Or at least, tonight was our second family film night. I’m trying to make it a habit, that we spend one evening a week staring at the same screen together – I’d quite like it if we did board games or something non screen related, but atm, Smallest would destroy them, so a shared film is the best we’re going to get.
Tonight I was organised. I’d got the (home made batch cooked) bolognese out of the freezer to defrost for a quick and easy tea after the film, and I’d managed to find and buy popping corn this morning so we could even have home made popcorn. We record lots of films on the off chance someone will like them, and when we looked through the choices, we settled on Back to the Future
.
I was a little worried that it would be a bit slow for them, particularly Small, as he’s usually an action through and through boy. But it turned out to be an inspired choice, with them absolutely riveted. Big had her head spinning from the possible time travel paradoxes, and the mild peril as well as the science fiction time travel plot had Small hooked. Smallest didn’t really watch that much, but she didn’t complain too much either, and neither Tim or I could remember the ins and outs of the plots so it held up well for us too.
I was also surprised at how little dated it seemed. A 1985 film looking back to 1955 and very little jarred. Possibly part two, which I think is based a few years from now, will be more out of time (I’m not convinced I’ve ever seen it!) but Back to the Future itself holds up really well. And overall suitable for children – a little bit of frowned on in the film itself smoking and drinking, bit of a smooch, couple of punches and a discussion of swearing where the strongest word used is damn. Rather less scary than Oliver!
which gets a U rating and gave Big nightmares 🙁 [Film ratings make no sense to me, but that’s a whole other post.]
So, I’m counting this film night a success overall, and we’re looking to get hold of Back to the Future part 2 for our next outing. We’ve also watched Daredevil (would not recommend! far too violent in graphic ways) and Star Trek XI
(that’s the one with the time travelling Spock and the all new cast) which went down pretty well, although I think it lacked enough romance to really drag Big in.
You may be spotting a slight SF theme. That’s because that’s what both dp and I enjoy, so we’re picking those films to introduce the kids too. And it led to some great discussion around the dinner table too, so a really enjoyable evening, right up to the point where Small ‘forgot’ he was supposed to be getting ready for bed and I yelled at him.
Oops. Still, very good up til that point.
Now, I’d like to give something a try. I’m sticking a linky on this post so that if anyone else has a family film night/ film review for families to share they can. I’m guessing I’ll get approx 0 take up as that’s what has happened each of the two or three times I’ve stuck a linky up before, but hey, worth a go. And if you’d rather leave a recommendation in the comments, that’s fine too 🙂
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