There are aspects in our lives where we enjoy doing the same thing, the same way. It could be how a favorite food item is prepared or the use of a favorite blanket on a cold winter’s night. The term I use for this is “Creature of Habit”.
For me one of these aspects is watching certain movies during certain times of the year. For instance I like to wrap my Christmas presents while watching The Polar Express or rewatch the Kevin Costner sports flick Draft Day in April. For those who don’t know the ladder is about the NFL draft and that event usually takes place sometime in April, or at least I see the ads for it then.
Currently it’s early June, the fifth if you want to get picky about it. The Luke warm days of spring have turned over to the uncomfortably warm days of summer and there’s more daylight than I know what to do with. I keep telling myself fall will be here soon enough.
However that means I get to pull out, and dust off, my summer movie viewing list. It’s a list of five movies that, come hell or high water, I watch every summer. These movies will be presented in no particular order, though one of them will have a time crunch imposed to it.
The one with the time crunch is Russell Crowe in the boxing movie Cinderella Man. I always watch it every year on or around my Grtandma’s birthday and have done so every year since she’s passed. It’s one I took her to see when it played in theaters 15 years ago. Russell Crowe was her Hollywood crush, I really wanted to see it, and the movie was playing at the theater I was working at during that time. She told everyone she met there that she was seeing the new Russell Crowe movie. It didn’t matter what they asked her. On the way home she shared a really awesome story about the movie, from her past. I’m not going to type it because I prefer telling it. Ask me in person sometime about it.
Next up, and again in no particular order, is Roger Corman’s Piranha from the 1970’s. I feel every summer watch list should include some movie that features summer camp in some way. Plus this one is my favorite of all the Jaws rip offs. A movie doesn’t have to have a great plot, an all star cast, an a List director, or compete for Oscars like this one. Piranha is just fun.
Gravity is another flick I watch every summer. I’m not a Sandra Bullock fan but this is one of three, maybe four, films that feature the actress that I enjoyed. A 95ish minute outer space film is a great way to pass an evening during the summer.
You got to feed your brain during the summer as well, right? Ok with this newt film that’s pushing it but I don’t care. I like the movie. The movie is The Day After Tomorrow. It’s an en d of the world disaster flick featuring unrealistic and wacky science. I don’t care at all that the science it wacky and unrealistic. This is the kind of movie you sit back with your soft drink, or what ever the hell you’re drinking, and enjoy the two hour ride. There are over the top action sequences, awkward teen romance sequences, and combing that with the before mentioned wacky and unrealistic science you get one hell of a ride to sit through.
Every summer viewing list should also include one classic blockbuster movie. For me that movie is Tom Cruise is Top Gun. I’ve seen so many times I’ve lost count, but not that loving feeling for it. This is far and away my favorite Tom Cruise movie. The battles in the sky take my breath away and the movie features an all star cast. Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis lead the ensemble that feature Anthony Edwards, Val kilmer, Meg Ryan, Tom Skerrit of Alien fame and in what I think is his first film, if not it’s one of them Tim Robbins.
Let me know what is on your summer watch list.
