I ventured to Palace Cinemas for the first time last week. A late-comer, I know, to the whole New Acton thing, if I'm honest. I haven't been to A.Baker or Mocan & Green Grout, but can now tick off the Hotel Hotel bar, where we imbibed a pre-film glass of bubbles - a glass of Printhie Swift Cuvee Brut from Orange (and here I was thinking I was the most effervescent thing to come out of my home town) - and some labneh cheese and dukkah and sourdough - delicious, even though all I wanted was some deep-fried carbohydrates to fill my belly and soak up the Swift while I watched The Wolf of Wall Street.
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But anyway, what caught my attention this night - ignoring all the hip young things filling the dark corners of New Acton and the price of a drink - was a promotion run by the cinema. Flashback Films: relive the films that shaped your childhood, running until April 20.
Upcoming films include Annie, Matilda and The Little Mermaid, and with tickets only $10 and good soft drink and popcorn offers available, it would be a fun way to spend a weekend morning with the kids. But I was somewhat perplexed by their choice of films. I'm going to add film critic to my growing list of responsibilities, and set about planning my own festival of films that shaped my childhood. Here we go. Tickets $5 a film. Popcorn's on me.
1. The Magnificent Seven (1960): OK, this film actually came out before I was born, but my entire life has been littered with westerns and war films. See number 3. The Cowboys, The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare. There was no better way to spend a Sunday afternoon with my dad.
2. The Jungle Book (1967): This was the first film I remember seeing at an actual cinema. One that became a roller-skating rink, a furniture warehouse and then a church of some kind, I think. Baloo, I love you. I can still belt out a fine version of The Bare Necessities.
3. True Grit (1969): They just don't make men like the Duke any more. As a young girl who, on reflection, was missing a father who travelled a lot, I was Mattie Ross. And the 2010 remake was pretty good too.
4. Jaws (1975): No, my parents didn't let their nine-year-old daughter watch this film. She would never have got back in the water if they did. We all bag the special effects, but it was 1975, people. And I'm still using the line ''we're going to need a bigger boat'' in all sorts of situations.
5. Rocky (1976): Adrian! Adrian! Who wasn't crying by then? Oh, it was a sports film? Even now, listening to Gonna Fly makes me want to run up stairs. And while Eye of the Tiger didn't come along until Rocky III, it's still on my music list.
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977): I freaked out when I saw the actual Devil's Tower on a trip to Wyoming a year back. Did I really start humming that five-note sequence? And they came in peace. I suppose it was the '70s. Everyone came in peace.
7. Star Wars (1977): The best episode of the whole story. Like it did for young Luke himself, it reconfirmed that there was a big wide world out there beyond home. If Princess Leia could lead a rebellion, what was in store for me? And we met Harrison Ford. And we've stuck by him too. See numbers 12 and 13.
8. Superman (1978): Another film I remember seeing at the cinema. Christopher Reeve, and Margot Kidder as Lois. Lois, feisty, independent, but still secretly wanting a man to catch her in midair as she fell from a building. We all wanted to be her when we grew up.
9. Grease (1978): This came out the summer before I started high school and at the first dance of the year Sandi and Danny were there. Well, our school captains, who were dating, were dressed like them and I thought I had landed at Rydell High.
10. Alien (1979): Still can't watch it without covering my eyes at certain parts. Has there been as ballsy a heroine as Ripley? Just the other day I had the opportunity to say, ''Get away from her, you bitch'' (well, at least in my mind). Wrong film, I know, but this is where it all started.
11. Apocalypse Now (1979): Didn't get around to watching this until 1984, when our enlightened English teacher, sensing we were losing interest in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which we were reading for the HSC, put on a late-night viewing at his house. Crazy. The film was too.
12. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): Whose spirit of adventure wasn't piqued by these films? Archaeology became a career choice. We all wanted boyfriends like Indy: smart, cute and ready to dodge poison darts in the jungle at a drop of a hat.
13. Blade Runner (1982): And then Harrison got all dark and serious. And made us start reading Philip K. Dick. We liked Sean Young too. She was a bit weird, in all her films. A science fiction film that set the bar high. Has any film since ever matched it?
14. E.T. (1982): Do yourself a favour and watch this film with your kids. They'll poo-poo the special effects and the fact that E.T. is so fake, but if they're not blubbering by the end they have no souls.
15. The Outsiders (1983): Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise and Leif Garrett in the one film? You betcha. And they were bad boys. Unlike anyone we knew at 17. It even made us read the book by S.E. Hinton.
16. Footloose (1984): And Ren McCormack made us read the Bible, when he started quoting scriptures in defence of dancing. Would our own parents like that approach? No, they didn't. But at least they never stopped us from dancing to this film's fabulous soundtrack.
17. The Terminator (1984): I cry when I watch this movie. Every time. A love story that spans time and worlds. Kyle comes back in time to save a woman he's never met but has loved forever and Sarah's life is changed forever. Oh, yeah, and Arnie is pretty good too.
18. Back to the Future (1985): We were in love with Michael J. Fox, thanks to Family Ties, but Marty McFly made us love him more. We laughed and hoped that he would get home because home was where we all wanted to be, even if we'd never admit it.
19. The Breakfast Club (1985): We had just left school but were still wondering whether we were the criminal, the athlete, the brain, the basket case or the princess. In reality we were probably a mix of them all. Detention never looked so good. We haven't forgotten about you.
20. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986): Bueller, Bueller. Matthew Broderick was too cool for any of us. (He grew up to marry Carrie Bradshaw.) Skipping school was never like this but Ferris opened our eyes to what life should truly be about.
21. Platoon (1986): And speaking of life … As poor university students we were hanging with army cadets by now. Not a good date movie, let me tell you. But one that made us realise that kids not much older than us were changing the world.
22. Top Gun (1986): Or at least playing bare-chested volleyball and sleeping with their teachers. Ah, Tom Cruise, we loved you so. All that testosterone. And Goose grew up to be a doctor on ER. Don't know how many times we saw said cadets try the You've Lost That Loving Feeling thing. Crash and burn.
23. The Princess Bride (1987): Inconceivable. The love story to end all love stories. With sword-fighting and giants and pirates and princesses and cliffs of insanity. There is nothing wrong with this film from beginning to end and it has totally stood the test of time. That is, the kids love it.
24. Dirty Dancing (1987): ''I carried a watermelon'' is a phrase I still use when I realise I've said something stupid. I've had the time of my life, a song I still sing when times are good. No one puts baby in a corner. We're all waiting for Patrick Swayze to lift us high in the air and tell us how beautiful our souls are.
25. Die Hard (1988): Yippee-ki-yay, you-know-who's. Bruce Willis was just cool. Still is. Nakatomi Plaza set the scene for this one, but whether it was an airport, New York, or some other setting we were always rooting for John McClane. Did someone say John Wayne?
What were the films that shaped your childhood? Let me know. @karenhardyCT
