Customer Reviews

The Best Old Movies for Families: A Guide to Watching Together

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I bought this book expecting to just be instructed, and came away thoroughly entertained and entralled. Full of verve and funny but telling observations, this is one of the best written books I have read in years. Part culture critique, part movie review, part parental memoir, all written with energy, subtlety, and great humor. I laughed out loud many times. How can one be hip and parental at the same time? I don't know, but this book pulls it off. My only complaint is that this book undersells itself, as if it were just some reference book one should dip into for particular movies. It is just a rollicking good read, and one learns about a lot more than movies along the way. So well-written that you have to wonder whether Ty Burr's time might not be better spent writing some movie scripts, so we can have modern movies with characters whose dialogue crackles like this book's sentences do.

This book is a gateway to a GREAT family movie experience! I have a 4 year old son, and although this book is a little more bias toward girls, it in no way forgets the boys. In fact the strength of the book, is in laying the groundwork to open up the world of classic movies (mostly Hollywood, but not exclusively) to young children by combing the various movie genres for age appropriate material and by emphasizing that each child is different. This to me is what makes this book succeed.

I've experimented with "Singing in the Rain" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" so far with universally positive results (my son was somewhat fidgety during the dialog portions of "Singing in the Rain", but was riveted by the singing, dancing, and comedic scenes). "Robin Hood" was a hit from frame one.

This book is also a pleasure to read with regard to Mr. Burr's antidotes. You can tell he learned a lot through this process and had a great time doing it.

Highly recommend!!

I came across this book in my local library, and after reading it, am going to purchase a copy for myself, and perhaps give it out as gifts for friends that have young children. This is an amazing movie resource. Ty Burr writes in such a familiar, easy-to-read style, and despite his motives [trying to get us to expand our young ones' movie viewing experiences through old movies/classics], never once comes across as condescending or snobbish.

The fact is that children these days are really being fed a steady, and not so healthy diet of the same type of movies that have spawned sequels, mass merchandising, and dare I say movies that don't really promote great role models [I have had enough of those tween movies with young Hollywood starlets in them]. Ty Burr provides great tips and ideas on overcoming this problems by suggesting old movies, or rather classics that will appeal to the toddler set[Meet Me in St Louis], the tween set[The African Queen], and also teenagers[Metropolis]. There are also old movies he doesn't recommend you watch with your children. The best part of the book is the comprehensive list of old movie titles in the different categories such as comedy, drama, musicals, action, adventure & westerns, horror, sci fi and fantasy, & foreign movies.

All in all, I'd highly recommend this book to readers who are interested in expanding the movie viewing experiences of the young children in their lives, and even for one's own viewing pleasure [there were titles in here that I had never come across and plan to check out!].

I bought this book because there are so many wonderful old movies out there and I wanted a guide to which ones I should watch with my daughter. I was not disappointed. Ty Burr is a wonderfully witty and humorous and knowledgeable film critic with years of experience at both Entertainment Weekly and now The Boston Globe, and this book is clearly a labor of love based on the experiences he had watching these movies with his children.

The book starts out with what Ty calls "Starter Kits" - 5 movies to watch with kids of different ages. For example, the Toddler starter kit includes the original Robin Hood (Ty calls him the original super hero), Meet me in St. Louis, Bringing up Baby (The sell: The Cat in the Hat with a Bryn Mawr accent :); Singin' in the Rain and StageCoach. I've watched three of these already with my 6 year old and she has really enjoyed them and, I think, learned a lot from them as well.

Other chapters are organized according to the type of movie. There are chapters on Comedy, Drama, Musicals, Actions and Westerns, Horror and also Foreign Language classics. Each movie is succinctly reviewed, with headings on who directed and starred in the movie, the age group that is appropriate, the sell (For the Marx Brother's Duck Soup he says: "You think you and your brother are nuts? Watch these guys."), the plot and why he choose the movie. There is also a useless trivia section. (Bet you didn't know that Duck Soup was banned by Benito Mussolini.)

In the past, it was hard to find many of these movies at your local video store but now that we are in the age of NetFlix, the book has more relevance than ever.

These movies are a huge change from the usual diet of Nickelodeon stuff like Spongebob that she usually watches - but what's truly wonderful is that they are enriching and memorable movies for the whole family to watch. It has been a genuine thrill for me to rediscover these movies and watch them through her eyes.

These classic movies are also a valuable lens through which a child can learn about how Americans lived in the past, and their attitudes and foibles. Ty's witty guide is a must buy for anyone that believes that classic movies are an essential part of a child's upbringing and education - and a welcome change from the current media diet our children are exposed to. Highly recommended.

When you are standing at the video store with your brain going blank and the helpful clerk checking out her latest tattoos, this book will be waiting for you in your car. It is also advisable to put a pad of yellow stickums in the book so you can flag pages you want to go back to. It's the perfect reading for that "lost" time when you are sick of soccer or pluperfectly bored with carpools. Hundreds of great suggestions, well-written reviews and guidance to "what comes next" make this the best thing since microwave popcorn. My favorite chapter was "Kong Island Theory: Old Movies NOT to Watch With Your Children" and the index with age recommendations which I suppose you could always xerox and carry around in your wallet if you didn't want to keep the book in your car. But DO keep the book in your car. Your kids will thank you for it.

I actually prefer seeing movies my mother actually saw in the 30s, precious few of which are in this book which mostly recycles the usual suspects, Hepburns, Bogart, Cary Grant etc. But it is still worth reading because it is just so well written. This guy can write. What a joy to read anything he says. I love the interaction between him and his daughters and he should mention that these are girl tested movies, not boy tested ones. That said, my mother saw almost a movie a day in the thirties and very few of these are listed in her diary.

This is a marvelous manuel for grand parents. It is so easy to use particularly when there is quite a gap in the ages of the children. This guide has been used a great deal by us.

Ty Burr has written an excellent book. It's entirely readable and more than just a list of movies. He breaks it down into age levels, gives selling points for a film, possible "pause-button explanations" when there are topics that may need to be explained or discussed, and other films to line up next. An example would be starting with the Adventures of Robin Hood and moving onto The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood. We added The Prince & the Pauper and so Errol Flynn is now a known actor in our household.

Would I ever have thought to try The African Queen with my sons? No. But it's true that the Hepburn and Bogart characters are amazing, the leeches grossed them out, they enjoyed Hepburn pouring the booze into the river and the adventure of the river journey made for a great family movie night.

Burr's description of showing his daughters movies like King Kong will make you laugh out loud and I enjoyed reading the descriptions of movies that even if they aren't suitable for my family. I have sons while Burr has daughters but that just makes me wonder if I could get my family to watch a musical - I bet I can with some of Burr's suggestions.

When a book keeps getting checked out from the library that means it's time to buy my own copy. This is just that type of book.

We were growing tired of so-called children's movies as a sole source of entertainment for our family film nights and with our kids ranging in age from 1 (not accounted for here) to 11- we needed a change. I stumbled upon this book when I was trying to get opinions about any Hitchcock films being appropriate for 8 and 11 year olds, and it has become our trusty guide ever since. We started out with the Errol Flynn Robin Hood, Singing in the Rain,and West Side Story- and its been great. We are all entertained, no one feels "dumbed down" to, even the 5 year old is riveted. I have been setting TiVo weekly so we always have a choice rerady, plus we take it to the video store. The reviews have been spot on, the age recommendations are good, I can sit through a movie with my kids all the way through, and I feel like my kids are getting some cultural points from their movie watching. I will be giving this book as a holidaY gift to some of the families I know. Highly recommended!

Un des livres sur le cinéma qui m'a le plus enthousiasmé. Une écriture très divertissante et des réflexions sur les films et leurs artisants qui captent notre intérêt au point de ne plus pouvoir arrêter notre lecture.