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The 25 Best Summer Movies Part 2

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Thursday, 28 May 2009 11:05

For a great many people, summer means movies. And not just any movies, but the biggest, most lavish, most star-laden movies that Hollywood can possibly generate. So here presented in the second of two parts is my list for the 25 Best Summer Movies. I tried to spread the wealth across the years and genres, so read and discuss.

12) Grease (1978)
In the wake of Watergate and Vietnam, it was perhaps unsurprising that many people would look back with fondness to simpler times; when the only rule being broken is that T-Birds are supposed to go with Pink Ladies. Filled with romance, great songs you can sing along to and a rather idealized version of street gangs of the 1950s, Grease was the word in 1978. It officially made John Travolta a star to be reckoned with and it made a career for Olivia Newton-John. It’s probably the last, great populist musical before 2008’s Mamma Mia!

11) Independence Day (1996)

It was basically Star Wars meets War of the Worlds by way of V, but the trailers featuring city sized spaceships, hovering over world landmarks, and BLOWING THEM UP, was an offer too good to be refused by moviegoers in the summer of ’96. Will Smith officially graduated from Fresh Prince to Box Office King playing the heroic Captain Hiller, while audiences enjoyed the mad scientist-like stammering of Jeff Goldblum. Incorporating 50s paranoia with 70s disaster films, and jazzing the whole thing up with modern CGI magic, Independence Day was the film equivalent of cotton candy, but still satisfying.

10) Batman (1989)

Before The Dark Knight, it was Tim Burton who launched Batman to success on the big screen. And in one foul swoop,Burton wiped away all lingering traces of the campy, 60s Adam West-starring Batman TV series. (Ironically, Christopher Nolan had a similarly difficult task 15 years later.) Batman was hailed as “the movie of the decade,” racks were cleared of all Batman merchandise and the film contributed to the increasing interesting around comics in general during the late 80s boom. In the years since, people have been pretty quick to point the film’s flaws, but in the summer of ’89 there was no better place to be then in line for the next showing of Batman.

9) Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Some of the best movie surprises of come out of nowhere, and so it was with the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. But because the first movie based on a Disney theme park ride, The Country Bears, was a resounding failure executives were nervous. The last pirate movie release prior to Black Pearl literally killed a studio, and this film’s star Johnny Depp was hardly box office bank. Plus he was doing this weird thing where the hero pirate was a slightly effeminate, glam rock icon with the crazed eyes of Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining. But hey, it worked so well that they made two more and are talking about a fourth. Go figure.

8) Alien (1979)

Nothing says summer like feeling the chill in a movie theatre – and I don’t mean the air conditioning. Utilizing that lived-in look for life on the spaceship Nostromo, director Ridley Scott made a name for himself by creating a plausible future where life in space is as mundane as life on the ground. You work a dead end job for a faceless juggernaut of a corporation that’s always trying to screw you on back pay and safety concerns. And then there are the aliens…. Moviegoers had never seen anything like H.R. Giger’s expressionistic, biomechanical xenomorph before, what little they saw of it that is. And the alien chest-burster remains one of cinema’s most shockingly gory moments.

7) The Lion King (1994)

Disney Animation would never have a better success than The Lion King, at least not without Pixar’s help. After the trifecta of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, Disney made the leap from the Christmas holidays to the summer holidays and found even greater success then they ever had before. At the time, The Lion King was the highest grossing animated film of all time, millions of copies of the soundtrack by Elton John were sold, and merchandise flew out the store before staff had time to stock it. It also went on to inspire an award-winning Broadway musical that’s been lauded many times over for its inventiveness. Not too bad for what is basically Hamlet on the Serengeti with talking animals.

6) Die Hard (1988)

Die Hard was not only a wicked movie in its own right, but it also became a shorthand used in elevator pitches for future action movies like Speed (Die Hard on a bus) or Under Siege (Die Hard on a navy ship). Die Hard made Bruce Willis a star, launched one of the most successful action franchises in history, and spawned at least one memorable catchphrase. It also made Alan Rickman, then merely a British theatre actor, one of the baddest villains to grace the screen. “Alas, your Mr. Takagi did not see it that way, so he won't be joining us for the rest of his life.” Now, that’s good villainy.

5) Ghostbusters (1984)

True, the phrase “Who are you going to call?” will never be usable again. But if we’re to sacrifice an English language phrase on pyre of lost utility then at least let it be in good cause. I think in the case of Ghostbuster, we can all agree that the cause was just and the sacrifice worth it. Despite all the new sequel talk, I think that Ghostbusters is a standalone success because it was a perfect storm of timing, casting and script that made it work and work beautifully. Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman is a product of the 80s bottom line driven culture. “The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!” Truer words have rarely been spoken.

4) The Dark Knight (2008)

On the cusp of his star-making role as the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker, Heath Ledger was found dead in his New York apartment, the apparent victim of an accidental drug overdose. If the full weight and pressure of media scrutiny wasn’t on Christopher Nolan and his second Batman film before this tragic affair, it certainly was now. But an amazing thing happened when The Dark Knight was released: not only did it match the hype, it surpassed it. On its way to becoming the second-highest grossing movie of all time, Dark Knight received near universal critical acclaim, record-breaking box office and even awards consideration. Like its predecessor two decades before, this Batman movie was an unparalleled event. But, you know, bigger.

3) Jurassic Park (1993)

Steven Spielberg did the impossible: he made dinosaurs come alive. It always astounds me when people complain about the lack of “human character” in this film’s two sequels because even the original Jurassic Park was all about the thunder lizards. Incredible leaps in computer generated effects and some very life-like model work by the late, great Stan Winston made what was once only our fourth grade fantasy a practical and visceral reality. And in the T-Rex, Spielberg found his most beloved movie monster since a certain fish that terrorized the oceans around a certain island community.

2) Star Wars (1977)

It really was a struggle to sort out who’d get gold and who’d get silver. That fact of the matter is that without Number 1, Star Wars impact may not have been as pronounced, or had otherwise just been considered an anomaly. But by coming in Number 2, Star Wars was part of a trend: summer was now a time for tentpoles. The classic good versus evil story was one of the main selling points in Star Wars’ favour, but it was the state-of-the-art special effects that kept the kids coming back for more. Often cited, the opening shot of the Star Destroyer and Rebel Blockade Runner was more than just the beginning of the film, it was a sign that cinema itself had changed.

1) Jaws (1975) Was it the music? Was the fact that the omnipresent shark was almost never seen? Was it the now classic realization: “You’re going to need a bigger boat?” For all these reasons and more, Jaws makes the top of the Best Summer of all Time list. First, it’s actually a Summer movie, as in that’s when it’s set, during the summer season at a resort town on an island off the coast of New England. Second, it invented the modern blockbuster, as it became appointment viewing anyone and everyone during the summer of ’75. But Jaws was also famous for its over-budget, over-schedule principal photography in Martha’s Vineyard. Many thought that the movie was too much for a young and untested, though talented director named Steven Spielberg, but he proved them wrong in the end. For better or for worse, Jaws made sure we never looked at the ocean the same way again