You’ve been there before. A trip to the local video store, and your kids want to rent something like, “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen”, or “Hellboy”. What ever happened to decent movies that pre-teens and teens alike could watch without the violence, or bad words, or just a plain negative message?
Let’s revisit some of the movies we loved as kids. I have been encouraging my children to watch some of these, as they’re still great movies, but don’t have the undertones that even some of the Disney movies have.
1. Footloose: A great story of teens wanting to, well, basically dance. After a city kid arrives in a small town that has banned dancing and loud music, a battle rises up to just have a senior prom. The only part of this movie that might be touchy is when they cross state lines to go dancing, there was a bit of drinking involved. Outside of that, the movie is still pretty good and suitable for teenagers.
2. The Outsiders: The Outsiders is a take on West Side Story, which was a take on Romeo and Juliet. The book is actually a great read for Junior High/High School kids, and the movie is great. The “Greasers” challenge the “Socs” (socialites) and it’s a battle to the end. The movie is great because it shows no violence, there are insinuations of violence, but it really isn’t the blood and gore we see nowadays. Besides that, the entire cast is famous and faces your kids will recognize. One of the last scenes, the rumble, is obviously a fight scene, but not anything like we’ve seen recently. The Outsiders is also a great movie for teens.
3. Grease: Speaking of Greasers, Grease is one of those time-tested great movies. The singing and dancing is catchy, and the story isn’t bad either.
4. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Nothing wrong with this movie. A story of a girl on her way to become a dancer on a TV show like American Bandstand. They spend a lot of time at the mall. It’s cute and features Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker with a young Shannen Doherty.
5. Back to the Future: A great series appropriate for all ages. It’s fun, it’s cool and it’s adventurous. No bad language, nothing really weird. An all around great movie for all.
Of course, these are just a few in a long list. What are some of the movies you remember when you were growing up that you’d like your kids to s