Movie-Holic

Watching movies as a family is something that we do at least once every couple of weeks. We do what we call a movie night.

We gather around the couch, armchair, beanbags, and other types of chairs with blankets (in the winter), popcorn, soda, movie theater type candy and enjoy our time together laughing, crying, being thrilled, and even scared at times. It’s a great time for our family.

While we watch a lot of different movies there are a few that we can always count on when we can’t decide what newer movies we want to watch. You would think that would be difficult with a family of five who have several different types of tastes. But, there are a couple that we all love and can watch over and over again together.

My Family’s Five Favorite Movies

In no particular order, here are five of the movies that we can sit down and all agree to watch at any time.

Remember the Titans is one of those movies that you can’t help but get choked up about.

The movie is about the fight against racism and how it can affect people’s lives in small to very tragic ways. The basic plot is about a coach, Herman Boone, who moves to a new city in the deep south where there hasn’t been any integration of blacks and whites. However, recently the district approved the integration and now the football team has to deal with racism among the players, school peers, teachers, and community families. The basic premise is dealing with the players and how they interact with each other, help each other over the color barrier, and eventually mold into a strong, united team.

When we watch Remember the Titans it never fails that we get into a discussion of how things were back in those years, especially with the younger ones.

Remember the Titans is a great family movie.

The Adventures of the Wilderness Family is a great family movie. This is a story of a modern day family who becomes bored with the hassles of the city life in Los Angeles. They have an idea to head for the wilderness and never to return. Skip Robinson (Robert Logan) and his wife (Susan Damante Shaw), along with their two children, Jenny and Toby, begin an incredible encounter with nature. After building a log cabin in a deserted, mountainous area the family befriends a pair of bear cubs and is beset by a ferocious grizzly.

Everytime we watch The Wilderness Family we seem to bond a little stronger as a family. Any type of anger has subsided, we begin to help each more, and show our love a little stronger. At times I don’t even have to ask what we all want to watch… this one just automatically gets picked and everyone is fine with it.

For families who like outdoor type movies this is a great one.

Cars is really the only Disney/Pixar movie that we can all agree on. Sure, we all have our favorite movies, but that’s just it. They are our favorite ones. Not everyone’s favorite. But, can all agree on watching Cars .

I’m not sure why it’s our favorite, but Cars is one of those movies where we laugh and laugh over and over again even when we know the words by heart. What usually happens after is that for a few weeks we will be quoting parts from the movie and still laugh about them.

Cars is a story of perseverance that I believe can inspire people to move further in their life and not be put down by every single obstacle thrown your way. I love the way that sometimes we even talk about this movie when there is something that we, as a family, have to overcome.

This is going to seem like a weird choice considering the other movies that are listed, but King Kong is very much one of the top movies with my family. We love spending the time to huddle together and watch Kong.

King Kong is a movie that has everything. There is comedy, romance, suspense, thrills, and even some chills. My seven year old daughter actually likes it more than anyone else and will ask us for days afterwards if we can watch it again. Which we usually do.

Of course, the story of King Kong is generations old with several remakes of the movie. I remember watching it as a small boy with my family and that edition of the movie (1976) also became our favorite. It’s a girl meets boy story with a twist. The twist being a very large, very wild ape has also fallen in love with the girl. Things get really complicated when Kong is brought to New York and gets loose on the streets looking for the one girl he loves only to find death in the form of a fall off the Empire State Building.

Great family movie. At least for us.

To round out my family’s favorite movies we have to end with a superhero movie. Spider-Man is the only one we can all agree on to watch. Well have our favorites, and are actually pretty defensive about your favorite superhero movies, but can all agree to watch Spider-Man if we get in the mood for a superhero type movie.

Spider-Man is really a great family movie. The best part of Spider-Man is that it isn’t something that you really have to concentrate too hard on. It’s a basic superhero movie. And it’s fun.

Those are our favorite movies. Yours?

What do you and your family like to gather around the tv and watch? Is it a lot of Disney? Maybe some sports movies? Or maybe you’re like my family and have a wide variety of different kinds. Let us know? Leave a little comment below with your favorite family movies and see how different, or alike, we all are.