Imagine Ben Affleck, Oscar-winning filmmaker and Hollywood heartthrob, settling in for a cozy movie night with his kids, hoping to impress them with one of his biggest blockbusters. Now, picture those kids tearing into the movie with the kind of brutal honesty only teenagers can muster. That’s exactly what happened when Affleck decided to show his children—Violet, 19, Seraphina, 16, and Samuel, 13—his 1998 sci-fi disaster epic Armageddon. Spoiler alert: the kids were not impressed, and their savage roast of the film left Affleck both amused and defenseless, as he shared in a recent Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance.
A Movie Night Gone Wrong
During the COVID lockdowns, with the family stuck at home, Affleck thought Armageddon—the Michael Bay-directed, asteroid-busting spectacle that became 1998’s highest-grossing film—might be a fun pick. “I was like, ‘Hey, let’s watch a movie,’” Affleck recalled on Kimmel. “I thought maybe the kids will like Armageddon.” Big mistake. Almost immediately, the roasting began. “What? What is this? This is so stupid. Are you kidding me?” the kids fired off, with Samuel, then around eight, leading the charge. “My son was like, ‘This doesn’t make sense,’” Affleck said, laughing. His response? “This is not a logic-based film. That is not one of the criteria we used making this!”
The kids’ criticism zeroed in on the film’s famously shaky logic. Armageddon follows a ragtag team of oil drillers, led by Bruce Willis and a young Affleck, who are trained as astronauts to drill a nuclear bomb into an Earth-threatening asteroid. The premise—teaching drillers to be astronauts in a week instead of training astronauts to drill—has long been mocked, even by Affleck himself in the film’s legendary DVD commentary. “In a week, we’re going to learn how to be astronauts?” he quipped back then, a sentiment his kids clearly inherited.
Affleck’s Kids: The Toughest Critics in Town
Affleck, who shares his children with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, admitted on Kimmel that his kids are his harshest critics. “They’re very tough, and they don’t censor their criticism,” he said. “They’ll sit right next to me watching a movie and just, while it’s happening, ‘This is terrible. I mean, this is terrible! Why did you do this?!’” The Armageddon roast wasn’t a one-off either. Affleck noted that his kids rarely watch his films, with even acclaimed projects like The Town failing to capture their interest. But Armageddon? It’s the one they’ve seen, loved (sort of), and relentlessly mocked. “They kind of all admit to liking it, even though they relentlessly mock it and me,” Affleck told Entertainment Weekly in 2022. “‘What are you, driving a tank on the moon?’”
The kids’ savage takedowns highlight a generational shift. Raised on more grounded sci-fi like Interstellar and The Martian, today’s teens aren’t as forgiving of Armageddon’s over-the-top patriotism, Aerosmith ballads, and physics-defying action. As one X user put it, “Ben Affleck’s kids roasting Armageddon for not making sense is peak Gen Z energy.” But Affleck takes it in stride, even finding the humor in their jabs. “What’s great is that he doesn’t seem remotely defensive about it,” noted CinemaBlend. “He seemed genuinely entertained by how much his kid roasted him.”
Armageddon: A Love-It-or-Laugh-At-It Classic
To be fair, Armageddon isn’t exactly aiming for scientific accuracy. It’s a popcorn flick packed with explosions, star-studded hero shots, and a heart-tugging romance between Affleck’s A.J. Frost and Liv Tyler’s Grace. The film’s charm lies in its absurd earnestness, a hallmark of Michael Bay’s “go big or go home” style. It grossed $553 million worldwide and remains a nostalgic favorite for many, even if it’s been roasted by everyone from Neil deGrasse Tyson to, well, Affleck’s own kids.
Affleck himself has never shied away from poking fun at the film. In the Armageddon DVD commentary—a cult classic in its own right—he hilariously dismantles the plot, questioning why drillers were trained as astronauts and mocking the melodrama. “I was kind of shocked and appalled that I went on there and started being like… Everything I said was a hundred percent true,” he told GQ in 2025, calling it one of his proudest career moments. His kids’ reactions seem to prove the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
A Family Dynamic That’s Relatable and Real
The Armageddon roast isn’t just a funny anecdote—it’s a glimpse into Affleck’s grounded parenting style. Despite his A-list status, he’s keen on keeping his kids humble. He recently made headlines for refusing to buy Samuel a $6,000 pair of sneakers, joking, “I was like, ‘I have the money! You’re broke.’” Affleck’s older kids, Violet and Seraphina, have jobs, and he encourages them to earn their own way. “You do [kids] a disservice by not making them work for things,” he said on Today with Jenna & Friends. This approach makes the Armageddon story even more relatable—Affleck’s just a dad trying to share a piece of his past with his kids, only to get roasted for it.
The Verdict: Kids 1, Affleck 0
While Affleck’s kids may have shredded Armageddon, they did give a thumbs-up to his latest project, The Accountant 2, which hit theaters in April 2025. “They liked it,” Affleck said on Kimmel, relieved that his kids and their friends enjoyed the action sequel. But the Armageddon fiasco proves that in the Affleck household, no movie is safe from a teenage critique—not even a blockbuster that launched their dad to stardom.
As Affleck put it, “You could wait till it ended, you know what I mean?” But with kids as sharp as his, the roast is always on. And honestly? We’re here for it. Whether it’s Armageddon’s logic-defying plot or Affleck’s earnest attempt at a family movie night, one thing’s clear: this Hollywood star can take a punch—and laugh about it.