Favorite Films of Summer

Here's some movies I try to revisit every summer. They just seems to go with the season....

Pauline at the Beach (1983)
Regardless of your chronological age, this look at summertime romance will make life feel young and fresh again. And it will make you realize that youth isn't all it's cracked up to be.

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Meatballs (1979)
Bill Murray, a bunch of dorky kids and some fetching young camp counselors make for a gloriously goofy ode to summer. In those days Bill Murray was the God of Cool.

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Bull Durham (1988)
It's not summer until I see this one. Bull Durham captures to relaxed spirit of minor league baseball in sleepy southern towns in a way never equaled. I used to live not far from Durham, and attended a few games at the funky old Durham Athletic Park, where the game scenes were filmed. There's a new stadium now, full of the ersatz charm of a shopping mall.

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A Summer Place (1959)
Not a particularly good movie, but fun none the less, with the corniest - and therefore most memorable - score in cinema history. The story doesn't make much sense, but for some reason I love the scene in the fantastic Frank Lloyd Wright beach house where everyone is eating off of TV trays.

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Jaws (1975)
Spielberg had tremendous clarity of vision in those days, and stripped down every shot to its compelling narrative essentials. A film without an once of flab, with wonderful flourishes of humor within a harrowing, nail biting progression. American movies don't get much better than this.

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Spider-Man 2 (2004)
My fave of the franchise, and seen during my introduction to Arizona summers. I came out of the theater on a blazing Sunday afternoon and got into my car where the dashboard thermometer read 135F. Good Times.



What are some of your summer favorites?