Your family movies

[Dowdsy McDowds]

This isn't about the genre of family movies, but rather movies you associate with your family whether it is one film that reminds you of your family, or individual films you relate to different members of your family.

I've found that even a pretty crap film can have some kind of charm about it due to nostalgic feelings it brings up having watched it with someone you care about. So that this doesn't turn into a lot of spamming, please explain what the significance of the film is to the member of your family or your family as a whole.

My family film has to be National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Every Christmas Eve, my family and I would go to mass and collectively shiver our way through an hour's sermon in an old church with high ceilings that rendered the halogen heaters, going full blast mind you, redundant. After mass we'd retreat to the warm church hall to socialise for a while, with my dad being one of the guys to go to for a swig of whiskey or rum. The man came prepared with an alternative to keep warm.

When we got home, we'd get changed into our comfy lounging gear, make sure we'd wrapped the presents then stick on the hallowed VHS that contained NLCV. My sisters used to complain that we ALWAYS watched this film and knew it off by heart during the first 10 minutes or so, but then would slowly start laughing more and more and cease voicing their displeasure.

So that's my quintessential Dowds family movie. As well as being a great film in it's own right, it has a uniting significance in my family in that it became as traditional at Christmas as the presents, mass, food and after dinner nap.

Over to you guys and gals!

 

[Davi323]

Multiple films, but the most family associated movies for me would be the Original Star Wars Trilogy, Spaceballs and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

All of these movies were watched by me and my brothers to the point that not only did we wear out the VHS copies of them, but that it got to the point where we could almost recite them line by line, and even now, when talking with any of them, we all try to incorporate as many references to them as possible. It annoys the fuck out of the wives and girlfriends, but amuses us.

 

[¡Roján!]

I, like Davi have quite a few family films. Around Christmas time, we all get together to watch a few movies after spending three months apart a time. Usually, we watch Mathilda, the Grinch, and Ms. Doubtfire. Why? I honestly have no idea. It must have been figured out before I was born. I do know that the Grinch was the first movie my family saw as a whole and that's why we watch that one but I haven't the foggiest about Mathilda or Ms. Doubtfire. Must be that little girl who plays Mathilda and one of the children from Ms. Doubtfire as she's a common factor. Either that or we enjoy the comedic stylings of Robin Williams and Danny DeVito, but that's a little too far-fetched.

 

[Steve0904]

This one's easy for me. I loved the Lion King and Aladdin. As you can see I was a disney movie kid when I was young. I now have DVD copies of the two and I used to have VHS copies before my mom sold them to salvation army (donation) when we moved about 3 years ago

 

[SorgFamily]

My sister and I used to watch The Big Green all the time. Every summer it was guaranteed that we would watch it every other day. It was weird that it never got touched throughout the school year but every summer it would come out. Looking back, it's a terrible movie with terrible acting but there are still scenes that pop into my head this very day (I haven't seen the movie in at least 10 years) and that was nearly 15 years ago. Many many good times.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Originally I posted about one film that united the Dowds clan. However, there are films I associate with each member of my family too;

Pa Dowds - Last of the Mohicans would only just edge out Excalibur here, although for the most part it was just the climactic endings we'd watch together. One abiding memory of watching Mohicans with my dad is when I was younger and Celtic (football/soccer team) were dominating the league due to their star player Henrik Larsson, it would be the norm for us to watch the highlights then put on the end of Mohicans. A character in the film is doing a monologue at the end and refers to an arrow being shot in the sun, which my dad, several drinks past drunk, would then gleefully exclaim, "Aye he must have been watching Henrik today too!" It's a silly thing, but a good memory.

Ma Dowds - Toy Story 2. When the film came out, she was over in Houston at the time with my dad but the airline (I forget which) had lost their luggage on the way over. She was told that the bags would make their way to them but it was still an annoyance. To get her mind off it, the people she was staying with decided to take her to the cinema to see Toy Story 2. She was loving the film until it got to the third act, and the moment where the toys go through to the baggage area. The poor thing was so distracted from that moment on she struggled to remember the ending of the film until we took her to see it when she got home.

Sister #1 - Fight Club. Truth be told, I watched a lot of great films for the first time with my oldest sister; Shawshank Redemption, True Romance, Full Metal Jacket, The Matrix, but Fight Club stands out the most. She saw it a couple of times in its initial run in the cinema and would not shut up about it. The fool I was, I remember saying, "It can't be that good if the critics don't like it." Oh the look I got from her, icy.
When it came out on video she was determined to get all of the family to watch it, but it never happened. Miffed, she took it to her room and started watching it herself. Feeling a bit guilty, I went to chat with her about half an hour later but after 5 minutes of attempted chatting, I was absorbed with what was going on on the TV. She then hit stop and started rewinding it.
"What!? What happened!?"
"It's a lot better if you watch it from the start Mike..."
She was right.

Sister #2 - Hot Rod. I fucking love this film and the first time I watched it was one of the few times I genuinely laughed pretty much the whole way through. The next day my sister came round and was looking for some light-hearted stuff to take her mind off of Uni work. I told her about this film I'd watched the night before and in particular a sequence where a character falls down a big hill, but was cracking up as I was trying to explain it to her. She gave me a funny look but decided to take it anyway.
That evening, she phones me up just howling with laughter along with her boyfriend in the background, squeaking out the words "...hill...fall...shit...BAHAHAHAHAHA..." before hanging up.
Every now and then she'll see if I catch on to her saying hwhat, hwhiskey, hweird etc.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I've watched a lot of movies with my family, but Jurassic Park is probably the reoccurring favorite. I absolutely LOVED this movie as a kid, and Jurassic Park has become a holiday favorite for my family. We usually watch Jurassic Park during Thanksgiving or Christmas, and I never get tired of this one. Jurassic Park is full of excitement and thrills, and the suspense during the final moments of this film is unreal. Jurassic Park is loaded with breathtaking scenes, and this is one of the more memorable and awe inspiring blockbusters. The attacks from the T-Rex and the Raptors, Gennaro's death on the toilet, and the helicopter ride to the island at the beginning of the film. All of these images are burned into memory, they've been there for years, and Jurassic Park is at the top of my family favorites list.

Sometimes we change things up during the holidays. We might choose Jurassic Park III or The Lost World. I enjoy Jurassic Park III, but I rarely stick around for The Lost World, because I've always hated that film. Also, Iron Man (2008) has become a favorite for my father over the past few years, and this film gives us a break from Jurassic Park sometimes.