This post today is sponsored by Skinny Cow
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I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane today and talk about my favorite movies growing up. There are few things that make me more nostalgic than my favorite movies, do you feel the same way? I’ll talk about two movies each decade of my life, from ages 0-10, 10,-20, and 20-30. I’d love to invite some friends over and watch some of these again! I hope you join in too and tell me about your favorite movies growing up- you know, the ones you can recite every line of?
Decade 1: Ages 1-10
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Annie– When I was really young, maybe 3 or 4, I was obsessed with this movie. I’d sit on the stairs in our house and belt out songs, just like Annie does in the movie, and I remember desperately wanting that red dress! It might have had something to do with the uncontrollable curly mane I had just like her!
The Parent Trap– Pretty much anything Hayley Mills stars in makes it to my top ten list for this decade. My favorite part is when they’re lying in their bunks at camp and figure out they’re sisters! I always wished I had a secret twin sister living in California too! Also, it made me super jealous of all the cool kids whose parents sent them to sleep away camp in the summer.
Keep reading to the rest of my favorite movies growing up!
Decade 2: Ages 10-20
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Troop Beverly Hills- Shelly Long is so fabulous in this movie! My favorite part is when they go camping, “Are you ready to rough it??”, for the first time and of course Shelly shows up with her whole outrageous wardrobe. Love her! Or maybe it’s the part where she refashions the leader uniform into a fabulous getup with a silk cape! I only wished my girl scout leaders were that cool! Please tell me you’ve seen this movie! It’s one of my very very favorites. I think I need to watch it tonight.
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Clueless- I was in love with every one of Cher’s outfits in this movie! I think I can recite the entire thing, beginning to end including all the hilarious one-liners. Love it! I remember wishing I had that amazing computer program that picked out outfits for me. Wha?? Plus, Paul Rudd makes his debut as the cute boy next door and is just adorable of course. Huge crush! Apparently I was obsessed with Beverly Hills in this decade?
Keep reading to see my favorites from my third decade!
Decade 3: Ages 20-30
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Reality Bites- I really need to watch this movie again. It’s been way too long! This is probably from really early in my third decade when I was graduating college and a little bit cynical, like them in the movie, but it’s a must watch! This was a cult classic for our generation x (love this article about it here). I wanted to be exactly like Winona Ryder (most adorable hair cut!), and bad boy Ethan Hawke! Swoon! The soundtrack alone is awesome.
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You’ve Got Mail- My favorite romantic comedy ever! It’s the perfect movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon, curled up under a blanket with your girlfriends or lover. It’s the sweetest and makes me happy just thinking about it! Watching it always makes me miss New York in the fall like crazy. Norah..
I’d love to hear your favorite movies growing up, are there some you still love to watch? Recite by heart? Do you ever have a flashback movie nights with your girlfriends?
Wow, good movies.
this list is disturbing, this is my list!!! then it would quickly move into every single wes anderson and sofia coppola ever made. 😉
I also loved Annie, Troop Beverly Hills, and The Parent Trap going up! My mom introduced me to the old Haley Mills films, including our shared personal favorite, The Trouble with Angels. Such a fantastic friends movie. The John Hughes films make my list, particularly Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and one of my all-time favorite movies, Sixteen Candles.
My Clueless obsessed definitely knew no bounds. Last year I featured Cher as a “Fictional Fashion Icon” (a series I do on my blog) and included a youtube video that shows every single outfit she wore. And yes, I love every. single. one.
The post is here if you’re interested:
http://fashionisevolution.blogspot.com/2011/10/fictional-fashion-icon-cher-from.html
oh wow I forgot all about Troop Beverly Hills! I also loved Parent Trap, still do, she is so adorable and now as an adult I obsess over the style of the Monterrey home….I grew up watching the Sound of Music all the time and i did obsess over all things Meg Ryan…..did you ever get into old movies though? Around my late teens and into college I got obsessed with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn movies and Grace Kelly, like “To Catch a Thief” and Charade etc.
Thought you would get a kick out of this…I see Haley Mills on the subway. She must live on the UWS…
What a great post. My favorite movies as a teenager were The breakfast Club and Pump up the volume.
Breakfast Club! Love it
Any John Hughes films, but Sixteen Candles is a classic!
Ha a lot of mine are the same too! My 2.5 year old is currently obsessed with Annie. And I LOVED troop Beverly Hills too! So funny too because the main girl in it is Jenny Lewis whose the lead singer from the band Rilo Kiley which became one of my favorite bands!
Oh I know! I Love Jenny Lewis! So funny she was so much a part of my childhood 🙂
I guess I need to watch Reality Bites!! I love Parent Trap & You’ve Got Mail!!
Yes! I loved “Annie” and anything with Haley Mills (don’t forget “Pollyanna”). I also loved a movie called “Nadia” about the Romanian gymnast and “The Goonies” made my brother’s and I want to go on adventures!
Yup to all of your Liz and some above, including all of Miggy’s and then yes to Empire Records! I had a huge crush on Rory Cochrane and Ethan Embry from that movie. I also loved Sixteen Candles, Princess Bride. I guess if I know the movie mostly by heart then that counts as a favorite.
And we need to do a whole separate post of Haley Mills. Moonspinner! The Castaways! Summer Magic! And Parent Trap 2, 3 and 4!
Yes! Love all her stuff. And Sixteen Candles! I should included that one!
Parent Trap and Annie DEFINITELY. I just bought the parent trap a couple months ago for family movie night and I’m not sure the 5 year old is quite old enough yet…but all in good time. I’d also have to add Goonies and The Never Ending Story and The Chipmunk Adventure (yes, Alvin, Simon and Theodore…but SO much better then the modern craptastic adaptations) to the 0-10 category.
Other stand out favs are Clue (not Clueless), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty in Pink, and Can’t Buy Me Love.
YES!!! To all the ones you said!
Totally! Love all these. What is Chipmunk Adventure though…???
Liz, I own Chipmunk Adventure. Next time you and Henry are over, we’re watching it. “How much you wanna bet I can out rock-n-roll you?!”
I still quote Clue constantly, and I always look around to see if anyone got what I said and no one ever does! So sad. “I had to stop her screaming!”
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the chipmunks adventures! Especially when the chipettes and the chipmunks have a “sing off” on the hot air balloon!
Ahh, such a great list! I love love love the original Parent Trap, and Troop Beverly Hills was a fave among me and my sisters. We love the part where she tells the horror story about the perm! One of my favorite movies growing up was Summer Magic. There’s just no such thing as too much Hayley Mills!
I LOVED that original Parent Trap.
And I still love Newsies and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and What’s Up, Doc?
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! A classic!
“Bless her beautiful hide!”
my excuse is “home-schooled”, but maybe it should be “old”?
decade 1: close encounters of the third kind
decade 2: out of africa
decade 3: cold comfort farm
HAAA awesome!
Troop Beverly Hills is one of my absolute favorite movies too! Phyllis Nefler invented glamping 🙂
ha! yes, yes she did
Ahh! I love this post so much! I had (sadly) forgotten about Troop Beverley Hills and I’m pretty sure my number 1 reason for getting a job at the Gap in high school was because of my Reality Bites obsession. I might have to add The Sound Of Music and Notting Hill to my list too though but otherwise, everything would be the same. I’m off to plan a movie marathon!
I know! Putting this post together was so much fun. My sister and I ended up watching Reality Bites last night. We tried to find Troop Beverly Hill or Clueless on netflix but couldn’t find it sadly! Reality BItes is on there though, fyi!
Oh snap!!! Clueless just took me waaaaaaay back..”rollin’ with the homies”.. haha Isn’t it so hard to just pick a few??!!
Talk about a walk down memory lane!! When I think of Empire Records and Clueless it reminds me of others movies such as: Don’t tell Mom the Babysitter’s dead, Clerks, and My So-Called Life.. holy cow, nostalgia at it’s finest. Hmm, favorite movies from my youth that Id love to add to your list (as they are my favs too), Goonies, Great Expectations.. I think Reality-Bites was a great pick. I will say, it’s the first movie that comes to mind when I think of both both Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder.
Awww, now I can’t get the song from Annie out of my head. “The Sun will come out Tomorrow.” Perfect theme song for a sunny morning here in the Bay. :))
Rollin’ with the homies!!
The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow was exactly the song I loved as a young child. So sweet!
We just played Annie for my 5 year old girl and 3 year old boy on our vacation last week. They loved it, although they were slightly scared of the bad guys.
I love all your other choices as well. You’ve got mail is just so lovely – I also like Sleepless in Seattle. When I was in University in Paris and we could not understand all of the French TV (or the programming stopped) we had ‘When Harry met Sally’ on a continuous loop. My roommate and I knew (know) every line.
like Emily, I would probably have Empire Records in there, instead of You’ve Got Mail. But aside from that, pretty much identical! Loved this little trip down memory lane.
Great movies! I loved Annie growing up and decided to watch it one afternoon a few years ago as a grown up. I found myself laughing out loud at Carol Burnett’s character Mrs. Hannigan the whole way through. She is such a hilarious mess in that movie, something I couldn’t fully appreciate as a child. 🙂
I totally need to watch it again! I’m sure I missed that character when I was a kid, she was nuts!
I just watched Annie again like two weeks ago. First time in a long time, and I too thought Carol Burnett was just AMAZING as Miss Hannigan.
(And oh gosh, yes, Clueless! That is the movie of my 10-20s, as well as 10 Things I Hate About You.)
my first three favorites are the exact same as yours! loved those! but then i’d have to say empire records and sleepless in seattle. i watched those movies way too many times . . . !
How funny! Originally I had Empire Records in there! Such a great one. Liv!