When I was a teenager, if I wanted to catch up on an old movie I had to wait until it happened to be airing on one of the few channels available on TV. Now, I can recommend old (relative to their birth) movies to my teens, and thanks to DVDs and cable TV they can watch them immediately.
There are so many movies that I’ve enjoyed that I think today’s teenagers would also enjoy. I think it is a great idea to recommend these to our teens. Whether we watch the movies together with our teens or they watch with friends and we just discuss after, a great bonding experience has still been had.
In my list you will notice that I left out older movies because my kids, at least, tend to get turned off by movies that look very old and that are completely off their pop culture radar. Also, before the mid-seventies, there were many less movies made for the teenage audience. I also didn’t include movies that you might have started showing your kids when they were still children.
Here is my list of top 10 movies to recommend to your teens from before they were born (in no particular order):
5. Say Anything
6. Airplane
If you have any suggestions to add to this list, please add them in the comments. I am sure I am forgetting some excellent movies. If I get a lot of comments I will do another updated posting.
35 Best Movies about Teens
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My son recently saw Dead Poets Society at school in his Language Arts class. He also checked The Princess Bride out from the library recently so he could watch it. He's pretty open to these older movies, but my daughter usually won't even give them a chance.
'Stand my Me' springs to mind.
Thanks for bringing up 'Stand by Me' Ken. I can't believe I forget it because I am a big Rob Reiner fan.
My son loves Monty Python and the Holy Grail LOL The quotes are getting a little out of hand at least FIVE (You mean THREE, sire?) times a day.
My sons absolutely love that movie. I didn't include it because I think they enjoyed finding Monty Python through their friends rather than their parents. However we did all see Spamalot on Broadway together and had a great time.
Breakfast Club was a fairly recent find for my kids. It was something we watched together and they LOVED it. Another pick from the (not too distant) past they liked was Back to the Future. Thanks for this list. Will be sure to pass it on.
Was chatting with friends about this post at lunch. One mentioned Risky Business. Good for older teens!
Thanks for your 2 comments. My kids and I love Back to the future and I thought of it but didn't add it because I think my adds watched it before they were teens. And even though Risky business is about teens and I loved it, I didn't want to recommend a movie so R rated. Thanks for coming back.
REALLY enjoying your blog. Time with older kids/teens so fleeting. Great finding things we can do together!
What about E.T.?
E.T. is great but most teens have probably seen it already as children. Thanks for writing.
Do music/concert movies count? Gimmie Shelter, The Last Waltz, Woodstock, Concert for Bangladesh etc. allow the kids see what some of, shall we say, seasoned rock stars looked and sounded like in their prime. The crowd shots are always good for a laugh too.
This is a great list! I love Princess Bride. :) I'll definitely be mentioning this on my blog! Thanks for the note and sorry it took me awhile to respond!
I can't agree with Anna more - Dead Poets Society!
Nobody ever agrees with me on Movies, but I'd also suggest Joe and the Volcano and "The Temptress" (It's a REALLY old Garbo film... silent era old).
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The Blues Brothers
Nice list! Mixxing you on Mixx. :)
My 14 year old daughter LOVES the Princess Bride and I bought it for her for Christmas. She also loved Willow too.
My 14 year old daughter owns Breakfast Club and watches it a lot. Amazing how things have not changed so much since 1985. She also loves Grease, one of my favorites when I was a teen, and Titanic, the Notebook and Pearl Harbor. She's mature for her age and I let her watch rated-R movies, within reason. Time to bond!
How about the Wedding Singer?
The Wedding Singer was made in 1998, only 10 years ago. Today's teens were already born. We actually saw the movie with our sons. Maybe you thought it was made earlier since it takes place in the eighties.
Well the most popular movie these days is Twilight.
That is definitely true. When today's teens have teens themselves, they will be recommending Twilight to them.
We just had family movie night and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. My kids loved it!
The Indiana Jones movies are good but i guess a little recent... i love YOung frankenstein and dirty dancing and Ferris Bueller's v day off is funny too.
Ohh and btw... if you have seen Twilight and liked it you havent read the book... :(
I just read all the Twilight books and LOVED them. I haven't seen the movie yet though. Probably will wait until DVD.
I took a course in college on Noir movies. I had the videos of movies I would have never thought of ever watching, but now would watch again:
Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kain, plus many many more. You'll enjoy and learn from the old time ones! They're classics!
i am a teen and i think that the old willy wonka and the chocolate factory is a great movie to watch with my parents
i also forgot about edward scissorhands
great movie anyone will enjoy
I have seen most of the movies posted here, except "The Princess Bride" and "Sixteen Candles". The rest of them are indeed worth watching. Thanks for the recommendations.
Free Movies.