I mangled the title and forgot this came out in the 70s, never mind.
1998 is pretty late in the range you specified (and I was an adult when it came out) but consider The Truman Show. My kids love it.
Ditto The Mask. We’re going through a Jim Carrey revival.
Breakfast Club.
Aside from being a great movie, it’s a good representation of what I remember high school in the 80’s actually looking like, fashion wise. As opposed to the ‘all day-glo, all the time’ caricature.
Oh, good one.
My Bodyguard (1980), directed by Tony Bill.
I really liked Time Bandits, though it’s a bit surrealistic at times. I wanted to show it to my brother’s kids once but he said no, because he thought his kids would have trouble with the accents. And Breaking Away was another truly great film.
In addition to the Star Wars movies, there are several that I remember watching over and over in the 80s:
- Remo Williams
- Iron Eagle
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit
- Conan the Barbarian
- The Money Pit
Commando is the greatest movie of the 20th century, but I don’t know if you’d consider it appropriate for early teens or not.
Not particularly my favorite movie, but a defining one of the era would be the Michael Keaton Batman. From there you can branch off into the earlier Superman movies and Michael Keaton comedies.
Depending on what your kids are up for, Alien, Aliens, and Die Hard are all fun. If your kids are young or sensitive, then some of the suggestions may require pre-viewing or just reading about, if you don’t remember them too well. For example, Gremlins bounces back and forth between cute kids movie and horror movie.
We’ve done similar 80s nights, but we also watch 80s style. No pausing, except at “commercial” breaks between acts, and then only for 2 minutes, “hurry up, it’s about to come back on!”
Thanks guys, keep them coming.
I’m collecting everything they haven’t seen into a Throwbrack Thursday Trailer Spectacular! list of trailers on YouTube. Every week I’ll give them a few choices, but only out of a selection adults want to see again that week.
I saw The Karate Kid (1984) and Explorers (1985) during their original theater runs; loved the former so much that I tried doing the crane kick in our kitchen. I was 16 at the time; 17 for the latter.
Another one if your kids are good for some language and brief nudity is Airplane! It’s been long enough since I’ve seen that I don’t know the balance between silliness, topical humor, and problematic humor.
And if they’re not, you’re not doing your job.
Anecdote:
We were so excited that our kids were finally old enough for Ferris Bueller, but had no idea the language was quite so… honest.
The kindergartner was so amused by how big our eyes got at every “ass”:
Geez, mom [big eye-roll], I hear much worse from my friends at school.
My kids are a little bit younger than yours, and my wife and I have been on a childhood movie grind for a while now.
They’ve enjoyed:
The Goonies
Karate Kid I and II
Gremlins
Back to the Future I, II, and III
Raiders of the Lost Ark (the younger one got scared, so we haven’t followed up with Temple of Doom yet)
Spaceballs
Star Wars movies (all 9 of 'em)
Princess Bride (I think we saw that?)
Ghostbusters I and II
Here are my top ten fantasy films of the 80s:
Dragonslayer
The Dark Crystal
Krull
NeverEnding Story
Return To Oz
Legend
Ladyhawke
Labyrinth
The Princess Bride
Willow
Here are some other adventure films I also like to rewatch on occasion:
Gremlins
Gremlins II The New Batch
Explorers
The Goonies
Condorman
Innerspace
Honey I Shrunk The Kids
Back to the Future trilogy
Indiana Jones of course
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Flight of the Navigator
Tron
Romancing the Stone
Jewel of the Nile
Time Bandits
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Big Trouble In Little China
And, of course, Star Wars, including the two Ewok movies (“Caravan of Courage” and “Battle For Endor”)
Surf Ninjas was a good one. And the TMNT movies from the 90s were also pretty great.
i have an extreme;ly rare dvd with both Ewok movies on it
Trancers with Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt. Futuristic movie after California falls into the sea. Not a great movie but very entertaining.
All the Right Moves Tom Cruise, Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson. Great cast just a few years before their careers took off.
Light of Day Michael J. Fox, Gena Rowlands and Joan Jett. Interesting rock movie with Michael and Jett playing siblings trying to make it in the music business.
Porkys. Raunchy 80’s comedy. A guilty pleasure
Conan the Barbarian another guilty pleasure. The story is compelling. stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones
Hopscotch Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty. One of the few Matthau movies that I like.
A League of their Own Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna, Lori Petty, Rosie O’Donnell, Jon Lovitz
Friday the 13th. The original is fun to rewatch.
Hoosiers best sports movie ever made. Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper
Evey Which Way But Loose Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, Beverly D’Angelo. Clint’s best comedy.
Alien Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton
That reminds me that Tremors is a very fun classic from 1990.
I want you guys to know I’ve bookmarked this thread because it’s the Throwback Thursday lineup for years to come. The Thing went wonderfully, Dirty Dancing tonight, and I think Who Framed Roger Rabbit for some comedy next week.
Thanks guys, and any more are always appreciated.