My mother and grandmother loved movies and most of my memories revolve around one movie or another. I remember when Gandhi came out in 1982, I was 11. My grandmother and I went and while the movie was really long with an intermission, I still remember the look on my grandmother's face when Gandhi was shot. I remember the drive home and her telling me about the things in her life that weren't so nice. Those memories led me to write my series on World War 2 called "Imagine" 25 years later.
More wonderful movies came into my life after that...
Dark Crystal 1982
A Christmas Story 1983
Breakfast Club 1985
Back to the Future 1985
Aliens 1986
Predator 1987
Beetle Juice 1988
One of the most Vivid memories I have of a movie was watching Purple rain in 1984 with my mom. We went to this dive of a theater down on Halstead street in Chicago. The floors were coated with popcorn embedded in the syrup of thousands of spilled sodas. That place had never seen a mop. We kept our feet up on the seats in front of us as the rats ran back and forth beneath our feet.
Of course there were other great movies like Caddy Shack, 48 Hours, Indiana Jones and on and on. So of course today my 18 year old daughter has my love of movies too. Unfortunately she is a slasher flick girl while I hate horror movies. She got that from her grandmother. I am still tramatized from the sci-fi/ horror flick "Altered States" that my mother took me to see. What the hell was she thinking??
Unfortunatley going to the movie theater as much as I would like to would put us in debt. The cheapest outing with no popcorn or drinks (what fun is that??) is still 21 bucks for just 3 people. And you can't pause and rewind and go pee with out missing something!
So we rent movies. For a few years we went to the local video store and spend 20 bucks a week or so on movies, which was still cheaper than the theater. Then I signed up with netflix and found the joy of the movies coming right to my door. But soon the movies starting taking too long to come and sometimes they didn't have a movie I wanted. So I switched to Blockbuster.com and am thrilled with it!
For $14.99 I get 2 movies in the mail at a time. I can then take those movies to my local blockbuster and use them like 2 free coupons. Plus the next two movies on my list on blockbuster.com ship automatically. So with in 48 hours..24 hours a couple of times I have 4 movies in my house. Last month I rented and had shipped to me, 24 movies! All for 15 bucks. That's .62 cents a movie!
AND now you can rent games too!
This really is a good deal that you can not beat. Oh yes I almost forgot... blockbuster.com will also email you bargains on buying used dvd's through the mail and at the store.
I won't lie to you, occasionally you get a scratched DVD that will piss you off. But I have only had one or two that was too bad to play. Out of the hundreds I have rented that's not bad.
Now tell me about your movie memories!
Mandi Gordon: Money Correspondent
Mandi's column, Saving for the Average Person, published every Thursday to Gather Essentials: Money
is the average persons guide to saving money on any average day.
Mandi lives in Northern Illinois with her husband Bill and daughter Beth. She enjoys saving money
and sharing that knowledge with others. She knows there is enough confusing money info out there-
it's time to start understanding and saving!
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Comments: 17
I am probably about the same age as you or close to it....I am 42.
I saw Grease when it came out and my best friend and I thought that we "were" those girls on the screen. I of course was Sandy because at the time, I was the innocent girl in love with the bad boy....(we have now been married for 22 years but have been together since we were 14)
My best friend thought that she was more like Rizzo because she was in love with the tough guy that used her and dumped her when he "got some"......
How about my best friend and I saw "Midnight Express" as our first R rated movie that we snuck into at like age 14. We thought that we were so big and bad because we got to see a drug movie that said the "f" word a couple times and there was even a naked shot for a second....
I also remember going to many and many drive in movies ......hmmmm....what went on at the drive in? We "got some" and "gave some" and we napped and we partied, drank, did just whatever we wanted...it was the 80's and that is how we were.
The stuff that we did back then would put us in Juvie hall or alternative school today in the 2000's.....
wow, thanks for the memories
I am now the parent of 4 kids - the oldest 2 are 18 and 17...they also like slasher flicks and scarry movies..
I remember seeing Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang in the theater when I was little and it was one of the most wonderful things I'd ever seen. Other favorite memories include seeing "Sophie's Choice" with three of my sisters -- none of us said a word until we got to the restaurant afterwards. Then there was the time I saw E.T. with my husband and children - a movie we all loved.
And when my now-husband, then-boyfriend and I saw "Saving Private Ryan" we just looked at each other after the credits had rolled and both said "I'm exhausted" at the same time.
Oh - one more! I took my mother to see "Titanic" in a stadium-seat, full surround sound theater when she hadn't been to a theater in about 20 years - that was something I'll never forget. She probably won't either!
When I was young my parents used to play bridge on Saturday nights, that was when all the old horror movies played. Frankenstein,The Mummy, The Werewolf(Lon Chaney Jr., Boris Karloff) and others, and they scared the hell out of me. Now a days people are bored with them. There are so many movies that I've seen that I really liked. Breaker Morant, Bang the Drum, The Longest Day oh my all time favorite The Quiet Man. So many, so many.
Another one I'd add to the list: "Never Ending Story." I loved that movie growing up, and it still gives me goose bumps when I think of the little boy in the attic calling out the name: "Atreyu...."
thanks everyone!
some of my favourite movies are: peter pan(not the disney cartoon, a live action one; trailer can be seen here-http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/peter_pan/large_old.html), 300, the lion king, memoirs of a geisha, v for vendetta, ever after(the only cinderella movie I have EVER liked), undercover blues, spiderman 1 and 2, Balto!, and probably a few others I can't think of right now!