Movies that you had to grow up with to like

[Tulaberry whine]

It's not popular, but I adoooooored Return to Oz as a kid. Since then I've discovered anybody over the age of about 8 when it came out despised it and only just stopped short of book burning-style destruction of any evidence the film was made.

Sure it had a few problems, but I still don't get why people loathed it so much ...

 

[Tulin]

I think a big part of the RtO hatred is that the original musical is so beloved and considered(for better or worse)the definitive example of what Baum's world should look like. RtO was such a different version(albeit more accurate)that people, especially soccer mums and their demon brood reacted so violently against it.

 

[barnaclelapse]

See, I was a weird kid. There was a lot of stuff from my generation that people have mentioned already (The Goonies, John Hughes movies, Nightmare Before Christmas and so on), but I was also watching stuff like 70's SNL episodes, Monty Python, movies from or with guys like Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, Wes Craven, Robert Mitchum, Orson Welles, Gregory Peck, Bela Lugosi, Al Pacino, George A. Romero, John Carpenter, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman and lots of odd stuff for a little kid to be watching.

One movie I'd love to see mentioned would have to be "Angus." I've always considered that to be an incredibly underrated mid-90's offering.

 

[Greg Cox]

My girlfriend cannot comprehend my fondness for old Hammer horror movies from the sixties and seventies. Then again, she never grew up on them.

And I don't get the appeal of "The Goonies" either. Probably a generational thing. I was well out of the college by the time that movie came out. It just seemed like a dopey kid's movie.

"A Christmas Story," on the other hand, is sublime. Darren McGavin is great as the Old Man.

 

[Too Much Fun]

One movie I'd love to see mentioned would have to be "Angus." I've always considered that to be an incredibly underrated mid-90's offering.

That movie was terrific. The quintessential 'underrated gem' as far as the nineties go. It's one of the more honest and refreshing 'teen' movies...how often do you see a teen movie where a character is overweight but sweet and kind, not ridiculed for his weight by the filmmakers, and actually able to bond with the girl he likes because of how caring and honest he is?

At first I thought it was weird to see goody-two-shoes Dawson from Dawson's Creek as the bully, but after how spectacularly he played a colossal asshole in "The Rules of Attraction", the role does seem more natural for him. I loved Angus' oddball best friend (Chris Owens, who went on to have a great role in "American Pie" as 'The Sherminator', but not much else) and the Green Day references throughout the movie (soundtrack includes their very best B-side) from back before they got lame. It's a real shame that this movie is not on DVD.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

But I really cannot get were you don't get were you think Spaceballs or The Princess Bride are such movies. They're spoofs.

Spaceballs because of the huge sci-fi wave back in the 80s.

People are going to kill me, but I was thinking of some of the Disney movies like the Lion King...Good movie but a lot bigger than anything.

 

[Aragorn]

St. Elmo's Fire made a lot more sense to me after I was out of college as opposed to seeing it as a teenager.

Also, when you're still in single digits when you see Blade Runner, a lot goes over your head.

 

[barnaclelapse]

One movie I'd love to see mentioned would have to be "Angus." I've always considered that to be an incredibly underrated mid-90's offering.

That movie was terrific. The quintessential 'underrated gem' as far as the nineties go. It's one of the more honest and refreshing 'teen' movies...how often do you see a teen movie where a character is overweight but sweet and kind, not ridiculed for his weight by the filmmakers, and actually able to bond with the girl he likes because of how caring and honest he is?

At first I thought it was weird to see goody-two-shoes Dawson from Dawson's Creek as the bully, but after how spectacularly he played a colossal asshole in "The Rules of Attraction", the role does seem more natural for him. I loved Angus' oddball best friend (Chris Owens, who went on to have a great role in "American Pie" as 'The Sherminator', but not much else) and the Green Day references throughout the movie (soundtrack includes their very best B-side) from back before they got lame. It's a real shame that this movie is not on DVD.

I know, and it boasts such a good cast of veterans (George C. Scott and Kathy Bates). You'd think that would be enough for it to get a quiet little DVD release.

It also has a great song and one of my favorite opening sequences of all-time when they play LoveSpitLove's "Am I Wrong" over the football game. I can't recall the lead singer's name, but I know he was the front man for The Psychedelic Furs.

It's a great song and a great sequence. I always watched it with a weird degree of sadness. It always brought back a flood of strange memories from my own run of luck in that time. The sequence and the whole movie really captures the stuff about the mid-90's that wasn't quite as painful as some people seem to think it was.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I grew up with SF movies like Logan's Run, 2001, The Andromeda Strain, Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and the Omega Man and Kids flicks like Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Doctor Dolittle. Not sure what the younger generations think of those.

 

[RichMerk]

Someone mentioned Murder by Death, and that made me think of another movie I loved... The Private Eyes with Don Knotts and Tim Conway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tpAcItmdSo. Not many people I know like this sort of ridiculous humor, and I don't know if today's kids would think it was funny at all.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I notice this thread is aiming at older stuff, a lot of 80s movies. How about newer stuff in which we did not grow up on the source material and don't see the appeal.

For me that means any movie based on an action figure line or a video game. Or based on Fantasy novels I never read and have been told I "need to read the books to really appreciate". I would put the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter in that group. THough I have liked certain things about those films, I always feel like an outsider looking at something I don't understand what the fuss is all about.

 

[propita]

"Murder by Death"
You have to either know who the actors are, the references to the characters--or at least be familiar with them, to appreciate this movie fully.

"A Christmas Story"
If someone says that they can't enjoy this film because they came from a divorced family, are they saying they're limiting their understanding only to those films that parallel their own lives? No understanding of obsessively wanting something? Of being bullied? Of simple pleasures?
The film is classic. Darren McGavin alone is priceless ("Fra-gi-le! It must be Italian.")


"Princess Bride"
If nothing else, the acting is superb on all accounts and there are classic lines throughout.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

But I really cannot get were you don't get were you think Spaceballs or The Princess Bride are such movies. They're spoofs. I think the confusion comes from the fact that they're actually GOOD spoofs, unlike the "not another spoof movie" crap we get these days.

What is The Princess Bride a spoof of?

The Addams Family movies are fun and clever (especially the second one)

Agreed, particularly regarding the 2nd one. Although no amount of adult joy can quite match my childhood glee when I saw Addams Family Values for the first time and it got to the part where Wednesday leads her band of "Indians" in slaughtering the pilgrims in the Thanksgiving pageant.

Also, when you're still in single digits when you see Blade Runner, a lot goes over your head.

Hell, I'm in my 20s and that movie still baffles me.

"A Christmas Story"
If someone says that they can't enjoy this film because they came from a divorced family, are they saying they're limiting their understanding only to those films that parallel their own lives? No understanding of obsessively wanting something? Of being bullied? Of simple pleasures?
The film is classic. Darren McGavin alone is priceless ("Fra-gi-le! It must be Italian.")

I'm saying that there's nothing entertaining about that film if you aren't intimately personally familiar with its archetypes. It's the equivalent of a foreign film, and comedy typically doesn't translate across cultures very well. A Christmas Story is funny if you recognize the characters or the atmosphere. The humor is derived from that recognition. Without that recognition to give it a framework, there's insufficient quality in the comedy construction to make it enjoyable.

 

[propita]

[

"A Christmas Story"
If someone says that they can't enjoy this film because they came from a divorced family, are they saying they're limiting their understanding only to those films that parallel their own lives? No understanding of obsessively wanting something? Of being bullied? Of simple pleasures?
The film is classic. Darren McGavin alone is priceless ("Fra-gi-le! It must be Italian.")

I'm saying that there's nothing entertaining about that film if you aren't intimately personally familiar with its archetypes. It's the equivalent of a foreign film, and comedy typically doesn't translate across cultures very well. A Christmas Story is funny if you recognize the characters or the atmosphere. The humor is derived from that recognition. Without that recognition to give it a framework, there's insufficient quality in the comedy construction to make it enjoyable.

I sorry, I just can't agree with that. I was born in 1963--many years after the setting of this movie--yet I recognized the characters of kids being good/bad/brats/etc and the atmosphere of a middle class family. By your reckoning, how in the world would I recognize a starship captain/crew or a Vulcan?

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

^The difference is that something like Star Trek is basing its appeal more on the exploration of the exotic than on the recognition of the familiar. But then, since Star Trek is a comedy, it's still not much of an apt comparison.

A better distinction might be between 2 comedies. Say, A Christmas Story vs. Frasier. In neither case do I personally recognize these characters in my own life. However, with something like Frasier, that recognition is not necessary because the humor relies more on its intricate dialogue construction & overall humorous mastery of the English language. When I watch A Christmas Story, I don't see any particularly skillful comedy construction. It's like attending someone else's family reunion. It's filled with its own mood & cadence & in-jokes that I don't get because I'm not familiar with them, although I understand how someone in that family could be entertained & delighted.

As for growing up in 1963, I don't think the date matters but more the vibe of the film. I'm not sure whether it has to do with your family structure or your circle of friends or the region in which you grew up. Maybe it's something even more specific about the visual language of the film itself. But certainly for this Arizona desert rat child of the '80s from a broken home, nothing in A Christmas Story feels recognizable or authentic. These people could be from Mars for all I know. And the movie doesn't give me anything else to hold onto without that preexisting knowledge of knowing these archetypes.

 

[Islander]

But I really cannot get were you don't get were you think Spaceballs or The Princess Bride are such movies. They're spoofs. I think the confusion comes from the fact that they're actually GOOD spoofs, unlike the "not another spoof movie" crap we get these days.

What is The Princess Bride a spoof of?

Any movie that starts with "A long time ago..." and ends with "...and they lived happily ever after".

 

[J.T.B.]

A better distinction might be between 2 comedies. Say, A Christmas Story vs. Frasier. In neither case do I personally recognize these characters in my own life. However, with something like Frasier, that recognition is not necessary because the humor relies more on its intricate dialogue construction & overall humorous mastery of the English language. When I watch A Christmas Story, I don't see any particularly skillful comedy construction.

That's an interesting criticism, considering that Jean Shepherd is widely regarded as a master humorist and a legendary broadcasting storyteller, and was very influential on many successful comedy writers. A Christmas Story, of course, is built around Shepherd's narration, and if he doesn't know how to construct a funny story out of everyday life, I don't know who does.

But certainly for this Arizona desert rat child of the '80s from a broken home, nothing in A Christmas Story feels recognizable or authentic. These people could be from Mars for all I know. And the movie doesn't give me anything else to hold onto without that preexisting knowledge of knowing these archetypes.

"Recognizable," maybe, but I think the movie has passed the "authentic" test pretty well, and it seems to attract new fans easily. And if the archetypes of a somewhat thick-headed and easily enraged dad, long suffering mom and precocious kid weren't pretty broadly relatable, The Simpsons would never have made it.

It may not be your cup of tea, but I don't think A Christmas Story's appeal is limited to any one generation. My 13 y.o. son loves it, as do all my nieces and nephews, and a quick survey in my office with people from 22 to 52 revealed not one negative comment about the movie. Actually, I was a little surprised to see the negative comments in this thread! I've never talked to anyone who didn't like that movie.

--Justin

 

[Spot's Meow]

As for growing up in 1963, I don't think the date matters but more the vibe of the film. I'm not sure whether it has to do with your family structure or your circle of friends or the region in which you grew up. Maybe it's something even more specific about the visual language of the film itself. But certainly for this Arizona desert rat child of the '80s from a broken home, nothing in A Christmas Story feels recognizable or authentic. These people could be from Mars for all I know. And the movie doesn't give me anything else to hold onto without that preexisting knowledge of knowing these archetypes.

What you're saying makes sense to me, it's very logical and I read it and think, "yeah, that's true." But at the same time, I can't relate at all to the characters in the film yet I love the movie. While the family in the movie doesn't reflect anyone in my own life, the movie is just...funny. So you're both right.

 

[propita]

As for growing up in 1963, I don't think the date matters but more the vibe of the film. I'm not sure whether it has to do with your family structure or your circle of friends or the region in which you grew up. Maybe it's something even more specific about the visual language of the film itself. But certainly for this Arizona desert rat child of the '80s from a broken home, nothing in A Christmas Story feels recognizable or authentic. These people could be from Mars for all I know. And the movie doesn't give me anything else to hold onto without that preexisting knowledge of knowing these archetypes.

What you're saying makes sense to me, it's very logical and I read it and think, "yeah, that's true." But at the same time, I can't relate at all to the characters in the film yet I love the movie. While the family in the movie doesn't reflect anyone in my own life, the movie is just...funny. So you're both right.

I can agree with Spot's Meow. Yeah, my family was intact, but we lived in sunny Pasadena--never was in a snow fall or woke up to snow--and Dad was not whatever "The Old Man" was (Dad was an engineer at JPL, building rockets). And I never had dogs invade my kitchen. But I recognized the family as a family, even if they weren't my family. And people's problems are people's problems. Growing up, dealing with friends, bullies, siblings, wants, etc.

The flick is funny as is, to many people. NO film really should appeal to each and every person. That would reflect waaay too much uniformity in likes and dislikes for a stable society, imo.

 

[Nick Ryder]

Well Christmas Story wasn't exactly like my family but some of it was. Little things here and there. I didn't have a sibling. But I did have an aunt who gave really goofy gifts - not as bad as the bunny PJs. But both my grandfathers and my dad were kinda like the dad in the story. I didn't have a sibling, but the relationship kinda reminded me of some of our dogs... LOL oddly enough. Like when we'd get mad at one, the other one would cower and hide like "Daddy's gonna kill Sneakers!"