Sure, there’s dozens of great huge summer blockbusters to watch, but chances are you’ve already seen quite a few of them. Here’s a list of great films that take place IN the summer.  Some are great to watch with your kids and some are definitely for the older crowd. Which is your favorite?

1.   What About Bob?  (PG) A man follows his psychiatrist on vacation and drives him crazy.  And you thought your job was rough!

2. The Sandlot  (PG)  Kids.  Baseball.  James Earl Jones.  ‘Nuff said.

                        

  3.  Jaws  (PG, but I’d think twice about under 10) The original summer blockbuster, the one that started it all.  Thirty years later, those special effects still hold up.  You’re going to need a bigger TV.

4.    Caddyshack  (R)  Yeah, it’s got the predictable plot, the bad language, the potty humor, and I hate the stupid puppet – but you’ll still laugh yourself silly.

5.     Field of Dreams (PG) – The greatest baseball tribute movie. It’s not too late to cut a diamond in your lawn for playoffs. If you build it, they will come.

                          

6.    National Lampoon’s Vacation (R for language) – the mother of all summer vacation movies, who can’t relate to long trips with grumpy kids, relatives you can’t stomach, and things going bad every inch of the way?  Don’t you wish reality ended as well it does here?

7.     Stand By Me (R for language) – a fantastic coming-of-age movie for the 11 & up crowd – and it was written by Stephen King.

8.     Deliverance (a very adult R) – classic dark 70’s story of friends taking an ill-fated rafting trip that will make you fear the sound of banjos. 

             

9.  The Parent Trap  (G) – A Disney Classic of two separated twins who find each other at summer camp and decide to get their divorced parents back together. Watch the Haley Mills original; Lindsey Lohan’s not the role model people hoped she would be.

10.West Side Story – (Not rated, but I’d give it a PG if you object to guns and knives) Oh, to be in America, dancing on a New York roof in the heat of summer!  A classic story and a film that can never be reproduced, with a soundtrack that’s among the best musical scores ever. Make your kids watch it now, so when they have to watch it in highschool, they’ll be ahead of the game.

11. Porky’s  (R)  The American Pie of its day, full of juvenile sexual banter and potty mouth as a group of Florida teens tries their best to sneak into a strip bar. You will laugh until you cry.

12.Addams Family Values (PG-13)  Wednesday and Pugsley go to summer camp, with the inevitable twisted chaos that follows the ooky Addams family.

                       

13. Super 8 (PG-13)  A group of kids plan to spend their summer filming a movie, and get far, far more than they bargain for when they stumble upon a government secret.

14. Friday the 13th  (R) The original slasher movie that sent everyone scuttling away from lakes and summer camps. It doesn’t matter where you watch it; Jason will find you.

15. Little Miss Sunshine  (R)  A quirky little film about a quirky family trying to hang together as they pin their hopes on their daughter winning the Little Miss Sunshine pageant – without any clue what it’s about.