Everyone loves movies, but if your partner’s tastes are not even remotely in the same ball park as yours, you might find yourself saying “f*ck it, let’s just watch The Olympics some more.” Below, the film preferences you and your partner might have, and the date night movie that will actually work.

He likes Jim Carrey/She likes musicals

Looks like the now-obscure musical comedy Earth Girls Are Easy is the right movie for you, which might be the first time anyone has ever said those words, ever. Jim Carrey is one of three aliens (the other two are Jeff Goldblum and Damon Wayans) who crash their spaceship in Geena Davis’ pool and get makeovers so they can go party in Los Angeles. That’s the whole movie. The movie’s soundtrack and visual style are so 80s-tastic that it feels more like a really long music video than a legitimate film at times (although it still feels shorter than that R. Kelley video where Ron Isley beats the crap out of him and leaves him in the desert to die), but it’s honestly a fun little movie for a stay-at-home date night.

Plus: What Your Favorite 80s Movie Says About Your Dating Persona

 

She likes westerns/He liked Dances With Wolves and has never seen another Kevin Costner movie

It’s really hard to ignore Costner’s horrible film reputation, but if your relationship is strong enough to get past it, Open Range is the ideal choice here. It stars Costner as an open range cattleman fighting a land baron who kills one of Costner’s hired hands and mortally wounds a second one when they try to resupply in his town. It’s not a bad movie at all, and there are shootouts and whatnot. It got good reviews and turned a profit and everything. Really. Give it a chance.

Plus: How “Reality Bites” Completely Screwed Up My Perception Of Dating And Relationships

He likes superhero movies/She has a totally understandable crush on Bruce Campbell

Bruce only has a brief cameo in Darkman, but it’s such a good movie otherwise that we think she’ll forgive it. Darkman was Sam Raimi’s first Hollywood studio film, and it’s sort of a mix between Batman, Robocop, and Phantom of the Opera. It’s also the source of one of my favorite movie quotes (“take the f*cking elephant!”), and still holds up as something of a cult classic today.

He likes Will Ferrell comedies/She is sick to death of him and his friends quoting Anchorman in lieu of actual  conversation

This may seem like an unstoppable force/immovable object scenario, but it isn’t; Kicking & Screaming, which is basically The Bad News Bears with soccer instead of baseball, manages to weave Ferrell’s wacky antics into a movie that actually has a plot and characters. Also, Mike Ditka is in this movie. And some kid from The Hunger Games. So yeah, bonus if you like those things too.

Plus: 6 Surprisingly Astute Love Tips From American Pie

She likes science-fiction/He DARES you to find a good Keanu Reeves movie. Bill & Ted doesn’t count.

This one’s tough, but Reeves manages to not completely suck the life out of A Scanner Darkly, a grim film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel about loss of identity, police surveillance, and drug addiction. It’s heavy stuff, but Scanner’s aesthetics are awesome; the whole thing was filmed digitally and then interpolated rotoscope animation was superimposed onto that footage, which lends a trippy and surreal atmosphere to the movie without distracting from the story. And again, Keanu Reeves’ normal ineptitude isn’t present in this movie, so it’s worth seeing for that alone.

 

 

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