The rule is pretty simple, it has to be a big studio film. I decided to do this mini-project by looking back at every summer movie season since 1998. I picked the great, artful films that came out between May and August. The films had to a) be financed by a big studio system b) critically acclaimed or up for awards consideration.
1998: Bullworth, The Truman Show, Out of Sight, There`s Something About Mary, Saving Private Ryan
1999: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, The Blair Witch Project, Eyes Wide Shut, The Iron Giant, The Sixth Sense
2000: Gladiator and Chicken Run
2001: Moulin Rouge, Shrek, Artificial Intelligence: AI, The Others
2002: About A Boy, Spiderman, Insomnia, Road to Perdition, Minority Report, The Bourne Identity
2003: Finding Nemo, Seabiscuit
2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Spiderman 2, The Bourne Supremacy, Collateral, The Manchurian Candidate
2005: Cinderella Man, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, The 40 Year-old Virgin, The Constant Gardener, Red Eye
2006:
2007: Ratatouille, The Bourne Ultimatum, Superbad,The Simpsons Movie, Hairspray
2008: Iron Man, WALL-E, The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, Vicki Cristina Barcelona, Hellboy II
2009: Up, Star Trek, Distrct 9, Public Enemies, Inglourious Basterds, Drag Me To Hell
2010: Toy Story 3, Inception
2011: Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life, Super 8, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Help
2012: The Dark Knight Rises
2013:
2014:
2015: Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Out, Straight Outta Compton
2016 is the big question mark right now as we have not really had anything of artistic value since the summer movie began. There will be those that say "Captain America: Civil War" is worthy and I will somewhat agree with that, but is that really art? Are we now in the phase where we consider a superhero movie that is meant as a major product placement as art?
With the surprising news that "The Founder" has been moved to December and "Star Trek Beyond" being an average movie, we have skimp options to save this terrible summer we are having, maybe the worst, most uninspiring summer movie season yet.
1) Jason Bourne
2) Pete's Dragon
3) Kubo and the Third String
4) War Dogs
1998: Bullworth, The Truman Show, Out of Sight, There`s Something About Mary, Saving Private Ryan
1999: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, The Blair Witch Project, Eyes Wide Shut, The Iron Giant, The Sixth Sense
2000: Gladiator and Chicken Run
2001: Moulin Rouge, Shrek, Artificial Intelligence: AI, The Others
2002: About A Boy, Spiderman, Insomnia, Road to Perdition, Minority Report, The Bourne Identity
2003: Finding Nemo, Seabiscuit
2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Spiderman 2, The Bourne Supremacy, Collateral, The Manchurian Candidate
2005: Cinderella Man, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, The 40 Year-old Virgin, The Constant Gardener, Red Eye
2006:
2007: Ratatouille, The Bourne Ultimatum, Superbad,The Simpsons Movie, Hairspray
2008: Iron Man, WALL-E, The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, Vicki Cristina Barcelona, Hellboy II
2009: Up, Star Trek, Distrct 9, Public Enemies, Inglourious Basterds, Drag Me To Hell
2010: Toy Story 3, Inception
2011: Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris, The Tree of Life, Super 8, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Help
2012: The Dark Knight Rises
2013:
2014:
2015: Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Out, Straight Outta Compton
2016 is the big question mark right now as we have not really had anything of artistic value since the summer movie began. There will be those that say "Captain America: Civil War" is worthy and I will somewhat agree with that, but is that really art? Are we now in the phase where we consider a superhero movie that is meant as a major product placement as art?
With the surprising news that "The Founder" has been moved to December and "Star Trek Beyond" being an average movie, we have skimp options to save this terrible summer we are having, maybe the worst, most uninspiring summer movie season yet.
1) Jason Bourne
2) Pete's Dragon
3) Kubo and the Third String
4) War Dogs