Date movies

In Roger Ebert's most recent 'Movie Answer Man' comes this question and answer:

Q. I have a pet peeve about the practice of describing a movie as a "date movie." As in, "Oh, it's a good 'date movie,' but otherwise I'd skip it." Surely a movie good enough to see with a date is also good enough to see on one's own? The statement implies one of two things, in my eyes: 1) Women don't have the taste in movies men do, so it really doesn't matter what you take them to as long as they are entertained. 2) You're going to be much too busy attending to other matters to be concerned with what's happening onscreen.
Nathan Gearhart, Kansas City, Mo.

A. Young men (and women), heed this warning! Only marry someone whose taste in movies is as good as, or better than, your own. Otherwise, you will be doomed to seeing Date Movies for the rest of your life, and almost by definition they aren't worth seeing at all.

First of all, what a limited definition of a 'date' movie! We typically think of these as 'first date' movies or more completely 'movies to see with someone when you're still getting to meet them'. These movies would generally:

• Be on the light side.
• Be noncontroversial.
• Not be extreme in terms of nudity or raunchiness.
• Go light on the profanity.
• Be uplifting.
• Not be too long (two hours max).

Lots of great movies would violate several of these guidelines and that's ok. I wouldn't see 'Schindler's List' on a first date. 'Million Dollar Baby' was a tremendous movie but not a good one with someone I didn't know well. The Lord of the Rings movies were great but each of them was so long that you wouldn't have much time left for the date outside of the movie.
And frankly, it takes a certain snobbishness to write off date movies. Sometimes you're just in the mood for something lighter and there's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't mean bad taste.
Ebert's point about matching movie taste is a good one but kind of an obvious one as well.