Nothing says summer like popping open a cold one and enjoying the very best of popcorn cinema.
Here are the best summer movies of all time.
After all, its Memorial Day weekend.
The kinds that are big on popcorn thrills, populist frills, and warm night chills.
SPECIAL NOTE:This list is comprised only of films released in what Hollywood deems the summer months.
That means movies that opened between the first weekend in May and Labor Day.
Yet, Smiths track record deserves some acknowledgement.
And I mean that in the best possible way.
Anyone around in 96 remembers the Super Bowl spot where the White House goes boom.
Like a demented Randy Quaid, this movie will always come back.
But escapism, they aint.
It is also the definitive signifier of several decades of summer movies dedicated to grown men in spandex.
I would say Iron Man, but lets be honest… Downey is the real show.
He even made the Hulk cool again in a 30-minute climax that left New York covered in alien toys.
But the real joy is just seeing these guys fight over them like kids on a playground.
SPEED
RELEASE DATE: JUNE 10, 1994
There is a bomb on the bus.
If that bus goes under 50 mph, the bomb will go off.
This simple premise made for one of the most intense, white-knuckled summer seasonals on record.
TOP GUN
RELEASE DATE: MAY 16, 1986
Some movies just take your breath away.
Whether you want them to or not.
It also features the most biting retort on record thanks to Val Kilmer.
If only Goose hadnt been taken home in great balls of fire.
That goes triple for Will Ferrells timeless stache and the San Diego Channel 4 News Team.
Just as with newsmen facing off against a grizzly bear, I think we all know who won.
Were not sure they needed it, however.
For anyone who was there in summer 2019, this was theonlymovie playing at the multiplex that May.
June too, as far as many diehard comic book fans are concerned.
Its also three hours of pure fan service that works.
And it also makes for a kick ass thrill ride too.
But its not really his storyit is the story of Furiosa, a fierce creation by Charlize Theron.
It is also the most exciting and poignant summer spectacle in recent memory.
Still, this is the most iconic.
Plus, as the first crowd pleaser after 9/11, this New York hero was just what audiences needed.
Yet, is it bad that I wish they did?
A child without a father finds solace in an extraordinary world beyond our comprehension.
How Steven Spielbergs Night Skies Became E.T.
This lists first taste of Spielberg magic is truly out of this world…
18.
Giger may have made the creature, but Cameron helped Sigourney Weaver make Ripley iconic.
How do you top Arnold Schwarzeneggers horrifying cyborg monstrosity from the first?
You have TWO Terminators and make one of them (Schwarzenegger) the good guy this go-round.
And Linda Hamiltons Sarah Connor?
Possibly the best action heroine ever.
Well, I said nothing aboutGladiator.
Husband to a murdered wife, father to a murdered son, he will have his revenge.
Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), craven Emperor of Rome, should be quaking in his little imperial boots.
BATMAN
RELEASE DATE: JUNE 23, 1989
There are summer movies and then there are summer events.
The fever pitch for Batmania in 1989 was something else all together.
The hype centered on Jack Nicholsons seemingly perfect casting as the Joker.
Sure enough, Nicholson brought his hammiest menace and most fun-loving sadism to the role.
Mom into the most disturbing and intense incarnation ofBatmanever committed to screen.
Really, at this point Indy should be groaning, Nazis.
Why did it have to be Nazis?
Jones get the job done.
Well, this time he gets to work with the original 007 and Indianas spiritual father, Sean Connery.
Their bonding is an even greater reward than meeting the ancient Templar guarding the Cup of Christ.
Though, that is pretty cool too.
But its summer every day in the life of Ferris Bueller.
Nothing can go wrong in this breezy classic about a kid who will likely be president one day.
Well, other thanthat ill-fated television spin-off…
12.
DIE HARD
RELEASE DATE: JULY 15, 1988
Christmas came early in 88 for action junkies everywhere.
In the summer movie nobody expected much from (it stars that guy fromMoonlighting!
), Bruce Willis and director John McTiernan brought the world the most exciting action-survival movie ever made.
Everything aboutThe Lion Kingjust clicks.
The movies gorgeous animation is also given wondrous life by both Elton Johns music and Hans Zimmers pulse-pounding score.
Over 20 years later, the movie still roars.
ALIEN
RELEASE DATE: MAY 25, 1979
In space, no one can hear you scream.
Can they hear that?
Marketed as the dirty alternative version toStar Wars, Ridley ScottsAlienis something else entirely.
Its also some of the most terrifying body horror ever committed to celluloid.
Alien: Just How Intelligent is the Title Monster?
What is this beast that grows inside other organisms and what is it doing with its victims who disappear?
Scott dreams up a horror beyond imagination.
It also gave the world its first real action heroine.
Nolan asks big questions with his popcorn.
A dark night, indeed.
And so he did.
The first few moments of him in silhouette and sweeping spiders off Alfred Molinas back instantly captured audiences.
The following scene of him evading a giant boulder won over the rest of cinema history.
And that is only the first 10 minutes.
JURASSIC PARK
RELEASE DATE: JUNE 11, 1993
Ah, Spielberg again.
Would you really have it any other way?
They were also juxtaposed with on-set animatronics, compliments of Stan Winston.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
RELEASE DATE: JULY 3, 1985
Great Scott!
Theres still something magically universal about this hopelessly 80s movie.
You will cheer when he kills it on Johnny B. Goode during the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance.
JAWS
RELEASE DATE: JUNE 20, 1975
Heres the big one.
Yet afterJawscrossed over $200 million in the U.S. box office, all bets were off.
Some film historians and critics curse this movie and its progeny.
But ignore those fools.Jawsis a masterpiece in filmmaking, right down to its happiest accidents.
All know the tale of the animatronic shark that wouldnt work forcing filmmakers to shoot around the problem.
Indianapolis.Jawsis the perfect marriage of summer escapism and the 70s auteur era that formed it.
STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE
RELEASE DATE: MAY 27, 1977
Star Wars.
Not sinceGone with the Wind(1939) has a movie captured the imagination of the moviegoing world.
Likely none shall do so at such capacity again.
Its not the smartest or best-written summer blockbuster, but it is by far the most enduring.
For that, it is one in a million.
So, there you have it, The Top 26 Summer Movies of All Time.
So it is written, so it must be…
Or not.
Disagree with this list?
Did I leave something off?
Did I put in something awful?
Let us know what YOUR favorite summer movies are or just any thoughts about this list below!
