I make no apologies, I was a total movie rat.
My parents owned a video rental store, and I spent a ridiculously large amount of time pretending that I was absolutely anyone besides the fat little girl with glasses and a huge gap between her teeth.
After spending this morning cuddled up in bed with my boys introducing them to The Goonies, it reminded me of all the reasons I spent so many nights wishing I was one of those girls from the 80’s and early 90’s I was dying to switch places with.
Jennifer (Kerri Green), Summer Rental
This movie was hilarious, and makes me miss John Candy so much.
Chris (Elizabeth Shue), Adventures in Babysitting
Screw Brad and Mr. Cool, Thor was fucking hot.
Lydia (Winona Ryder), Beetle Juice
Seriously, I’m already weird and I would kill to pull off those bangs.
Diane Court (Ione Skye), Say Anything
You cannot tell me with a straight face that you haven’t had the John Cusack outside your window with a boombox fantasy.
Louise (Robyn Lively), Teen Witch
Two words: Top that.
Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), Labyrinth
Did I wish for the Goblin King to come on more than one occasion? Sure. But baby brothers are irritating and HOW HOT WAS BOWIE IN THOSE PANTS!?
Mercedes (Heather Graham), License to Drive
I went through a phase where I begged my parents to legally change my name to Kimberly, when they selfishly refused, I promised to only give my kids the coolest names ever, which is when I swore I’d name my daughter Mercedes. Ahem.
My husband knows the whole Top That rap!!!
You are super good at naming things.
This post has reconfirmed that we grew up with the best movies. Kids these days are totally missing out!
Ugh, Diane Court. I love her. Love that movie. Long live the Cusack for sure.
Um….never seen Top Witch, but I’m pretty sure that’s the whitest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m going to watch it to feel better about myself after I do Zumba, which was previously the whitest thing I’d ever seen.
I wanted to be Jennifer Grey from Dirty Dancing. I wanted to be in the water withi a hot guy holding me over his head… Forget that I was a 250 pound ninth grader. She had the added bonus of being named JENNIFER in real life too, which was the name I campaigned for, (I wanted to be ne of the many Jennys that peppered our school) I named my barbies Jenny and named my Cabbage Patch Doll Jennifer Marie. How original. As I told my parents as a child, “Only women truckers and strippers are named Tami.” I still believe that!
My sister is Tamara and goes by Tami too.
Teen Witch was my favorite movie ever… so yeah I had a few I wish I was Louise daydreams.
I wanted to be named “Cookie” or “Sugar”. What. I grew up in TN.
Holy Hell!!! How is it I have only seen one of these?!?!?! I pride myself on my 80’s films… I am going to go hang the shame curtains right now.
Two years ago I was in a costume store looking for something for theatre when I wandered into the rental section. Amazingly elaborate costumes that you could rent out for 50-200$ a night, because they were all so incredibly detailed. They had a pink ballgown that looked like Sarah’s from Labyrinth. I tried it on (of course I did, they had one in like, five different sizes) and immediately began dancing around the store humming the ballroom song. I wanted to rent it SO BAD and make Shawn dress as Bowie for Halloween but sadly the store is an hour away from us and we wouldn’t have been able to get it back on time the next day without getting hit with an extra day’s rental fee.
But…I had it on for like, half an hour till the sales lady asked me to take it off.
Bahahaha! I love this story! As a girly mortician, I pretty much AM Lydia from Beetlejuice. Childhood fantasy: realized. Mother: mortified. Win.
Loved all of these movies. Wanted to be everyone of these girls. My husband grew up in Texas (small racest town) and doesn’t get any of these movies. I’m thinking he’ll have to learn the awesomeness of these soon!
I think we were sisters in the past life, because I loved all these movies. :)
When I was in 4th grade my friends and I had an elaborate plan to remake Goonies. Everyone had a role (I was Stef) and we would practice resiting the movie at recess. I have forgotten some of the details, but I do remember that we planned to film (film with what? not sure) the cave/water tunnels scenes at our local water park. We were sure it was going to be a blockbuster.
Also, Labyrinth…OMG, loved it so much. I haven’t seen it in years. I need to get it on DVD for sure. The music rocks, and Bowie was so confusingly sexy to my young teen mind.
*reciting oops
I wanted to be the Rich, Perfect beautiful girl in “Can’t buy me love”….the date at the airplane graveyard was great…but not so much with the “paying nerd”…but loved it..and we know who that paying nerd is NOW, right??
Omg The Goonies! The Goonies is my favorite movie OF ALL TIME! EVER. I love it so much that my husband took me to a midnight showing on Valentine’s day just after we were married and it was better than getting jewelry or slutty underwear. Then, two years ago when we were visiting his family in Washington, he surprised me with a trip to Astoria to the actual Goonies house….Uh he was “thanked” pretty enthusiastically ifyouknowwhatImean… ;) Adventures in Babysitting is also among my favorites… “Who’s at the door?” “Stray dog.” Cracks me up every time! Your amazing taste in movies further proves that we should totally be B.F.F.’s in real life….
I wanted to be Louise so bad. Till this day whenever I put on a long necklace with a big charm on it, I secretly wish it’s magical and would lead me a little witch mentor obsessed with men. Also Top That will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
I actually have Winona Ryder’s bangs from Beetlejuice without even having realised it, and I totally pull them off! ;-)
(Although my hair’s red these days, not black… but still…)
I have never seen Teen Witch or even heard of it until now, but thank you so much for sharing that rap. “Look how funky he is.” Bwahahahahaha! I need to see if I can find that on one of my Roku channels.
My husband has been obsessed with Jennifer Connelly ever since Labyrinth. That was another one I hadn’t seen, and he tried to make me watch it with him, but it totally creeped me out and I only got about half way through.
There was something so magical about video stores in the 80s. I would have loved to have access like you did! I have to admit that our ways of home movie acquisition are cheaper and more convenient now, but I still miss video stores every once in a while.
Holy crap! That was Heather Graham in License to Drive?! I loved that movie as a kid. Just confirmed with IMDB, she was born in 1970, which makes her 42! No way! Why did I think she was always younger than me?
teen witch was sooo my movie. I can still quote it. PLUS she played in a really good series in the 90’s called Savannah (i think that was the name) I really miss Robyn!
We always want what we can’t have; my name IS Kimberly, and when I found out that my dad actually wanted to name me Candace I was mad at him for not fighting harder for it.
I used to fantasize about looking like Olivia Newton John at the end of Grease. Except for the cigarette because cigarettes were gross. But black satin pants and Candies were not gross.
I love all those movies… Just add Girl’s Just Wanna Have Fun. And yes, David Bowie was so hot in Labyrinth!
First off, totally with Tamara on wanting to be named “Jennifer.” I decided to use it myself in third grade when I found out it was the name my mother originally wanted until my father vetoed it for being too popular (uh, duh, Dad, that’s why it was awesome). “Hilary” wasn’t even a name people knew until “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” Then I was cool with it until the Clintons moved into the White House and that’s all people could think of when I said my name. Can I also add that all those girls from the 80’s had thick, frizzy curls and when is that trend coming back so I can stop spending hours straightening my hair?? And why isn’t Molly Ringwald on your list?? Pretty in Pink? Sixteen Candles? Breakfast Club? She always got the hot guy!
My name was in the top 10 of names the year I was born. As I result, growing up, it was always
Kim C.
Kim S.
Kim T.
Etc.
I always thought Kim was the most boring name on the planet (then I go and marry a Smith, way to go). Now, I make people call me Kimberly just to be different.
I always pretended my name was Brittany!
I *still* have the Cusack in my yard with a boombox fantasy…In fact, I had it twice this summer alone.
I love so many of these movies! I second adding Girls Just Want to Have Fun to the list. Young SJP and Helen Hunt — they were awesome! But you left of Jami Gertz as Star from the Lost Boys. I wanted to change my name to Star so bad, growing up.
I just introduced my two teenage girls to the Say Anything world. Bavarian Dutch-style pretzel? Favorite movie ever . . . even if I’ve watched it so many times to question why Lloyd read about Diane’s fellowship in the local paper the same day her dad got the call about it.
Molly Ringwald was everything to me, though. I wanted her clothes and her hair and every one of her boyfriends, even Judd Nelson.
Bowie was the BEST in those pants.
Um, yes! I thought me and my 3 best girlfriends were the only ones who knew about Teen Witch. Little known fact–Robin Lively is Blake Lively’s big sister. Top that.