Are you up for it? OR Are you down for it? If I want to convince someone

Question

This was surprising for me.

"I am up for it" = "I am down for it!"

Let's build a case.

Case:

We are a group of 5 people. Two want to watch 'Titanic', I want to watch 'Avengers'. Now, I want remaining two to be with me! Shall I use 'down' for 'Titanic' to ask them?

Hey, you both... are you 'down' for Titanic?

I'm actually giving them a hint by having 'down' and 'Titanic' together.

On the other hand,

Hey, you both... are you 'up' for Avengers?

Here, should they consider 'up' and 'Avengers' and say, 'yes'?

Furthermore, do these sentences have any other impact semantically? Am I going to 'lose' those two votes if say like this -

Hey, you both... are you 'down' for Avengers?
Hey, you both... are you 'up' for Titanic?

Answer 1

I think "up for" means "in the mood for".

I'm not really up for going out tonight.

I'm not really in the mood to go out tonight.

I don't really ever hear people say "Down for", most of the time it would be "Down with".

"Want to go grab some pizza?" "Yeah, I'm down with that."

"Down with" means "cool with", or "ok with", and it is much more informal/slang than "Up for". More information is here. Note, I don't know if this expression is used in British English, and some of the confused comments on the link imply that it is not. When that expression is not common, then the saying "down with", sounds like you are against e.g. "Down with The King!"

As for how to subtly imply that you would rather watch The Avengers than The Titanic, I think using up or down to prime them towards your movie will not work. It is so subtle that it will go unnoticed. I'd just bluntly state that you'd rather see explosions and shooting than romance. They're bound to agree with you when you phrase it like that! =P

Answer 2

As DJ McMayhem pointed out, the analogy between "down" and Titanic will most likely go unnoticed, except by language nerds like myself who actually really appreciate the subtle humor :)

Note also that there is a difference between "down for" and "down with" - the former is like "up for", meaning "willing to" or "in the mood for", whereas the latter means "ok with" or "cool with".

I'm up for movies, but I'm not down with your movie choice.

"Down" can also be used by itself in informal speech:

We're going to the movies later tonight. Are you down?

and also in the possible answer

Sure, I'm down.

Interestingly "up for" doesn't have that short version - "Are you up?" means other things like "Are you awake?" or "Is it your turn (to do something) next?", but not "Are you in the mood?"

Going back to DJ McMayhem's answer - the two expressions you are trying to choose between are synonymous, and neither one carries more convincing power.

CORRECTION (possibly): sounds like you can say "I'm up" meaning "I'm down": http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=I%27m+Up. I'm still not sure that the question form works, though.

Answer 3

In this usage, "up for" and "down with" are both slang. "Up for" is more traditional, more formal, and more prestigious than "down with".

In 2004, the American Country Music singer Tim McGraw had a #1 hit titled "[I Miss] Back When". In the song, he laments several slang turns of phrase. He sings,

Don't you remember…

Back when a screw was a screw,
The wind was all that blew,
And when you said "I'm down with that",
It meant you had the flu.

I miss back when.

Answer 4

Imagine a group of friends are planning a trip that involves say mountain climbing. They could ask another friend if he wants to join them and also take part. Their question would be: Are you up for it?

If the question was: Are you up to it? This would mean they wanted to know whether he was physically capable of doing the trip and climbing mountains.