Our family loves to watch movies! But we don’t just watch anything.
For some time, I’ve wanted to start a series of blog posts about our family movie shelf. Over the years, we’ve been pretty picky about which movies are worthy of buying versus which ones are only worth a one-time $1.25 RedBox rental. I don’t believe in wasting nearly $100 on a theater experience for just any movie either.
I consider watching a movie an investment of my time an energy. Even if it is just to relax. Watching a movie is about entering the lives of the characters, living out the story, and believing in the suspended reality of the setting and plot.
What We Look for and Avoid in a Movie
There are certain things that prevent our family from enjoying a movie. Those things include excess foul language, overt sexual content, and making light of or focus on serious and harmful human tendencies without resolution. I don’t enjoy horror movies or movies with the sole point of emphasizing horrible behavior. Violent content tends to be on a case-by-case basis and really depends on the motives behind it.
As a mother of adult children and teenagers (ages 13, 15, 18, 22, and 23), I can’t always control what my kids choose to watch. But I can control what is on our movie shelf.
Some of these movies do include a sprinkling of the above “taboo” types of content. We enjoy movies that include action, justice, and overcoming difficult circumstances. Movies that provide comedy relief or are flat out fun to watch without offensive content are also important. It’s can be hard to find those types of movies without some type of inappropriate content. But we talk about it as we watch it, and let our kids know we don’t condone certain actions.
Yep, we actually talk a lot while we watch movies together. Another reason why the theater isn’t always our first choice!
We tend to choose movies that represent the true threat of evil or human fault, yet demonstrate the ability to overcome it. Movies that also get the King Family Stamp of Approval are those that encourage a healthy family unit (even if some members of the family struggle). Though most of our favorite movies don’t preach Gospel, sometimes we like to add our own opinions about how God could have played a part in helping them.
Personally, I enjoy analyzing the story facet. What is the point of no return? What drives each character to action or reaction? How did they change throughout the movie?
Years ago, our kids had a pastor who said they could bring him any object and he could find a way to preach the Gospel using it. I believe I could do the same with any really good movie. Any movie that has a solid plot and changing characters. And I’m going to start with the movies on our shelf. I won’t get too preachy, but bring to light the parallels of good vs evil, human behavior and the God factor (whether it is present or not).
Now, very few, if any of these have won an Oscar or a Golden Globe award. But they have all won a place in our hearts. Many we watch over and over as a family tradition because they tell a good story and we can relate to the characters. Some are solely for only my husband and I, while others I consider “safe” for even my youngest to watch alone.
Due to the length of this initial post, I won’t be “reviewing” any specific movies today. But stay tuned for the first few posts, all beginning with the title “King Movie Shelf – “.
King Family Movie Shelf Top Picks Include
- The Star Wars Saga
- The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
- Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr. Editions)
- Iron Man
- Transformers
- Tristan and Isolde
- Frequency
- MIB Series
- Spanglish
- The Family Man
- The Notebook
- Jason Borne Series
- Ever After
- Parental Guidance
- About Time
- The Rookie
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
- Now You See Me
- Divergent Series
- Hunger Games Series