Reader Question #11: My Favorite Non-Period Drama Films

Finally, I'm restarting Reader Questions! I've felt bad about slacking off on Reader Questions, but I'm glad that I can finally restart them again! Make sure that if you think of a question that you comment it in somewhere; I try to answer all of them, but if I can't come up with a good-sized post about it, I'll comment back with my short answer.

This question (and a bunch of others!) comes from Charity from Austenitis. Charity asks:

I have to ask...what non-period-drama films are your favorites?

As with most of you, I do like other films outside of period dramas (yes, I know... Hard to believe with me, but it's true :-P). Outside of period dramas, I do like a variety of films. I could watch action/adventure movies, I could watch comedies. I could watch sci-fi, I could watch dramas. I could watch classic 80s movies, I could watch classic movies from the 50s. I can say, though, that outside of period dramas, I'm not much of a romantic movie fan (shocker, perhaps?): I've never been one for mushy romantic scenes, and though there is romance with a lot of period dramas, with period dramas they seem to be able to rely on other parts of the story than romance.

But anyways, though I'm not a big movie watcher outside of period dramas, there are a few that I really like. In no particular order, here are the ones I can count as my favorites that I can think of at the moment (though I have a bad feeling that I'm going to remember something later and be all "Aw man! I should have put that in!").

The Karate Kid (Parts 1 and 2) (1984, 1986)
Ah, The Karate Kid... One of those films where there wasn't a depressing message in it and by the end made you feel good (and plus I also like Japan). The story of a bullied boy who learns how to defend himself. It's just one of those feel good story lines. And plus when has modern music ever been so good? (Random fact about me, I love 80s music). Like I've mentioned before, out of the four Karate Kid movies, I really only like the first and the second one: the third was okay, but not very great (plus Ralph Macchio was getting a little old for the role), and The Next Karate Kid just bombed for me (well, like anything that tries to replace the main character with a new character). And no, I do not count the new Karate Kid movie that came out a couple of years ago. Both 1 and 2 are rated PG.

Jurassic Park (1993)
I've always liked Jurassic Park. It's amazing at how real the dinosaurs look. With many movies today, a lot of the special effects are all computer generated, and no matter how expensive or top of the time the technology is, you can still tell that the effects are computer generated. While in Jurassic Park computer generated effects were still used, there were still models for the dinosaurs that made them look real. There really isn't a time when you think "Oh, that's so fake!": everything looked so real. I'm not sure what happened with today's special effects. Now, I've also read the original book, and the book is way different from the movie, but I'm glad that the movie isn't like the book; the movie was less violent (though, be warned, there is still some violence) than the book and is good in it's own right. Rated PG-13

Night at the Museum (2006)
Just to clarify, I mean only the first Night at the Museum; I really didn't like the second one (either I expected more from it or it just wasn't a good movie to begin with, but either way I didn't like it). But I loved the first film! My family and I saw it in the theaters around Christmas time and we all enjoyed it. I couldn't wait to get it on DVD. The plot was something that was new and something that I'd never seen before. The humor was actually funny and clean which can be hard to come by with recent films, and the acting I thought was good (though there was some scene where it wasn't Teddy Roosevelt but Robin Williams: I guess he still had to act silly somewhere). I highly recommend this film! Rated PG

Babe (1995)
I loved this movie as a kid! I hadn't watched it in years, but I caught it on TV one day within the past year and I realized that I had forgotten how good this movie was. The entire movie was very sweet and cute. It has it's funny moments and sad moments, but there is an overall sweetness to the film. In a word, it's simply heartwarming. Plus, since animatronics were used instead of computer generated effects in addition to real animals, everything pretty much looks real. I would highly recommend this movie to any family. The sequel, from what I understand, was not very good, so you may just want to watch this one. Rated G


So, that's pretty much my favorite non-period drama movies. I have a bad feeling that there are others that I didn't mention, but these are just a sample of some of my favorites.

What are some of your favorite non-period drama movies? Have you seen any of the movies that I've mentioned? Leave a comment!

Thank you, Charity, for sending in your question. If you have a question you would like to submit for me to do a post on, leave a comment. Just follow these guidelines. It can be about anything related to this blog: period dramas, blogging, reviews, etc.  

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 God Bless,