Movie Reviews by the Birds
One of my favorite things about being a parent – (How many times have a started a sentence with those words?) – Nonetheless, one of my favorite things about being a parent is re-watching movies with the Birds from when I was a kid. I think every family “classic” movie night results in a blog worthy story.
I have a good memory of what I was thinking as a child when I watched a movie. As I re-watch the movies now, those memories flood back into my mind and heart. It makes it natural to ask the boys what they are thinking about the movie. I also find it interesting that some of the movies we watch that I loved as a kid are simply terrible, and some of the movies absolutely stand the test of time.
So, here are some of the highlights from our family “classic” movie nights:
Flight of the Navigator – The Birds and I all three really enjoyed this movie. I think it benefits from the fact that movies were not nearly as long ten plus years ago. The best part of this re-watch was finding the movie contains a reference to Pixar. Pixar, our favorite animated movie producer of all time, did not even exist when this movie was made, yet the boy in the movie (the Navigator) was talking to aliens from other planets that were in jars on his spaceship, and one of the little creatures was from planet Pixar. Brainy Bird and I both caught the reference immediately. Little Chirp munched on a cookie. We rewound the movie to confirm what we had heard, and then we hopped on imdb.com to investigate. Surely enough, the little alien’s planet name was indeed in reference to Pixar production studio. At the time the Flight of the Navigator was produced Pixar was a brain child being formed a small group of people down the hall of the producers of the Flight of the Navigator.
The Never Ending Story – This is and always will be my favorite family movie of all time. The Birds and I watched the movie together almost five years ago. It was one of our first nights alone in the new house after my divorce. This was one of the most difficult times of my life. Little Chirp says that he can’t remember the movie, and I think that is an excuse to watch it again. When we watched it together before, it was Brainy Bird’s suggestion. I was so excited when he made the suggestion. It made my night. I really enjoyed watching the movie again with the boys; afterwards, I went to bed having taken a small step in the long journey of healing from the end of my marriage. A few days later, I would happen to take a look at Brainy Bird’s little flip phone, and I saw a text from him to his dad that said, “You are right, it made Mommy so happy when I said to watch that movie.”
Ghost Busters – Wow, this movie is terrible. I loved it as a kid. I remember going to the theatre to see it, and I remember having the VHS tape at home and watching it over and over again. Little Chirp was still a tot when this movie was featured at our little family’s “classic” movie night, so he was in his crib snoozing. Brainy Bird said that he really liked the movie. Maybe it is better when one is a kid.
Gremlins – I still enjoy this movie. It was one of the first scary movies that Brainy Bird and I ever watched together, and it was back before my divorce. Little Chirp was in his crib fast asleep the night that Gremlins was our feature film. I don’t necessarily recall what Brainy Bird thought of the movie, but he loved it when Gizmo went cruising around in the Barbie car. I wondered about my decision to let young Brainy Bird watch the movie when they chopped up one of the Gremlins in the mixer. Hysterically, a few weeks later we were having dinner on the back patio, and our going in and out the back door resulted in mayflies getting in the house (those long legged flying insects that look like giant mosquitos). Brainy Bird and his dad were chasing them around while I was cleaning up. One landed in the Kitchenaid mixer, and Brainy Bird shouted excited, “Turn it on! Turn it on!”
Short Circuit – I didn’t really like this movie as a kid, and I didn’t really like it as a grown up. Both of the Birds loved it. Now, when we are searching for a movie to watch one of them will almost always suggest a re-re-watching of Short Circuit.
Men in Black – Put crudely, this movie scared the piss out of Brainy Bird. Little Chirp was too young to watch it with us; apparently, Brainy Bird was too young as well. It was quite a few years back when we watched it. So many years ago that Mom was still here, and I got quite lecture. She was generally very supportive of my decisions as a mother, but definitely unimpressed with my decision to let Brainy Bird see this one. I look forward to watching it again when Brainy Bird is older.
Top Gun – I remembered this movie to be one of the best ever made, and I remembered Tom Cruise to be totally hot. I held neither of those opinions on the re-watch. Brainy Bird liked the movie, but said he would have liked it better if there wasn’t so much kissing, “The planes flying and fighting were really cool, but the movie had too much kissy, kissy.” We didn’t let Little Chirp see this one. I am looking forward to his review of it in a few years when he is old enough for it.
Red Dawn – Holy cow! This movie stands the test of time. Brainy Bird can be a bit chatty during movies; he has so many ideas in his head, and the contents of a movie always brings these ideas to words. I do like it that he asks questions when he doesn’t understand something. Towards the very beginning of the movie; we hit pause and had a history discussion of the Cold War with the Soviets and how different life was in this era from a technology perspective. Of course, I provided him with a clear understanding that the entire movie was fiction. Then we un-paused the movie, and Brainy Bird was the quietest he has ever been sitting next to me in our media room. He barely touched his candy; he was glued to what was happening in the movie. I was right there with him. We both had a few tears at the end of the movie when the boys sat together dying on the swing set. Brainy Bird said that he hopes to have a son to re-watch the movie with one day. I asked why it had to be a boy. He laughed.
Star Wars – I am an IT nerd; of course, I loved the re-watch of this movie. No, I didn’t dress up as Princess Leigh or anything. I have to draw the line somewhere. This re-watch was just recently in honor of the fact that the next Star Wars movie is coming out this year. We made a salmon and asparagus for dinner, and we got out our little TV trays and enjoyed dinner while watching Stars Wars. We eat our meals together as a family at the dinner table, no phones, no television, so a meal in front of the TV is a huge treat. The boys loved the movie. Little Chirp liked the fight scenes and Brainy Bird liked all of the robots and creatures in the movie.
The Empire Strikes Back – So, the truth is that this isn’t a very good movie. The movie is a bridge between the first movie, Star Wars, and the next movie, Empire Strikes Back. This movie was such a hit back in the day because it rode the coat tails of Star Wars, and because of the biggest movie revelation of that era, “Luke I’m your father.”
I waited patiently for that moment, to see the shocked look on the Birds’ faces when they learned that the man behind the helmet, worshiper of the dark side was the father of Luke Skywalker, boy hero in the making. When the moment finally came, I was so excited, “Can you guys believe it?”
Brainy Bird remained silent. He is old enough to take caution around curbing my enthusiasm. Little Chirp piped in with, “Duh, Mommy everyone knows that Darth Vader is Luke’s father.” Doh!
The Sound of Music – This was one of my Mom’s all-time favorite movies, and she watched it with us when we were children. Years later, I would be sitting with Mom on a Friday night, and we would watch it together again. That night is what gave birth to my family’s “classic” movie night, which began the very next Friday. Naturally, I was excited to watch the Sound of Music with the boys, and they were not at all excited. I guess that The Sound of Music was my first chic flick.
The Sixth Sense – There are countless references, and discussions about this movie. You will hear people describe new movies as, “It doesn’t have a Sixth Sense level surprise ending, but it does deliver a shock at the end.” Brainy Bird was really young when he first asked to see this movie. He had heard again and again that it was one of the best movies of all time. I told him that he was WAY too young for it. He naturally asked when he would be old enough. I arbitrarily threw out, “When you are eleven.” Keep in my Brainy Bird sports a genius IQ, and a much higher maturity level than your average child, and at the time that I told him that, he was nearly five years away from turning eleven. I figured he would forget about wanting to watch the movie.
He came home from school one day and said, “I am eleven, so can we watch the Sixth Sense? I have waited a long time to know what all of the hype is about.”
I had two thoughts – 1) Wow, the last five years flew by. 2) Don’t ever tell Brainy Bird that something is going to happen in five years, and think that he will forget about it.
I called Brainy Bird’s dad to discuss whether our son was ready for such an intense movie, a movie that I personally regard as one of the best movies ever made. Dad was all for it. He suggested that I could keep Brainy Bird on one of the nights that he had the boys, so that Little Chirp wouldn’t be with us, and Brainy Bird and I could enjoy the movie. He even lent me a copy of the movie.
This night to-date, is the best family “classic” movie night ever. We made chalupas for dinner, Brainy Bird’s favorite food, and we sat down to enjoy the movie. When Bruce Willis was shot, and then shown alive in the next scene, Brainy Bird asked, “So, he didn’t die?” Brainy Bird and I have a policy of never telling a lie to each other. Not even things that most parents tell their kids like that there is an Easter Bunny. With this policy in mind, I said, “Shhh! Watch the movie.”
That he did. Brainy Bird REALLY jumped with the boy that died from playing with his father’s gun showed us his head wound. His eyes were huge when the little boy and his mother were sitting in traffic and he tells her that a woman on a bicycle died. She asks, “How can you see that?” while craning her neck to look at what is up ahead. The boy says, “Because she is standing at my window.”
We got to the end of the movie. It was late. Brainy Bird was snuggled up with his favorite blanket laying on the couch, and I wondered if he had fallen asleep, and then the moment comes…Bruce Willis’ character is dead. He has been dead this whole time.
Brainy Bird shot up to a sitting position, “Oh my! Oh wow!” He exclaimed as he rubbed both of his hands threw his hair in a manner that I had never seen before, “This is…this is…oh wow…this is the best movie ever!”
I agree. For me though, that night I saw the movie through a grown woman’s eyes instead a college kid’s as I did back in the day, and there were tears in my eyes. The movie isn’t a thriller in my opinion, it is a heartbreaking love story. I cried.
Brainy Bird and I are both looking forward to the Sixth Sense re-watch event with Little Chirp when he is say…about 13.