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We Were There When Cinema Was Cool

We Were There When Cinema Was Cool

Last updated on: July 29, 2025 at 11:02 pm by Mark Wilson

We Were There When Cinema Was Cool 2025-07-29T23:02:44-05:00 Mark Wilson

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We Generation Xers were there when cinema was cool.

We didn’t have to watch classic hit movies on DVD or digital.
We watched it on big screen.
We watched it without 30 minutes of previews before hand.
We watched it without commercials.
We watched it for a lower ticket price then what they charge to see film in theaters now.
We didn’t watch reboots, remakes or relaunches we watched the original films that inspire those sequels,prequels and nostalgia movies they still make today.

We were there 50 years ago when it became scary to go swimming at the beech.
We were there 50 years ago when we learned that if all your limbs were cut off, it was just a flesh wound.

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We were there 49 years ago when jogging in Philly sparked an uplifting moment running up the the steps to the East entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia.
We were there 48 years ago when earth discovered a tale told a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
We were there 47 years ago when Christopher Reeve brought a comic book to life.
We were there 46 years ago when we learned that In space, no one can hear you scream.
We were there 46 years ago when we learned that even a frog can make it in hollywood if he pursues his dream to do so.

We were there 45 years ago when we learned that Darth Vader was Luke’s dad and that navigating an asteroid field is not as hard as it looks.
We were there 45 years ago when we learned that some musicians from Chicago were on a mission from God.

The Blockbuster Summer Movie 45 Years Ago
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We were there 44 years ago when the Nazi’s were fried after messing with the Ark of the Covenant.
We were there 43 years ago when E.T. tried to phone home.
We were there 42 years ago when some alien teddy bears defeated the galactic empire.
We were there 41 years ago when 4 men saved NY from a giant Marshmallow man.
We were there 41 years ago when we learned how to wax on and wax off.

Great Scott, We were there 40 years ago Butthead when we learned that if you go back in time, you don’t mess up the first time your parents meet.

We were also there 40 years ago

when The Breakfast Club was sentenced to Saturday detention.
when The Purple Rose of Cairo gave us a deep fun Woody Allen philosophical piece of cinema.
when A View to a Kill gave us our last James Bond with Roger Moore.
When Rambo was back to kill more lots more bad guys.
When the The Goonies went on a fun adventure to find One-Eyed Willy’s Treasure.
when moviegoers Returned to Oz in a much more dark version of the fairy tale.

when Mad Max went Beyond Thunderdome and Tina Turner sang about how we don’t need another hero.
when some kid Explorers built a homemade spaceship and traveled to outer space.
when The Black Cauldron became the black shop of Disney Animation.
when Chevy Chase went on a European Vacation.
when Pee Wee went on Big Adventure to find his bike in the basement of the Alamo.

when learned you were not Better Off Dead an that you should have paid the paperboy his $2.00
when Michael J. Fox wasn’t satisfied being a time traveler so he became the Teen Wolf.
when Commando became the first R rated movie I ever watched on VHS.
when the Ewoks Battled for Endor.
when Rocky fought an angry Russian on Christmas.
*when we learned **Santa Claus‘*s mysterious origins.
when Young Sherlock Holmes took us on a first class adventure and where you learn about his and Watson’s youth.

when we learned Spies Like Us can save the world from nukes.
when a movie makers gave us a Clue that a board game could actually make a great movie.
when Steven Spielberg gave us The Color Purple.
when Tom Cruise became a Legend.

We were there 39 years ago

when we learn from the Highlander that their and only be one.
when we see Top Gun Tom Cruise was looking young, handsome and athletic and notice that he same way he still looks today.

when we see The Karate Kid head to Japan to fight another bully.
when we see a teen and his friends take Day Off from school just to enjoy a day in Chicago.
when Jim Henson and David Bowie take us inside the Labyrinth.
when Kurt Russell gives us Big Trouble in Little China.
when Sigourney Weaver returns to fight more Aliens.
when the Flight of the Navigator takes us on a trip to outer space and back again through time.
when 4 boys go to find a dead body and ask one another to Stand by Me.

when Crocodile Dundee lets us know what a knife is and how great Australians are.
when Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons and Liam Neeson go on The Mission to bring Christ to South American indigenous people.
when An American Tail a popular and good non-disney animated movie.
when Disney didn’t hide Song of the South but actually let people watch it.
when on The Voyage Home the Star Trek crew go back in time to find some whales so they can save the future.
when the Three Amigos proved to be a great comedy trio of Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short.

when Platoon became the first movie that was playing when I got my first real job at a movie theater.

We were there 38 years ago

when the Dream Warriors took on Freddy Krueger.

when Nicolas Cage was Raising Arizona.
when one of the worst films ever made named Ishtar came out.
when Eddie Murphy was in his prime funny days giving us more of Beverly Hills Cop.
when Ernest went to Camp.
when we learned that we don’t have time to bleed when your being stalked in the jungle by a Predator with the future governor of California.

when Star Wars was spoofed beyond mercy in Spaceballs.
when the James Bond franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary and premieres its 15th film, The Living Daylights with new bond Timothy Dalton.
when we learned that their could be Adventures in Babysitting.
when Dennis Quaid explored the Innerspace of Martin Short’s body.
when Walt Disney‘s classic masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was re-released worldwide for its 50th anniversary.
when the first blockbuster movie star Jaws sought Revenge.
when Superman began his Quest for Peace.
when we got a cheesey version of Masters of the Universe on the big screen.
when we learned this advise from the The Princess Bride, that you should “Never get involved in a land war in Asia“, and Never go in against a Sicilian WHEN DEATH IS ON THE LINE!

when a unknown and little remembered fight broke out at Three O’Clock High.
when Steve Martin and John Candy became the perfect comedy duo by taking Planes, Trains and Automobiles to get to Thanksgiving dinner.

We were there 37 years ago

when the Killer Tomatoes returned to wreck more havoc, laughs and fear.
when the Ghost with the Most Beetlejuice made the song Day-O fun a fun song to sing with the undead.

when Ron Howard and George Lucas teamed up to give us the fantasy Willow.
when Bruce Willis gave us a new yuletide tradition of debating annually whether or not Die Hard is a Christmas movie.
when Crocodile Dundee returned to give us more glimpses of the witty world down under.
when we look at a world where cartoon stars like Roger Rabbit are real and which introduced two iconic actors, a mouse and a rabbit, that appeared on screen in a movie together for the first time.

when Pee-wee joined the circus and kissed a girl for the first time.
when Ernest courageously Saves Christmas
when a when a good guy doll named Chucky let us know that killing was only Child’s Play.
when Billy Joel appeared with Oliver & Company in a Disney film.
when dinosaurs were cute and not deadly in The Land Before Time before Jurassic Park.
when Bill Murray gave us the funniest Christmas Carol ever as he gets Scrooged.
when the Police Squad! gave us some genuine hard core laughs.

We were there 36 years ago

when 2 slacker dudes went around history in a phone booth (not the Tardis) on a Excellent Adventure to collect historical figures for their history project.

when Kevin Costner built a baseball Field of Dreams in his cornfield so he would come.
when Han Solo and James Bond went on Last Crusade for the Holy Grail and fought Nazis in trying to find it.
when Patrick Swayze was a badass bouncer at a bar called the Road House.
when Robin Williams played the teacher of the year inspiring his students to love poetry and start Dead Poets Society.
when Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock gave us the worst Star Trek movie up that point in time and space.
when the Ghostbusters took on Vigo the Carpathian after busting Gozer the Gozerian.
when Michael Keaton let villains know he was Batman and Jack Nicholson let us know he was the Joker.

when Rick Moranis (Ghostbusters) accidently Shrunk the Kids.
when The Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso and his mentor Mr. Miyagi went up once again against John Kreese and his buddy Terry Silver.
when Timothy Dalton gave us his second go as James Bond with a Licence to Kill in it’s 16th entry.
when Weird Al made a comedy movie and not just funny music about a UHF TV station.
when Hayao Miyazaki gave us Kiki’s Delivery Service to serve our imaginations.
when the immortal killer Jason left Crystal Lake and Took Manhattan.
when The Little Mermaid became part of our world after living under the sea and launching the Disney Renaissance.
when Marty and Doc traveled Back to the Future , the alternate present and once again to 1955.
when Chevy Chase gave us the most zany wackest Christmas Vacation ever complete with annoying relatives and a SWAT team raiding the house.

We were there 35 years ago

when a little kid foiled a bunch of burglars in a live action cartoon when a little kid was left Home Alone.
when Patrick Swayze became a Ghost and talked to Whoopi Goldberg.
when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crawled out of the sewers on to the big screen.
when Sean Connery began The Hunt for Red October
when Arnold became the Kindergarten Cop.

We were there when so many other movies I didn’t mention above came out.

This was a time before Arnold came back.
This was a time before Dinosaurs were reborn.
This was a time before Tom Cruise risked his life to make an incredible action film.
This was a time before we were given a choice between the red pill and the blue pill.
This was a time before George Lucas brought us back to a Galaxy Far Far away.
This was a time before a famous boy wizard delighted us with his adventures in the Wizarding world.
This was a time before Frodo and Sam went off on their big screen outing to get rid of the one ring.
This was a time before James Cameron dominated the global box office.
This was a time before Superheros dominated the cinema.
This was a time before an Ogre and a Donkey became buddies going on adventures.
This was a time before movies went Fast and Furious.

As good as these movies are
As good as the movie going experience still can be

This was a time after the generation x group of movies came out

When Cinema Was Cool.

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