Childhood, Favorite Things, Humor, John Hughes, Nonsense

Movies I Love (Listed by Year)

Writer McWriterson

I am planning on publishing blog posts three days a week going forward until this quarantine of massive proportions is lifted. I have new and old content I will be sharing on Wednesdays in addition to the reblogs on Fridays. This is from November and has so many movies listed that I thought it would be a perfect post for today. 

First published November 25, 2019

I blame Buzzfeed for this post. I was innocently taking a quiz about how what movies I loved would tell me what Thanksgiving side dish best represents my personality (stuffing but this isn’t surprising) when I saw a list of movies (by year) from 2000-2009 that I loved.

Recently, our family was out to lunch with another family we are friends with when we talked about movies Anna really needs to watch. It all began back in October when Mike and I noticed a poster of John Belushi from Animal House on her college apartment wall. We remarked how we LOVED that she had it on the wall and that it was such a great movie and she was like, what do you mean?

She had never even realized it was from a movie; a movie she had never seen. Immediately Mike and I thought our parent cards should be revoked.

HOW COULD THIS BE?

So I started making a list of movies on my phone that she (and eventually Ellie) should watch. Feel-good movies, not just blockbuster or award-winning movies. Movies that hit ya right in the feels.

I should also mention that I hate going to the movie theater. So out of almost 50 years of movies I am listing, I have probably only seen 18 in an actual theater.

Originally I tried to stick to only one favorite movie per year it was released but as I made this list it became evident that I wouldn’t be able to stick to that. Some years there were soooo many movies I loved and other years there just weren’t.

So here are my feel good, get a tissue (or not), sit on the edge of your seat, guilty pleasure, drop the remote, movies by year, since the year of my birth.

*Also, I should state that just because I love the movies of each year, doesn’t mean that was the year I first saw them. Case in point- my parents did not take me to see American Grafitti when I was three years old. That I know of.

**Also, also– there is not one affiliate link in this post. I do, however, link to either Wikipedia or IMDB so you can check out fun facts about all of the movies listed for those who are taking a long car (or plane/bus/train) ride this Thanksgiving.

***Also, also, also– Don’t tell me that I have a lot of time on my hands in the comments. I don’t. But posts like these are super fun to write and it literally took me less than two hours to write this. I am a freakishly fast typer and let’s just say Grammarly is my BFF right now.

****Also, also, also, also– It was pointed out to me in the Favorite Things post that I didn’t have links that opened in a new window. I have since corrected it but this is a post that you will have to manually open a new window (right-click on the link) because I am for damn sure not going back through over 100 links and editing them. Because I actually don’t have a lot of time on my hands. See what I did there? Are you even still reading at this point?

 

 

1970– Pippi Longstocking / Love Story

 

Image result for pippi longstocking movie
Courtesy of Wikipedia

By the way, this is Pippi now:

Image result for Inger Nilsson
Courtesy of IMDB

1971–Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory/ Brian’s Song

1972– Snoopy Come Home 

1973– American Grafitti 

1974– Benji / Harry and Tonto

1975– Monty Python and the Holy Grail  / The Sunshine Boys

 

1976– The Bad News Bears/ Freaky Friday/ Car Wash

1977– Close Encounters of the Third Kind / Rollercoaster/ The Goodbye Girl/ Slap Shot/ Oh, God!/ Smokey and the Bandit

1978– Animal House/ Grease/ Halloween

 

 

1979– The Muppet Movie

1980– The Blues Brothers/ Private Benjamin/ Seems Like Old Times/ 9 to 5/ Coal Miner’s Daughter/ Little Darlings/ Ordinary People (thanks for the reminder, Melanie)

1981– On Golden Pond/ The Cannonball Run

1982– E.T./ Tootsie/ Annie/ Fast Times at Ridgemont High/ National Lampoon’s Class Reunion/ Poltergeist/ An Officer and a Gentleman/ Kiss Me Goodbye/ Six Weeks

 

 

1983– War Games/ National Lampoon’s Vacation/ The Big Chill/ Terms of Endearment/ Mr. Mom/ Valley Girl/ Silkwood/ Risky Business/ A Christmas Story/ All the Right Moves

1984–Sixteen Candles (duh)/Protocol/ Romancing the Stone/ Splash/ Beverly Hills Cop/ Revenge of the Nerds/ Footloose/ Irreconcilable Differences

1985– The Breakfast Club (duh, part two)/ The Color Purple (all-time favorite movie ever)/ The Goonies/ Back to the Future/ Cocoon/ Better off Dead/ Teen Wolf/ Mask/ Witness/ Fletch/ Girls Just Want To Have Fun/ The Legend of Billie Jean

Watch The Color Purple. please. Especially so we can sob together over this scene:

The symbolism of Celie walking past the characters of her life toward her sister and the children that were stolen from her at their birth? I mean COME THE HELL ON.

 

1986– Pretty in Pink/ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off/ Wildcats/ Peggy Sue Got Married/ Heartburn

1987– Dirty Dancing/ Raising Arizona/ Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (a Thanksgiving classic)/ Good Morning, Vietnam/ Overboard/ Can’t Buy Me Love/ Some Kind of Wonderful

1988– Coming to America/ Beetlejuice/ Heathers/ Mystic Pizza/ Scrooged/ Beaches/ For Keeps/ Rain Man/ Working Girl/ Big/ She’s Having a Baby (The year I graduated high school did not disappoint)

1989– Say Anything/ Driving Miss Daisy/ Steel Magnolias / Field of Dreams/ When Harry Met Sally/ Always/ Look Who’s Talking

 

 

1990– Mr, Destiny/ Pretty Woman/ Edward Scissorhands/ Pacific Heights/ Home Alone 

1991– Fried Green Tomatoes/ Regarding Henry/ Backdraft/ Father of the Bride/ Defending Your Life

1992– A League of their Own/ The Bodyguard/ Singles

1993– The Fugitive/ Sleepless in Seattle/ Indecent Proposal/ Dave

1994– Forrest Gump/ It Could Happen to You/ Four Weddings and a Funeral/ The Shawshank Redemption/ Serial Mom/ A Simple Twist of Fate/ Muriel’s Wedding/ Reality Bites

1995– The Bridges of Madison County/ Clueless/ Tommy Boy/ While You Were Sleeping/ Home for the Holidays/ Circle of Friends

1996– Fargo/ Jerry Maguire

 

 

1997– Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion/ Picture Perfect/ My Best Friend’s Wedding/ Selena/ Soul Food 

1998– You’ve Got Mail/ The Wedding Singer/ The Truman Show

1999– Never Been Kissed/ The Sixth Sense/ Edtv

2000– Cast Away/ Remember the Titans/ The Family Man/ Love and Basketball/ Return to Me (another all-time favorite)

 

2001– Legally Blonde/ Serendipity/ Bridget Jones’s Diary

2002– My Big Fat Greek Wedding/ 8 Mile/ Sweet Home Alabama

2003– Love. Actually/ Under the Tuscan Sun

2004– Napoleon Dynamite/ Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy/ 13 Going on 30/ 50 First Dates/ Polar Express

 

 

2005– The 40-Year-Old Virgin/ Beauty Shop/ The Family Stone/ Hitch/ In Her Shoes

2006– The Holiday/ Little Miss Sunshine/ The Devil Wears Prada/ The Break-Up/ Last Holiday (totally different than THE Holiday)

2007– Juno/ Knocked Up (interestingly, both pregnancy movies in theaters while I was pregnant)

 

 

2008– Sunshine Cleaning/ Twilight/  The Secret Life of Bees/ Nothing Like the Holidays

2009– Up/ Julie and Julia

2010– Toy Story 3/ Hot Tub Time Machine (I got nuthin’ in 2010)

2011– The Help/ Bridesmaids/ Crazy Stupid Love

2012– Flight/ Moonrise Kingdom/ Silver Linings Playbook/ Pitch Perfect

 

 

2013– Frozen/ Philomena

2014– The Fault in our Stars/ The Lego Movie

2015– Inside Out/ Home/ Jenny’s Wedding 

2016– The Edge of Seventeen/ Sully/ Hidden Figures

2017– Coco/ The Big Sick/ Lady Bird/ I, Tonya/ The Greatest Showman

2018– Crazy Rich Asians/ Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

2019– A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (in theaters, so I won’t see it until next year when it’s on Demand)

 

Lord, I am tired.

So tired.

Think I’ll go watch a movie.

30 thoughts on “Movies I Love (Listed by Year)”

  1. I LOVE THIS!!! I have the week off so I plan on watching lots of movies and television and this list will help me for sure!

    I am so thankful for your blog. ❤️

    Happy thanksgiving!!

    Liked by 1 person

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  2. We’ve slowly been introducing our boys to movies we loved as kids. Some they love too; others make them roll their eyes. Being boys they aren’t much for the love story ones but they really enjoyed Spaceballs, Sand lot, Forrest Gump, king ralph….

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  3. OMG, this is fantastic! I’ve seen a lot of these, but some I haven’t. And, of course, now I want to re-watch some of these from the past that I’ve forgotten about. List-making, here I come! I’m going to send this post to Tim, too. He’s a huge movie buff. I’d like to add Ordinary People to the 1980 list, though it’s a pretty depressing movie.

    Sitting here sobbing as I just watched the end trailer for The Color Purple.

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  4. This ia awesome! You do have Ordinary People in there. We have gradually introduced our clan to movies we grew up with. Coach gets mad because I always manage to forget the one inappropriate scene. Oops. And I have been kniwn to freeze a scene on the worst part as I fumble with the remote to fast forward. Winning!

    I drive with the 2 girls to Louisville Friday for stressful Irish dancing championships. Bah! I just told Mini we should get some movies from the library to watch in the car or in the hotel on the portable dvd player in case the hotel is only showing inapproriate/good 😂 movies. Taking your list with me. Thanks!

    Also I would add Noting Hill. LOVE! And Sense and Sensibility with Keira Knightley. Maybe thst one is too grown up.

    This list is so fun! Happy gobble gobble day.

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  5. I forgot to mention that I just ordered Better Off Dead. I have not scene it since Ericka’s sleepover freshman year of high school. I remember it being funny but I cannot recall if it is appropriate for 6th grade. I am hoping girls will enjoy watching it on the ride to Louisville. Let me know if that would be a bad-mom move.

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  6. Lots of good ones you list here! Speaking of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, don’t you think the one with Gene Wilder is much better than the one with Johnny Depp? However, I will admit I like Johnny Depp in anything or nothing at all, he’s so pleasing to the eyes 🙂

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  7. COME THE HELL ON!

    Made the mistake of watching the end of The Color Purple and now my face is purple from the ugly crying.

    Thanks for the list – lots here I need to revisit / discover!

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  9. I love that she just appreciated the poster without knowing it was from a movie. What an awesome testament to the movie! Also, I love going to the movie theater. Seriously, it’s on the top five list of things that I love doing. And I especially love getting a big huge tub of popcorn and a way too big cup of cherry coke. The simple, and very expensive, pleasures in life. I so want to do this list now!

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  11. Ok, looks like I’ve visited here before but to be more thorough, I’ll tell you the ones I like from your list: Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Smokey and the Bandit, 9 to 5, An Officer and a Gentleman, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Back to the Future, Edward Scissorhands, Home Alone, Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, and Polar Express. Whew, now I’m tired!! This was interesting, need to do my own list 🙂

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  12. Thanks for reposting. Our little family movie nights are the only thing keeping me sane. I had the kids run to the library to rent a bunch of movies without realizing they were going to close. I wish I had given them better specifics because they came home with some duds which will undoubtedly get lost in the shuffle here and I will end up owning them because we cannot even return them now. They did get ‘Sideways’, so I won’t have to write them out of the will. Yet. Oh the joy of getting to watch that movie a million times (Without the kids around, so good luck there) while the library remains closed. It is the little things right now.

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  13. 1) Thank you for this very much needed post. I love these also because when I get on knitting jags I need LOTS of good movies to watch!

    2) Maybe it’s nostalgia but the 80’s and 90’s had the MOVIES.

    3) We watched Benji on VHS at an Air BNB family vacation this fall (my son picked it out) and it was so cheese and camp and we LOVED it. It’s one of those that is simply so horrible it’s adorable.

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