A Blast from the Past: Classic Movie Reviews
Adventures in Babysitting
With knife wielding train rides, climbing up ducts, and even a few crazy car thieves, Adventures in Babysitting has everything it needs to make a great movie. The movie from 1987 begins with a teen girl, Chris, who is put in charge of a little girl and two younger teen boys. While babysitting, Chris gets a call from her best friend begging her to come pick her up in Chicago, so she packs up the kids and heads off to the city. Throughout the night, Chris and the kids encounter a flat tire, a gang fight, men willing to do anything to get their Playboy magazine back, and even find themselves at the party that is being attended by the parents who hired her. Although littered with very unlikely situations, the movie has an unbelievable plot that includes humor and gasps. Although Chris and the kids got caught up in some crazy situations, it’s hard not to root for them to make it home before their parents do.
Nightmare on Elm Street
In this 1984 thriller, Nancy Thompson and her friends are being hunted by the menace known as Freddy Krueger. Krueger is a serial killer with a burnt skin, and a glove with finger-mounted knives. He uses his scare tactics in an original way, killing teenagers in their dreams. As soon as they fall asleep, they are swept away into a nightmare that feels too real and as soon as Freddy kills them, they die in real life. As her friends continue to die, Nancy realizes that a secret of her parents’ past may be the only way to stop Freddy Krueger. The series spans almost three decades and gets better with every movie. Director Wes Craven makes people fear a time when they’re in their most vulnerable state, asleep in bed, where no one can help them.
Jaws
Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic, Jaws, became one of the most popular movies from the 70s and still is today. For those who have not seen Jaws, the plot includes a great white shark that terrorizes the fictional Amity Island, killing off vacationers. When they go for a swim. Panic begins when realization sets in that the monstrous shark has not yet been caught. So an oceanographer, the chief of police, and a shark hunter head out to try and capture the creature. Throughout the movie, multiple deaths are shown, putting viewers on the edge of their seats, knowing no one’s safe. Although the shark continues to mutilate people throughout the thriller, the three brave main characters struggle to capture the shark and have an awful time during the ordeal. The Jaws series continues on over the course of a few more movies, sending more 25 foot sharks to wreak havoc in open waters.
