Five Movies for the Entire (Geeky) Family

One of the great joys of being a geek and a parent is that everything old is new again. (Everything under the sun!) You know that thing you loved when you were ten and that your friends are all tired of hearing about? Your children haven’t seen/heard/read it yet!

One of the difficulties, at least in our little geekdom, is that we are a diverse group of people with wide-ranging interests. Finding one film that we will all honestly enjoy (one that no one is just tolerating for the sake of family peace) is no easy thing!

So who are we?

• Mom, age 43, primarily a superhero geek, but open to any well told story. Tends to like her stories a bit dark.
• Dad, age 41, primarily a gamer, also into Star Wars and LEGO, among other things. No animals can be hurt.
• Teenage Daughter, age 15, primarily a Whovian. Currently down on animated movies, except, of course, for anime. It helps if there’s a hot young man.
• Second-Grade Daughter, age 7, primarily a TMNT fan, but open to other stories. Sensitive to violence or scary situations. Sucker for toy tie-ins. She’s the tough one to please in the group, without boring everyone else.
• Dog: age 6 in human years, not much interested in movies, but will sit with us so long as no dogs are barking on-screen.

So, what can please all these myriad movie-viewers? Here are five movies that recently worked for us.

1. Sky High: Mom’s pick. Dad enjoyed all the references, Teenager enjoyed the exaggerated high school situations, and Second-Grader liked the cartoony elements like flying busses and the boy with the really stretchy arms. Everyone laughed, though not at the same things.

2. Star Wars IV and V: Dad’s pick. Mom and Teenager can overlook poorly written dialogue for the smarmy charm and sexy smile of a young Harrison Ford. Second-grader loves the ships and lightsabers and now wants a Wookiee. It didn’t hurt that she and Dad already watch Star Wars Rebels together.

3. Ghostbusters: Teenager’s pick. Mom and Dad had loved this in their youth, but had never seen it together. Teenager liked the inept aptitude of the ghostbusters themselves. Second-Grader loved Slimer, who was her kind of gross and funny, and just didn’t look when the librarian went all scary.

4. The LEGO Movie: Second-Grader’s pick. Dad and Teenager shared a love of LEGO when the Teenager was younger and were not a hard sell. Mom was game, and ended up laughing a lot more than she thought she would. Downside: that darn song can get stuck in your head for days at a time.

5. Stardust: Mom’s pick. Dad enjoyed seeing favorite actors in atypical roles. Teenager liked the romance storyline. Second-Grader liked the disgusting ghosts and the funny pirate captain.

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