I try to get my children to watch movies and read books that I liked. I give them summaries beforehand that don't spoil the plot too much.

Airplane

Sorry, it's a bunch of Dad jokes.

The Last Airbender

It's about this 6th-grade goofball who has to save the world. Plus it's got a cabbage vendor.

Being John Malkovich

It's about puppets? And it has a chimpanzee.

Big Trouble in Little China

It's got wonderful atmospherics. The plot is ridiculous. The characters are pure stereotypes. When they rage about how confused they are, their clueless rambling spells out what you need to know to understand the next bit of plot.

Ender's Game

It's a book about overworked students. He predicted iPads pretty well.

Fargo

There's this pregnant detective, and she's hunting for a guy who's kind of funny looking.

The Fifth Element

Flying taxies and the hot babe foretold of yore.

The Godfather

You like horses, right? Probably shouldn't see this movie.

Happy-Go-Lucky

It's about a girl who purposely puts a positive spin on everything. The movie goes through all sorts of challenges to her positive attitude, and tests how she responds to them, y'know.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

The only Harry Potter film I actually liked. Its bleak outlook matched my mood at the time. It's mostly about camping out in a national forest, while there are more important things that they should really be doing.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book)

You have to keep reading until after the earth gets blown up ... it gets better after that. Like, there's poetry.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (movie)

Not as good as the book, but it does have yarn. And heroic waiting in line.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

You like dogs, right? Probably shouldn't see this one.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc

It's a movie about a man with a funny hat that likes to go antiquing. He's good at getting antiques without paying too high a price for them. Hm. Or maybe it's more of a biblical docudrama.

Koyaanisqatsi

A study of flows and turbulences of all sorts.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

A study on raising inappropriate pets. I didn't really like this one that much, the science was poorly done.

Star wars, Episode V: the Empire Strikes Back

It's about wilderness survival. And genealogy.

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos

A snarky girl and her cat. She starts out just bumming around her parents' museum, but later in the book more people get involved and it's more fun as they bounce off one another. Like there's a pickpocket, and this guy with a twitchy mustache.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

These college students go out into the woods on holiday, but there's a cabin there with hillbillies, and the college students start getting killed off one by one. Oh, and it's funny. Like there's this one scene with the student running away from a screaming hillbilly waving a chainsaw ...