Part I, Steve Martin goes insane when he realizes his daughter’s wedding will cost about 100 grand, while in Part II, his wife and daughter are preggers at the same time. This movie should probably come with a warning that it may cause premature heart attacks in men over 50. Just do dad a favor and go to Vegas, elope, and spare him from the nightmare of dealing with weddings, because he probably won’t want to go through the ordeal after watching Steve Martin do it.
- “Serial Mom”: In 1994, Kathleen Turner played this picture perfect housewife who also happened to become a serial killer, murdering anyone who offends her family. Not the greatest way to tell mom you love her and appreciate what she does for your family. Also, there’s a super awkies masturbation scene.
- “Cheaper by the Dozen”: Basically, stay away from Steve Martin movies. In this 2003 flick, Martin plays dad to 12 children. This is guaranteed to bring up talks or memories about how difficult you were as a kid, which will likely have you speed dialing your shrink from the next room within the hour.
- “Go!”: Many have forgotten about Katie Holmes’s 1994 flick, which sometimes deceptively ends up in the “Holiday Favorites” section of Blockbuster because it takes place during Christmas. Don’t let that fool you—the entire film is about twentysomethings trying to get a drug deal done. Dad will no doubt huff and puff (“Kids these days!”), while also secretly wondering if all those times he bailed you out from your overdrawn bank account weren’t because you were blowing cash on Ecstasy at raves.
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Riley
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 08:59 am: [report]
The 40 Year Old Virgin was a Christmas movie for my family a few years ago. I’m not worried about anything on this list.
Jessica Wakeman
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 09:19 am: [report]
How could you forget “Borat”? Most awkward movie EVER to watch with your father. I was cringing in the theater. Worst idea I ever had.
Also I imagine “Secretary” would be a not-good one to watch with Dad.
marv3mania
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 09:34 am: [report]
I can’t myself think of any movies which you’re better off not watching with dad, but you absolutely SHOULD watch “Big Fish” with your dad.
Santiago
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 11:26 am: [report]
Funny you should say that Jessica, I took the folks to watch that when it came out. Awkward…
Amelia McDonell-Parry
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 11:38 am: [report]
I saw “Serial Mom” with my dad. Still traumatized. Also, “Women Of Brewster Place” is not a good one either.
Catherine Strawn
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 11:41 am: [report]
“Fear,” particularly the roller coaster scene. This happened. Luckily, it was my friend’s dad who walked in during that part, rather than mine.
sam04
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 11:46 am: [report]
I watched Unfaithful with my Mom. Most. Awkward. Experience. Ever.
ExGirlfriend
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 12:16 pm: [report]
On Super Bowl Sunday 2001, my family watched Top Gun together, and my stepmom paused right before the sex scene, looked at me, and told me to leave the room because it was getting too ‘racy.’ Little did she know the night before we watched that I had sex in the basement while everyone was sleeping. And I was 18.
sunrise
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 12:25 pm: [report]
I watched this John Cusack movie with my old-school Irish-Catholic grandparents once (I can’t remember which one, I think it was high fidelity), when I was about 16. I knew it was a bad idea when they started swearing all over the place… then there was this 10-second clip of two people having sex in a shower, complete with nipples and all… my Grandpa got so mad he shut the movie off and threw it out.
Ginger
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 12:31 pm: [report]
I watched ‘Juno’ with my dad and it wasn’t terrible at all.
Then again, my dad and I also watch explicit horror films together. When we watched ‘Hostel’ we both mocked the ‘violence’ and had a ‘do you think her breasts are real?’ conversation everytime the women in that movie got naked. Which, as anyone who has seen that awful movie knows, is quite a lot.
Yellow
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 04:17 pm: [report]
I saw Juno, and Knocked Up, and 40 Year Old Virgin with my dad. There were definitely moments where we just looked at the screen and didn’t dare look at each other, but overall not terrible experiences. Juno and Knocked Up both led to some interesting conversations about life and growing up too.
Anna Banana
wrote on June 15 2009 @ 04:49 pm: [report]
I watched “The Piano” with my mom when I was 16 - not knowing Harvey Keitel would be full-frontal. Who knew a historical drama could be borderline soft porn?? (lol) My most awkward movie-with-the-parents moment ever!
Isista
wrote on June 16 2009 @ 01:53 am: [report]
Father of the Bride I and II are movies my parents and I watch all the time and laugh at. Maybe we’re just weird…
But watching the unedited Sex in the City was soooooo awkward. They haven’t realized that I’m at an age where I know what sex is (let alone actually having sex…), so not one but two pretty explicit scenes were cringe-worthy for my dad.