Every year before summer came to an end and the school year began my mom would sit my brother and me down in front of the TV to watch what I thought to was an old movie. This soon evolved into a neighborhood wide party known as “back to school movie night." A movie was selected, typically from before the 2000’s, and everyone piled into my living room while trying to keep quiet to watch a movie. This was nearly an impossible task for kids ranging from elementary school to high school as the younger kids would ask a million questions and the older kids would lose interest and their attention was focused to their phones.
Clearly, I didn’t appreciate this night until I was older and now that I am, I proudly can say that my favorite movies derived from this tradition. Not only did the movies my mom picked show my how great 20th century films were, it also introduced me into a whole genre of movies that I now know and love. These movies taught me lessons about coming of age and to always to put sarcasm first. Here’s my top picks for movies that I believe everyone should watch at some point in their life (preferably before you’re 30).
1. Airplane! (1980)
2. The Karate Kid (1984)
3. Ghostbusters (1984)
4. The Breakfast Club (1985)
5. Back to the Future (1985)
6. St. Elmo’s Fire (1985)
7. Top Gun (1986)
8. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
9. Big (1988)
10. Die Hard (1988)
11. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)
12. Dead Poet's Society (1989)
13. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
14. Home Alone (1990)
15. Pretty Woman (1990)
16. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
17. My Cousin Vinny (1992)
18. A League of Their Own (1992)
19. Groundhog Day (1993)
20. Jurassic Park (1993)
21. Forrest Gump (1994)
