So, this weekend starts the summer movie season. You may say, "What about WOLVERINE?" Seriously? I hated that so much I am starting my observance a week later. I don't even care. Tonight I am going to see STAR TREK at 7, and so, before I see my first summer movie of the year, I am going to throw together a list of some of my favorite summer movies since I was a freshman in High School. Here's the rundown of it: I will basically put only one movie per year since 2002, with a few years getting a double dip. Also, I am skipping 2005 because there was nothing too mind blowing in the way of blockbusters that year. Sound good to you? Don't care either way. Now, let's go.
1. Spider-man - (2002) This is the year that I fell in love with superhero movies. I saw this one 5 or 6 times in the theater. That record is only matched by RETURN OF THE KING, and trailing behind those was OCEAN'S 11. This movie, though it certainly did get some things wrong, really got the superhero movie formula right. They did make the regrettable mistake of killing one of the most central villains to the mythos in the first movie. They took many liberties with the story. I will say, that it was nowhere near as awful as SPIDER-MAN 3. Looking back on it, it is harder to watch now, but everything about this movie clicked when I first saw it. If nothing else, it started me onto my comics loving path I am on now.
2. The Matrix Reloaded - (2003) Sure this movie was pretty much nonstop explosions, and didn't come close to the original. But, in all honesty, THE MATRIX was such an incredible movie, and the 4 year gap between movies, made expectations way too high. This was seriously a perfect summer movie. It had sex. Kung fu. Gunfights. A bad ass car chase. This was just a killer movie. It is definitely an enjoyable movie, and I really don't see why people feel like the Wachowskis wiped their asses with this movie. It was fun. Get over it.
3. Pirates of the Carribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - (2003) This is the one that got people into the whole pirate craze. If you claim that you thought pirates were cool before this movie came out, you are probably a liar. I also am not saying that you thought they were lame either. This movie brought pirates into the public awareness. People just didn't think about pirates in general befoe this one. But then Johnny Depp swaggered on screen and changed things forever. Well, maybe not forever. But it definitely made pirates en vogue. And it also got lots of jachasshole guys to start wearing guyliner. So, there's that. But the movie is cool and fun. I mean it combines pirates and zombies. It would have been cool enough to maybe see pirates fight zombies. But no, this took it one step further and had a colonial navy fighting zombie pirates. Yeah.
4. Spider-man 2 - (2004) Now this is the single SPIDER-MAN movie that got everything right. They changed the Doctor Octopus story around some, but I would wager that it was made better. Everything about this movie greatly exceded the original. From the effects and story, right down to the theme song. I mean the first movie had the butt rock team up of Nickelback and Saliva singing "Hero" which I ate up when it came out, but now Chad Kroeger annoys me and thinks he is Jesus and records the same song over and over, so I am over it. This one had Dashboard Confessional's "Vindicated" as its theme. This song wasn't even originally supposed to be the theme, but when the movie execs heard the song Dashboard put together on their comission, they were all, "Shit" and they made it the theme. The movie is just plain awesome. It made the previous movie nearly unwatchable because it improved on it so much, and made its follower completely unwatchable because it just could never live up to its awesomeness.
5. Mission: Impossible III - (2006) This movie came out at exactly the right time for me. I had just gotten into JJ Abrams, and was in the middle of ALIAS when I saw it. It definitely had the same secret agent flair that ALIAS showed me, and it took it up to the next level. I don't care how you feel about Tom Cruise as a person, he rocked the shit out of this movie (and he does so consistently in all his movies in my opinion). Also, it took on the franchise from a different perspective than the previous installments, which made it even better. Each of these M:I movies bring their own style to the table, and this one is definitely my favorite. Seems appropriate that Abrams' directorial debut is on the list that is being composed mere hours before I see his follow up.
6. Clerks II - (2006) I saw this movie right after a huge Kevin Smith bender, so I could get ready for the movie. Make sense? So, anyway, it really makes the list for a couple reasons: 1) I felt I needed a comedy, and this one is both hilarious and poignant. 2) I also did not want to put more than 2 movies to a given year, so I decided to throw this one in. It is definitely hilarious. If you ain't into the vulgarity of Kevin Smith, then this movie ain't for you. But if you can handle mention of and reactions to a donkey show, then this movie may make you laugh and believe in the hope of a seemingly bleak future in customer service.
7. Ocean's 13 - (2007) I'll be honest. I enjoyed OCEAN'S 12. And OCEAN'S 11 is a modern classic in my eyes (though not a summer movie). So, when I say that OCEAN'S 13 is just as good, if not better, than the original, then you can probably see how I mean. If not, whatever. But anyway, this movie works because it got back to where made the first movie cool (Vegas) and had perfected what made the series cool (not quite thug criminals being cocky, and stealing stuff). This movie is a laugh riot for me. I saw it by myself on Father's Day the year it came out, and I was seriously the only person in the theater laughing at times, and the theater looked sold out. I wasn't even embarassed like I can be in such a situation nowadays. This movie is genuinely good, and worth watching.
8. Transformers - (2007) This movie honestly came out of nowhere for me. For me to say I had no interest in seeing it two months before it was released may seem surprising to some of you, the way I love on it now. I mean Michael Bay directed it. MICHAEL BAY. I mean, don't get me wrong, his movies are good for that they are. But for a while I thought that it wasn't for me. Well, I saw more and more previews, and the reviews it was getting weren't that bad, so I took a risk, and absolutely loved it. After it came out on DVD, it became one of my go-to movies for when I was having a rough day, or got a bad grade or just took a test. It made me reallly happy. So, yeah, it kicks ass. And I am so pumped for the sequel.
9. The Incredible Hulk - (2008) I was going to have IRON MAN accompany this movie on the list, but I changed my mind as I was writing it. I just wrote about that one recently, so I want to try to bring something new to the table. (I also thought about THE DARK KNIGHT going on the list because it is fucking awesome and raised the bar impossibly high on superhero movies, but I decided to throw in a couple new flicks for last year.) So, this movie took the previous movie, and wiped the slate clean. Ed Norton is now the not-so-jolly green giant, in his human form, and he does a stand up job. The action sequences are great. The music is great. The movie is great. Also, when he is chatting over instant message with MR BLUE (who I totally thought would end up being Captain America, but was wrong), he does not read anything out loud. I like that they did it that way. I don't read my typing aloud as I do it, and neither do you. Props to the director for getting us to do a little work to make the movie more plausible.
10. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - (2008) So, the last one on the list is another comic book movie. And it is great. I mean, it has a scene where two of its heroes are sitting around talking about love and getting drunk. They drunkenly sing, and share their feelings, which at the time seem profound, but really means nothing. Sort of like an evening I had back in December with Ben and Brett. The movie is directed by Guillermo del Torro, who also did PAN'S LABYRINTH, and he totally brings in his visual flair to making the world of Hellboy a reality. Also, Ron Perlman was made to play Hellboy. He does a tremendous job. I have no complaints. Except that more people have not seen it yet!
So, there we are. I will probably try to throw down some thoughts on STAR TREK when I get home from the movie tonight. Also, next week resumes the usual BKteN. I'm also looking at doing some other lists of sorts, to be rolled out in the coming weeks, so get ready for that.
Here endeth the lesson.
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