Folks we are truly and deeply into the summer now. So I decided to troll the internet and look at some of the lists of “best movies about summer.”
- Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Summer Vacation Movies
- TV Guide’s “The Best Summer Movies Ever” – taking liberties by adding this list because it goes into the greatest films released in the summer, not just exclusively films ABOUT the summertime.
- CBS News’ 16 Essential Films About Summer
- Movies about Summer Camp (some good, quite a few bad ones in the mix)
- Paste Magazine’s 21 Classic Summer Movies (glad to see The Seven Year Itch on the list)
- Total Film Magazine’s 50 Best Summer Movies
Confession Time: Dirty Dancing, a film that graces many of these lists, has never crossed my eyes. Is that a good or bad thing?
Question: Can you think of any other films that did not make the list?
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Overlooked Film of the Week: SpaceCamp (1986)
After reviewing the list I was reminded of my one of my favorite films as a child, SpaceCamp. For a number of years, attending the real-life SpaceCamp was a dream of mine. Unfortunately that obsession eventually waned and all I was left with was the ability to live vicariously through the fictional characters. At the time, this film captured my imagination and desire to explore the stars. Even though I knew that they were not ACTUALLY in outer space, I was still quite envious of the cast’s experience in making this movie.
When it was released, SpaceCamp was both a critical and financial failure – due in part to what can only be described as bad timing: it was released six months after the Challenger disaster. In spite of this lack of fortune I think that in a world where there is a sufficient lack of young people (especially young women) pursuing STEM-based education, a movie like this can serve as an inspiration for further math, science and technology learnin’. My favorite character was/is Trish (played by Kelly Preston), who was the most remarkable (if not a bit unbelievable) genius one could possibly imagine. (Side Note: they have SpaceCamp for adults, so the dream is still alive folks, the dream is still alive).
Be sure to check out more overlooked/forgotten films, by visiting Todd Mason’s blog.
ruth says
SpaceCamp sounds like campy fun! You’ve never seen Dirty Dancing? It’s worth a look I think, esp. since it’s become such a pop culture phenom of sort.
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Todd Mason says
Well, although the TOTAL list has BEFORE SUNRISE, none of the lists has BEFORE SUNSET, which I prefer (haven’t seen the new sequel yet). (I’ve also never seen more than a few minutes of DD, though Sela Ward’s presence forced me to watch more of the sequel of sorts that is actually good for anyone.)
Good luck achieving the Adult Space Camp dream, Iba!
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Todd Mason says
The citation of LAST SUMMER as a summertime film is a strange one, if rather obvious…even odder that I was reminded of the Evan Hunter novel it was based on in responding to a query on the librarian-heavy Fiction-L list….
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