Old School Movies to Watch With Your Kids

I have a lot of great memories of watching movies as a youth. Movies of the 80's and 90's were a bit of a different breed. We also watched them 27 times each because there was no Netflix with a gazillion choices, on demand T.V. or P.V.R. Instead we played Super Mario and watched Kindergarten Cop 29 times. (That is indeed a factual number). 

As a departure from some of the movies coming out now we decided to start having a couple family movie nights a month that were dedicated to OLD SCHOOL. 

Here's the tricky part though... people could put a lot of stuff in the movies in those decades that they couldn't (and shouldn't) put in movies now. Personally there is a lot of stuff in some of those movies that I watched as a kid that I wouldn't let my own kids watch. 

So, for movies where the majority of the film is above board we just skip parts. I am fully aware that my children will one day be Phoebe Buffet from Friends when she watches the real ending of Old Yeller. They are in for a rude awakening as adults but at least they'll be adults and not impressionable young children lol. 

My first list will be ones that we've watched with our kids and their impressions and then I'll give a list of ones that have been suggested to us or are on our watch list. 

OLD SCHOOL MOVIES WE'VE WATCHED WITH THE KIDS
* In no particular order *

1. Cool Runnings - based on the true story of the Jamaican Bobsled team. Coincidentally we watched it during the 2018 olympics where there was a female Jamaican bobsled team competing. There is a bit of language in this one. The kids enjoyed the movie!



2. The Parent Trap - we watched the Lindsay Lohan version. The kids thought it was hilarious. So many camp shenanigans and physical humour. I don't love how they over sexualized the dad's girlfriend and we skipped some of those parts. 



3. Home Alone (1-5) - Yup. You read that right. There are 5! We had never watched beyond 3 but we marathoned them all at Christmas. In our opinion - stick to the original 2 with Macaulay Culkin. We skipped the references to porn and other derogatory comments. 




4. Back to the Future - We still love these as adults and my husband is a huge fan. He made the choice to let them watch #1 and #3 as he felt #2 had too many sketchy parts that he didn't want them to see. We skipped some of the make out stuff in #1. 




5. Emperors New Groove - Initially we weren't including animated movies in our list as many of them are constantly released by Disney and seem current for the kids but this one seemed like a forgotten film. I still laugh at David Spade's humour in this one and the kids thought it was pretty funny. It's also good for a discussion the victim mentality lol. 



6. Flight of the Navigator - I still feel like this movie is so obscure and so odd but we watched it. It's a lot more intense than I remember especially since (SPOILER ALERT)


the boy goes missing and comes back the same day but his family has all aged 12 years or so and then the government locks him up to experiment. So all that said... I'm putting it on the list because we watched it but use discretion. 


7. Karate Kid - This one's pretty classic and they enjoyed it along with the Jayden Smith remake as well. 



8. 3 Ninjas Kick Back - We've only watched this sequel and haven't watched the first movie yet but what's not to love about kids who are ninjas and can defeat adults?



NOT QUITE OLD SCHOOL BUT STILL QUALIFY
K, these movies aren't legit old school but have an old school feel. 

9. Adventures in Babysitting - There is the original and then a very recent remake. We've only watched the remake so far with our kids and they loved it. I thought the original was amazing as a kid but I vaguely remember some inappropriate parts. 




10. Napolean Dynamite - It has side ponies, moon boots and caboodles so it gets to be old school lol. Gosh - this movie cracks me up. I didn't know if the kids would like it because there isn't really a plot but they found it hilarious and watched his dance over and over again. 


I feel like I'm forgetting some but that's a start anyways. 

Oh - I did forget a series - STAR WARS!!! Now to be fair, these are regularly watched in our home because the tall one is strong in the force. Also, because of all the remakes I feel like the whole series is current because you need to watch them to know what's going on ;).

OLD SCHOOL MOVIES SUGGESTED TO US

* Mighty Ducks
* Goonies
* The Sandlot
* 3 Fugitives
* Fly Away Home
* Free Willy
* E.T.
* Mac and Me
* Swiss Family Robinson
* The Sound of Music
* The Babysitters Club
* Herbie
* Mrs. Doubtfire

So we've got lots to go through. What would you add to the list?