A Retrospective of Summer Films

By John C.

The summer movie season is behind us. Whoever said there were only bad movies obviously didn’t get out to the theatre much, because I certainly saw a lot of good ones. From Pixar’s animated masterpiece Up, to the highly-anticipated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which delivered on every level. I’m going to take a look back on some of the movies of the past few summer months.

In May there was Star Trek. A hugely enjoyable franchise-revamp that did not disappoint. On the flip-side of the blockbusters there where small, but great films like Is Anybody There? and Goodbye Solo.

On May 29th there was Up. An animated masterpiece, that should, and hopefully will, get nominated for Best Picture. Besides Up, there was The Brothers Bloom on May 22nd. An incredibly entertaining, absolute masterpiece. Both Up and The Brothers Bloom are still tied at number one as my favorite movies of the year.

June was a quieter month, making way for films like the sleeper comedy-hit The Hangover. Although on June 24th there was Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. A film that has gotten a lot of bad reviews. I for one didn’t think it was terrible, but it did go on for too long and left me with a headache. It was literally just too much for its own good.

In July there was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a film that I thought was a visually stunning near-masterpiece. There was also the excellent (500) Days of Summer. An incredibly original romantic-comedy, that showed how every movie in that genre should be made. I thought both of those films were some of the best this year.

In July there was also G-Force. A fun, inventive and action-packed family spy film, about espionage guinea pigs. While it’s not one of the best movies of the year, I found it to be incredibly entertaining for both kids and adults.

In August there was, obviously, District 9 and Inglourious Basterds. But those weren’t the only good films to come out that month. There was also Adam. A really good movie with an excellent performance by Hugh Dancy, playing a man with Asperger’s syndrome. There was also one of the nicest surprises this summer. I walked into Bandslam not expecting much, and left very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the film.

Like G-Force, Shorts was another really good, inventive film for all ages. Another excellent film in August was The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story. Who knew that a documentary about the famous Disney songwriters would also just be a great film?

There you have it. There were so many films this summer that I know I’ve forgotten to mention some of them. There were bad films, but as well as a lot of good ones and also some truly great ones.

We will be profiling some of these films again when the DVD’s come out in time for the Christmas season. Check back on Friday for my list of the Fall films that I’m anticipating the most.