<p>We just watched “To Kill a Mockingbird” with our teenagers, and we all liked it. Surprisingly, none of us had seen it before. It is serious, but positive.</p>
<p>We also like “Chariots of Fire.”</p>
<p>The Philadelphia Story (Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, wonderful snappy dialogue, and a teenage socialite singing “Lydia The Tattooed Lady”)</p>
<p>Face/Off (John Woo action thriller with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage switching faces so each gets to play the good guy and the bad guy for half the movie. A big hoot, and a good action movie.)</p>
<p>Winter’s Bone (A movie people are going to remember a lot longer than The King’s Speech. Serious, harrowing even, but mesmerizing)</p>
<p>The Player (Altman send-up of Hollywood, with about 100 big-name cameos)</p>
<p>State and Main (Mamet send-up of Hollywood vs. Small Town America)</p>
<p>Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Never get tired of that movie. </p>
<p>We had the whole family over for Thanksgiving when we first bought our house. We put on The Little Mermaid. Everyone loved it.</p>
<p>I’ve also never seen The Princess Bride though both of my sons have.</p>
<p><a href=“And%20for%20you%20Princess%20Bride%20fans,%20I%20have%20it%20on%20good%20authority%20that%20the%20book%20is%20really,%20really%20good.”>quote</a>
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<p>Required summer reading for my rising HS sophomore. Son just read it, too.</p>
<p>Has the person who loved Breaking Away seen it recently? I Netflixed it earlier in the summer because I had such fond memories of it. Did not stand the test of time, that’s for sure. The only awesome part about it was a young Dennis Quaid who manages to be shirtless a lot.</p>
<p>Well, a shirtless Dennis Quaid is always good. </p>
<p>I’m the one who recommended it and thought it held up well the last time I saw it, maybe 3-4 years ago. I think the Robin Douglass scenes were always weaker than the rest of the film, and today it seems odd that there’d be such a divide between cutters and the IU students. But I love the Dennis Christopher character and his dad, and we’re always in tears during the bicycle race. I like most outdated things, including movies. :D</p>
<p>A newer movei: Morning Glory</p>
<p>Pretty funny comedy that quickly came and went at the theaters. Recently watched it as a group that ranged from my 17 year old son through my 83 year old mom and dad. Everyone enjoyed. It does contain mild profanity and some PG-13 sex moments.</p>
<p>William Goldman, who wrote both the book and the movie of The Princess Bride, was a very successful Hollywood screenwriter (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Misery, The Stepford Wives, All The President’s Men, A Bridge Too Far, Marathon Man) who was also a skilled novelist. The Princess Bride and Marathon Man were novels long before they were screenplays, not the other way around, and both are both fun/exciting and fairly sophisticated from a literary standpoint, especially for popular fiction of their time. Very post-modern before post-modern was a cliche. </p>
<p>The Princess Bride, by the way, is not a girls’ movie that boys can tolerate. It is much more a boys’ movie that girls can tolerate. It’s full of snarky sarcasm and potty jokes, and sword fights and dwarf-tossing. It’s really a lot like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but shading in the direction of a Mel Brooks parody like Spaceballs or Robin Hood: Men In Tights.</p>
<p>Have to add our family favorite: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (rated PG). Quotable, quirky, cult classic.
A few others my kids of all ages will watch over and over: Babe (yes, the talking pig. . .) & Napoleon Dynamite
Already mentioned: The African Queen, Chariots of Fire.</p>
<p>A few years ago I tried to get my oldest son to watch Breaking Away. He walked out of the room after two minutes–because he couldn’t stand the Dad’s swearing!
I still like Breaking Away. Though it is very much of its time, it is a time and place very familiar to me. </p>
<p>btw–D is chairing a fundraiser at her college this fall–the theme is “The Princess Bride.”
I wondered if this would be well-known enough among the students–she assures me that “everyone” has seen it, multiple times.</p>
<p>Princess Bride is to this generation of kids what the Wizard of Oz was to an early one. The OP may not have seen it, but I can guarantee that all the boys in her family have. AND can recite hugh chunks of it . Both my boys tell me that the Wallace Shawn bit about which cup holds the poison is always a hit at parties. Oldest son wanted to be an olympic class fencer just so he could step onto the mat for the gold medal round and say " I am Indigo Montoua, you killed my father…" </p>
<p>Bye Bye boys - have fun storming the castle.</p>
<p>It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
The Milagro Beanfield War
True Grit (2010)
Big Fish
Toy Story 3</p>
<p>I agree that Princess Bride is a boy’s movie that girls tolerate. S2 has used it for Halloween costumes and has the brilliant Inigo Montoya nametag ThinkGeek shirt: [ThinkGeek</a> :: Hello My Name Is Inigo Montoya](<a href=“http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/popculture/9f70/?itm=inigo_montoya_shirt&rkgid=277274149&cpg=ogtee1&source=google_tees&gclid=CJ7YnMT***oCFQ495QodcC3j8w]ThinkGeek”>http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/popculture/9f70/?itm=inigo_montoya_shirt&rkgid=277274149&cpg=ogtee1&source=google_tees&gclid=CJ7YnMT***oCFQ495QodcC3j8w)</p>
<p>I can’t stand Napoleon Dynamite. Apparently one of the thorniest netflix questions is trying to predict who will love it and who will hate it.</p>
<p>If you are up for a double header it’s fun to watch* Seven Samarai *followed by The Magnificent Seven.</p>
<p>Another comedy The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming.
Carl Reiner & Alan Arkin.</p>
<p>How about the original Producers with Zero Mostel and Gene Hackman? One of my favorites.</p>
<p>My Favorite Year</p>
<p>Very funny film from 1982 starring Peter O’Toole about the golden age of television.</p>
<p>Speaking of Zero Mostel, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.</p>
<p>Silverado
Young Frankenstein
Remember the Titans
Sandlot</p>
<p>(I also love The Princess Bride, and think Toy Story 3 would be a good all-ages option, too.)</p>
<p>I just wanted to thank you all for the great movie suggestions!</p>
<p>We ended up watching “Shadow of a Doubt” and another one our friends brought over called “Fracture”–this one had Anthony Hopkins being his creepy self. Both were very good. I had also brought in “Notorious” and “State of Play” from our public libray and we ended up watching those the next day. It was a movie marathon weekend!</p>
<p>I will definitely be bringing home “The Princess Bride” soon! I am very curious about this one now.</p>
<p>Surprised no one mentioned The Shawshank Redemption (1994–with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins). IME it appeals to all ages.</p>