Do you rewatch films first before sharing them with children?

[OneThingAtATimeAgain]

The other night I put on The Martian for a family film night. I hadn't seen it in years.
My children are getting to that age where I'd love to move beyond cartoons and start sharing some of the films I think are genuinely worth watching together. My daughter is really interested in science at the moment, so The Martian felt like a perfect choice.
What I remembered was Matt Damon growing potatoes on Mars, the humour, the problem-solving, and that "just keep going" spirit that I thought my kids would really enjoy.
What I hadn't remembered was me sitting there thinking, "Oh... I'd forgotten about that bit," and wondering whether I needed to hit mute every now and then.
It made me realise I do this quite a lot. There are films I'd genuinely love to watch with my children, but I either watch them first on my own (which, realistically, almost never happens), rely on the age rating and hope for the best, or spend the evening slightly on edge instead of actually enjoying the film.
Please tell me I'm not the only person who's spent a family film night half-watching the screen and half-watching the remote.

Common Sense Media reviews are helpful for this.

No, I don’t have time to watch it first. I generally sick to the age guidelines and I’m not too fussed if they hear a swearword here and there or see a semi naked body occasionally. If they seemed uncomfortable watching it I’d just turn it off at the time, but it hasn’t happened. They tend not to love the things I used to love.

Honestly, I've just stopped watching movies from my 1980/90s childhood because so many of the ones I remember fondly are actually pretty dodgy when you watch them back with modern eyes 😳

I dont trust ratings after I saw that Rocky Horror picture show is a 12A.

A 12A?!!!!! I know the 70s we're a different time but come on!!!

What exactly are you concerned about? What is the problem with The Martian? The swearing? Depends how old the kids are surely - but if they are old enough to be interested and understand what’s going on then they are probably old enough to handle a few swear words.

All of the above have said. Stick to bbfc age ratings- not US Netflix or Amazon ratings. UK picks up more on violence and often 15 are rated 12 on Netflix/Amazon. Common Sense media is good but needs a subscription. I realise I pick up on a lot more when watching as a parent (so sometimes there is my running commentary on inappropriate parenting by adults, boundaries and self respect, language and appropriate behaviour of peers 🙄

I use the IMDb Parents’ Guide - admittedly for me rather than the kids, as I hate gore and explicit sex scenes. It’s really useful for weeding out stuff you don’t want to see.

Agree with this.

I thought Teen Wolf would be a good choice….. Until the closet at the party scene 🙈 Soon skipped over that!

I second this- it's very detailed and gives a great insight!

No I don't. Which is why my then 6 year old referred to the Princess Bride as the film where they say son of a bitch. They generally have zero interest in 80's classics though. Philistines.

That's the problem with ratings - they're very much a reflection of the time when the film was made and our expectations of what is acceptable have changed so much. At least Rocky Horror is just a bit racy and sexy, I don't think it's actually offensive? Some 'kids' films rated PG/12/12A from the 1980/90s will have racism, sexism, sexually suggestive language, fatism (I'm looking at you Goonies 😭)

No time for that.

I look at Common Sense Media.

The ratings aren’t always that helpful though on older films, because some have been changed, as attitudes have changed. I find I’m more relaxed about sex or swearing than drugs or racism.

What's wrong with the Martian? I watched for the first time with my primary school aged daughter recently and it was fine.

Is stranger things okay to watch for an 11 year old? I’ve never watched it but ds really wants to as his friends at school have watched it, I told him maybe and got a phonecall off his teacher advising I don’t let him

Not at all. It’s a 15. The first series is the tamest and that’s still not appropriate for a 11 year old.

What’s wrong with The Martian?

DH and I are currently watching this with DS11 as he felt left out when his friends were talking about it at school. He is really enjoying it, but there are a few episodes that he found a bit jumpy/ scary.

To add we are only on the first series. I might have second thoughts!

Same as @ScotiaLass - a lot of the films DBro and I adored as kids and endlessly quoted to each other haven't aged well (Ace Ventura springs to mind). The problem is remembering which is which and I don't have time to re-watch everything so we often find ourselves having conversations about the rather <ahem> dated content with my DCs rolling their eyes and saying "WE KNOW MOM OMG"