Summer is winding down. July 4th is over and the beach is becoming over rated. Sunburns are sinking in and it’s too hot to be outside. With the heat outside, it is time to come inside and enjoy some summer flicks that take anyone back to their favorite family vacation, sweetest summer love, craziest camp counselor, or scariest trip to the beach.
These films selected as the top ten summer movies reflect many different aspects from summer. There are some featuring hilarious family antics, tragic love stories, and treasured childhood moments.
Summer is typically a big time for blockbusters. For the past thirty years, directors have been releasing their biggest and best films in the summertime when they know audiences are thirsty for a good film. Save the $12 for a movie ticket and watch these top ten summer movie classics that are probably way better than the junk out in theaters right now anyways!
Here are the Top Ten Summer Movies:
[new page=Number Ten: National Lampoon’s Vacation]
Everyone has been on a family road trip from hell, and in National Lampoon’s Vacation the Griswolds live an over the top version of every family’s craziest summer memory. On their trip to the Walley World theme park, the Griswolds run into more distractions and adventure than they planned. Actor Chevy Chase is up to his usual antics of crazy physical comedy playing the dopey Griswold patriarch. This movie is a must to turn the grueling task of a family road trip into a hilarious comedy of errors.
[new page=Number Nine: Little Miss Sunshine]
Following the theme of crazy road trips, this dark comedy follows a quirky family’s quest to get to a beauty pageant across the country. Greg Kinnear plays the patriarch of the crazy Hoover family, which is made up of an all-star cast featuring Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigal Breslin, and Alan Arkin. Awkward Olive Hoover is told she can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, and her family goes through all kinds of outrageous adventures in their VW bus to make sure she can get there. This movie is great for laughs as well as tender family moments.
[new page= Number Eight: Beaches]
Beaches carries the theme of lifetime friendship started from a summer bond. Barbara Hershey plays a well off Californian who befriends a drama queen played by Bette Midler. The two remain friends through the good and bad times and even fall in love with the same man. This movie is full of nostalgia for childhood memories as well love for the unbreakable bond of friendship. This movie is perfect to snuggle up and have a good cry and laugh to.
[new page=Number Seven: Dirty Dancing]
Summer love was never so sweet, or as choreographed! Jennifer Grey stars as Baby, a privileged daddy’s girl who falls in love with her dance instructor, played by Patrick Swayze. The film has some dark moments, including an unplanned pregnancy, but the dancing is as hot as a summer’s day. This classic movie that has everything a summer movie needs: camp, a summer fling, and dance numbers.
[new page=Number Six: The Notebook]
The Notebook is a classic tale of a summer fling turned into lifelong love. Wealthy southern belle Allie Hamilton meets blue-collar Noah Calhoun the summer before college and a love affair for the decades begins. Allie’s high class parents end up breaking up the young couple, but fate brings the lovers back together for an affair that leads to changing their lives. Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling star as the star-crossed lovers. The chemistry in this movie was so good that the lead actors ended up dating for a while after the filming. This summer flick is the perfect way to relive a passionate young romance.
[new page=Number Five: The Graduate]
This 1967 classic follows the summer after graduating for Benjamin Braddock. What starts out to be a dull summer living with his parents ends up being an affair of a lifetime between Ben and a married woman named Mrs. Robinson. Even when the affair ends, Ben cannot seem to separate himself from Mrs. Robinson when he realizes he is falling in love with her engaged daughter, Elaine. This movie is perfect for summer in that it expresses the boredom and excitement summer can bring. And it will get the song “Mrs. Robinson” by Simon and Garfunkel stuck in your head for days.
[new page=Number Four: Wet Hot American Summer]
This crazy summer tale revolves around camp counselors at Camp Firewood in 1981. Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Paul Rudd, and molly Shannon star as wacko, sex crazed counselors who do not seem to be taking good care of the kids. This movie is for anyone who attended summer camp and ever wondered what exactly was going on behind the scenes. The movie involves love triangles, NASA, and hilarious campers.
[new page= Numer Three: The Sandlot]
The Sandlot is a trip down memory lane to when swimming and sports were all there was to do in the summer. Shy new guy on the block Scotty Smalls decides he wants to fit in with the rest of the neighborhood and start playing baseball. With the help of baseball mastermind Rodriguez, Scotty becomes a great player and makes great friends in a summer he will never forget. The Sandlot brings out the kid in everyone, as a great reminder of how simpler times were.
[new page=Number Two: The Parent Trap]
Camp is always the best time of summer, but for Hallie and Annie, it becomes a life-changing event when they discover they are identical twins separated at birth. The girls switch places in order to try and bring their mom (Natasha Richardson0 and dad(Dennis Quaid) back together. Lindsey Lohan got her fame by playing both twins in this fun, family movie that shows the true bond of sisterhood.
[new page=Number One: Jaws]
Jaws is a classic yet chilling summer flick tat is bound to keep watchers out of the water. Very loosely based off of a true story, a New England beach lives in fear of a giant great white shark that prays on swimmers. Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) go on a doomed voyage to kill the sea beast that is prowling the shores of Amity. This movie is a must see at night on a beach trip to get the full creepy effect.