Nothing is as much fun as getting together with your entire family in front of the couch, popcorn fully popped, snacks on the coffee table, and everyone hunkers down for family movie watcher’s guide night. Now, most family movies tend to be animated or involve puppets, but for this upcoming movie night, you’ve chosen a fine selection of action movies to help the stress of the week just melt away!
Wait, what? Action movies? Are you serious? Sure, what’s wrong with a cool action flick the entire family can enjoy, right? Well, therein lies the biggest issue with most action movies – they aren’t very family-friendly. The last thing you want to do is keep telling the kids to cover their eyes due to violence or more mature content, and you certainly don’t want to start an entire dialogue over salty language being used. But action movies are so cool! Why can’t they actually make these type of exciting films for everyone? It turns out they do.
Unfortunately, that tease won’t payoff in the event you were hoping for an actual list. You need to understand that every family is different, and as such, the focus is really on you and your significant other & how you choose to make decisions in your home. That said, before you jump right into the latest jungle blow-up flick or the best in collateral damage to an entire metropolitan area drama, you might come up with some guidelines for choosing a movie that’s appropriate.
Here are a few things to consider when choosing an action movie for your family’s next movie night:
Know The Ages You’re Working With – The MPAA has established guidelines for ages & levels of appropriate content in movies. On the whole, it’s actually a really solid system from which to work.
Have A Good Handle On How Well Your Kids Deal with Certain Content – Content here can be everything from language and mature material to language. It can also pertain to how well your kids can deal with dramatic storylines without catharsis.
Animated or Not? – This is actually more for the parents. You want to watch a movie, but do you want to watch an animated film? For family movies, there aren’t a lot of options, but over the years, movie makers have tried to put in some good jokes for mom and dad to help get them through multiple viewings.
Do Some Online Research & Read Reviews – There are general reviews to check out, as well as entire websites dedicated to families looking for appropriate films for all ages. They’re detailed and are great resources.
Is Movie Night At Home or in A Theater? – If you’re at home, you might play a little fast & loose with MPAA ratings, but if you’re at a movie theater, you may find that theaters are pretty serious about creating an environment that is comfortable for all moviegoers. As such, if family movie night is hitting the road this week, call the theater ahead of time to check on policies.
Action movies aren’t necessarily the usual choice for a family movie night, but there are movies out there that can fit the bill. There will be some level of compromise on everyone’s part because it may not be the fullest representation of what an action-packed film can deliver, but just remember the one thing that actually matters most – you’re hanging out as a family.
