Top 10 Movies for Summer

ALRIGHT!!! Summer is just around the corner! The Memorial Day weekend is considered the official start of the summer season, but it feels like it's already started with those Hollywood blockbusters smashing the competition at the box office. For me, this is the time of year I live for. As a kid, summer was heaven with no school, freedom from homework, and my birthday in the month of August. While I don't get my summers off anymore as an adult (darn), they still make my spirit rise along with the temperature.



For those big fans of the summer solstice, I present to you my list of 10 movies for summer, and this is in no particular order.



Caddyshack



One of my favorites as a kid, and that's even with the R rating. Seeing Chevy Chase, the late Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, and the late Ted Knight battle over who can make the Bushwood Country Club a more hip establishment made for one of the all time great comedies for the summer months. Even if you can't stand golf, it'll still be a blast to watch with those beautiful sunny views on the golf course throughout (yes, I'm talking about Cindy Morgan).



"Caddyshack" is one of the great forbidden comedies us kids would take in when our parents weren't home, and it is a great reminder of why we need to watch out for flying golf balls and where they land. Plus, Kenny Logins songs' still rock just like that scene stealing gopher shows off a good boogie.



By the way, skip "Caddyshack II." That one is a limp and pale imitation of what came before it, and its rated PG. (!)



Dazed and Confused



That last day of school is so exciting, and director Richard Linklater understands that perfectly. "Dazed and Confused" makes you feel like you lived through the 70's and reminds of how wonderful the last day of school. Seeing these kids go through various adventures, some of them terrifying and painful, makes for a great start of summer motion picture. It also reminds you of how cool it was being a freshman and hanging out with the popular juniors and seniors of the school. Things did seem a lot easier back then.



Do The Right Thing



Spike Lee's masterpiece remains one of the most important movies to come of the 80's. It showed that despite racial relations seeming so much better than they were in the past, there's still a lot of anger and resentment boiling under the surface. That tension gets a slow build up to a tragic explosion during one hot summer in Brooklyn when an Italian America pizza store owner refuses to put pictures of "brothers" on his wall. "Do The Right Thing" makes you feel that summer sweat from just watching it. Being neither a call to violence nor a story with easy answers, it simply wakes us up to the problems we all need to face up to and become aware of.



Dog Day Afternoon



One of the late Sidney Lumet's greatest movies as a director, it stars Al Pacino as a man who robs a Brooklyn bank in August of 1972 to get money for his lover's sex change operation. His attempt to make an easy getaway along with his partner played by John Cazale is soon thwarted as the police soon surround the bank, and he spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out how to escape without getting killed. Just as with "Do The Right Thing," you can feel the sweat just dripping off each character and soaking their clothes almost completely.



Lumet really got a strong sense of realism in capturing the Brooklyn atmosphere to where you're breathing the same air as the characters. A lot of that is also due to the great performances from the entire cast, most especially from Al Pacino.



The Graduate



I got this movie as a gift when I graduated from high school, but I really should have received it after I graduated from college. Mike Nichols' classic movie starring Dustin Hoffman brilliantly captures the most awkward summer of all: the one after you graduate from college and have to figure out what to do for the rest of your life.



"The Graduate" remains a timeless movie as we all come to feel the way Benjamin Braddock does when we step out of the classroom for the last time. It is a time that proves to be as exciting as it is terrifying, and that's even if you don't sleep with Mrs. Robinson.



National Lampoon's Vacation



The inaugural misadventures of the Griswold family, led by the clueless patriarch Clark played by Chevy Chase, is still a classic comedy for those who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to endure family car trips across the country. If you thought you had it bad, sitting in the backseat of a station wagon with vinyl interior while the sun stared right down at you like it was your next door neighbor, wait till you see what this family has to endure. It'll make you remember the best times you had with your family during summer vacation, and it will also make you laugh at the memories that were the worst.



Point Break



Okay, this may be the most ridiculous movie on this list, but it is also one of the most entertaining. "The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow designs action sequences like few other filmmakers can, and the excitement never lets up from start to finish. Keanu Reeves got one if his first adult roles as an FBI agent on the trail of bank robbers dressed as ex-Presidents. When evidence indicates that the robbers are surfers, it puts him on the tail of the charismatic Bodhi played by the late Patrick Swayze.



With stunning sequences of surfing put to a fantastic music score by Mark Isham and some of the best skydiving shots ever caught on film, "Point Break" is one movie you have to see during summer. Watching it during winter will only depress you as you're reminded of June being several months away. The summer looks incredibly beautiful against the backdrop of intense action sequences, and it just might make you want to try skydiving or learn to surf.



Stand By Me



Another coming of age story and one of the best ever made. Based on a short story by Stephen King, it has four friends (River Phoenix, Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell) spending Labor Day weekend on a journey to see a dead body they were told about. This is more of an end of summer movie as it vividly recalls childhood innocence and how it eventually comes to an end. It's funny, thoughtful, and very moving, and it has one scene that would have made for a great episode of "Jackass."



Top Gun



Now at its 25^th anniversary (scary), this remains one of the ultimate summer movies. Regardless of it setting up the typical Jerry Bruckheimer still used today (and which the "South Park" guys skewer endlessly), "Top Gun" is still entertaining as ever especially when you watch on Blu-ray. The fighter sequences remain some of the best ever put on film, and the sound effects continue give your stereo speakers one hell of a workout. It's got everything for everybody; a great Harold Faltermeyer score, Kelly McGillis at her sexiest, and those volleyball sequences that many enjoy for other reasons.



It also later inspired Quentin Tarantino's great speech from the indie movie "Sleep With Me." Trust me, just rent it and see.



Jaws



I don't care how many hundreds of times you've seen this Steven Spielberg classic, this is probably the ultimate summer movie of all. Seeing (or not really seeing) that great white shark terrorize the residents of Amity Island still makes for scary viewing. Even if you know what happens before you watch it, "Jaws" will still have you on the edge of your seat throughout. There's no beating the troika of Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw as they sail out to sea and destroy the shark once and for all. Plus, you'll never forget Shaw's USS Indianapolis speech from the film which threatens to be even more terrifying than the shark.



Even if "Jaws" does keep you from going into the water, it won't keep you from going to the beach. We all have to get out of the house sometime!



So that's my 10 movies for summer. Feel free to add your own suggestions, and have fun in the sun!