Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

My family got their first VCR pretty late in the game, and I’m pretty sure my most watched tape was a blank that I used to record my favorite shows, like episodes of Quantum Leap or The Flash. But in 1991, McDonald’s sold tapes of certain movies along with their burgers and fries, including the Indiana Jones trilogy. My parents bought Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was also for sale, but I had nightmares after watching it and my parents could only stand so many sleepless nights). Although Raiders is certainly the better flick, adolescent me preferred Last Crusade. The repartee between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford, the boat and tape sequences, and the Biblical story worked better for young me – to say nothing of Alison Doody as Elsa Schneider, who ignited my love of scary but pretty ladies. – Joe George

Aladdin (1992)

How many times have I watched Disney’s animated masterpiece Aladdin? Couldn’t tell you! No, like – I really couldn’t tell you. All I know is that I ran our VHS copy of this flick ragged. That’s because this 1992 classic was my childhood comfort movie. As any parent could certainly tell you, every kid has a movie that they will inexplicably become obsessed with. Aladdin was that for me. I spent virtually every day from 1992 through 1994 watching the movie, oftentimes accompanied by my grandma (who sadly just passed this year. R.I.P. Carol). Though I no longer have a physical copy of Aladdin, those Arabian nights remain etched into the magnetic cassette ribbons of my heart. – Alec Bojalad

Summer Holiday (1963)

What was it that eight-year-old me loved about London bus-based musical Summer Holiday? Everything! The bus. The scenery. The outfits. The songs. Cliff Richard before he told that weird story on This Morning about not wanting a photo with fat Elvis.

I know I loved Una Stubbs doing this dance. All the dances in this film are excellent, especially the one where you crouch like an imp and throw your head back in the manner of a spooked horse with your elbows tight to your sides as if putting the key in the door while carrying in the weekly shop. The whole thing’s a dream. Someone in the family must have taped it off the TV one afternoon, allowing me to watch it every day after school for definitely a whole term, possibly two. Time enough, anyway, to have learned all the words to “Bachelor Boy” and absorbed a sufficient number of sleazy 1960s chat-up lines to get me sent to Mrs Henley’s office. – Louisa Mellor 

Legends of the Fall (1994)

If we’re counting recorded off the telly, then it would be The Omen trilogy and The Mary Whitehouse Experience. If it’s proper VHS tapes that I actually owned then it was Legends of the Fall or The Doors. The Doors was a gift from a former boyfriend and a treasured item (I loved the band at the time). Legends of the Fall, on the other hand, I have absolutely no idea why I owned. I definitely didn’t choose it. This is basically a non-story. The story of a film I must have watched, I dunno, 10 times, that I can’t remember, never liked, and never wanted. I wonder sometimes if this film is magic. How can a film be so slippery that every time you see it on the shelf you think “what’s that film again?” I think it’s about some brothers and maybe Julia Ormond gets married to one of them and then is seeing a different one. Does one go to war? Or die possibly? Not sure. There are fields. I imagine it takes place in Autumn. Brad Pitt’s in it. And that’s all I’ve got for ya. – Rosie Fletcher

Jurassic Park (1993)

I was just old enough to remember the hype when Jurassic Park hit theaters in the summer of 1993—and just young enough to not fully partake in it. Ours was a Steven Spielberg household, so my folks and sister were as hyped as myself—the dinosaur-obsessed six-year-old. But the movie was PG-13 and, worse, it was reviewed as being “too scary” and “too intense” for youngins. So most of the family saw it in cinemas, and I stayed home with my grandmother. It still didn’t stop me from soaking in what was early ‘90s kids’ Star Wars. I got the action figures, the tie-in picture books, even those McDonald’s plastic cups. My sister breathlessly recounted every bit of the plot to me, including how awesome it was when that guy said “clever girl” and then had his face ripped off.

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