Not kids movies, what had an impact that you adored as children but saw then.
I have kids in their early teens and we’re starting Throwback Thursdays to give them a taste of growing up back then. All evening it’s 1995ish or earlier. Not to punish them, just so we can understand each other a bit better. There are no smart phones, no Internet, not a single 21st century luxury.
But it’s not all bad. We have one TV in the living room, and after diner we watch something from then, any kid who doesn’t want to watch it can go do something 80’s in their room while mom and I enjoy a classic.
Last week was The Princess Bride, this week it’s The Thing by John Carpenter. Getting some Zotz too to go with the popcorn.
What are some other great ‘for the whole family’ films from this era.
My favorite movie was The Terminator, then Billy Madison. That continued to be my favorite film until Dark City came out a few years later, at the tail end of the 90s, and it has been my favorite film since. (To be fair though, I was 21 when it came out, so I was no longer a “kid”.)
Some other films I loved (though not my favorites at any point) were Big Trouble in Little China (another Carpenter film) and Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail.
I remember watching Back to the Future at a friends house in the late 1980s. I’m pretty sure it was the first movie I watched that had curse words in it; I remember being kind of shocked by the line “When this baby hits 88 miles per hour you’re gonna see some serious shit.” Although looking back now it was pretty tame; I’m pretty sure that was the only bad word in the movie.
That was my era (born in 1977), so I have a long list.
Anything with John Candy
Ghostbusters
Star Wars - IV, V, and VI
Indiana Jones - Raiders, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade
Weekend at Bernie’s - I and II
Karate Kid - I, II, and III
The Goonies
If horror movies are in consideration, I’d also add all the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies, as well as the original Halloween.
I bet I watched Spaceballs well over a hundred times before I saw Star Wars. It was quite a while before I was even aware that it was a spoof.
ETA, also the original Star Wars Trilogy. I know it kicked off in the 70’s but, as a whole, I’d call it an 80’s/90’s trilogy. It was everywhere and it stuck around in main stream pop culture for a long time.
I liked the movie Clue so much, I planned out a re-enactment with my friends where we all played different characters. We practiced out at recess, but never went anywhere. We were, mind you about 10 years old.
We also loved The Princess Bride so much. Showed it to my own children and it held up.
In the early 1990s, my family watched Beethoven, the movie about the dog. I was five or six. The following day, my father brought in this cassette player and began playing classical piano music, telling me it was by Beethoven. I was shocked, then felt I was really musically inadequate and had a lot of catching up to do.
The Last Unicorn
Dark Crystal
the Rankin/Bass Hobbit and Return of the King
Labyrinth
Real Genius
Indiana Jones movies
Legend
The Goonies
Animalympics
Clash of the Titans
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