Top Ten Movies for the Long Hot Summer

With the dog days of summer approaching, we are all looking for cool entertainment to take our minds off the sweltering heat. HD movies online for free https://www.123movies.haus
I offer these ten diverse films to fill in the time between barbecues and sunburns, between baseball and long hot car rides to relatives' houses for cook-outs.


Although there are none of the current season's blockbuster summer fare included here, I can view the ten films listed here from the comfort of my own air-conditioned home for far less than the sixty dollars that it would cost my family of four to see whatever super-hero is inhabiting the cinema this weekend.

I have tried to include a diverse selection of genres while still pandering to my own somewhat twisted set of priorities, with that in mind here, in no particular order, are the Top Ten Movies For a Long Hot Summer.

1. Meatballs (1979)

This movie marks the first film appearance of Bill Murray, which show flashes of the over-the-top droll style that would become his trademark. This movie is about the summer camp we all wish we had attended with the counselors that we wish we had experienced. Murray sets the comedic tone that he continued in Ghostbusters and Stripes.

2. Field of Dreams (1989)

One of the top three baseball movies of all time, combining equal parts of fantasy, baseball history and a storyline that in the end hinges on a father '"son relationship. Not to be missed for James Earl Jones's soliloquy on the constancy of baseball.

3. The Endless Summer (1966)

The lone documentary in the list, this movie features the quest of two California surfers to find the perfect wave. Shot in some of the most exotic venues this film is driven both by the stunning scenery and the characters that the two principals meet on the along the path that leads them to Australia, South America, to West Africa. This is a visually stunning movie.

4. Jaws(1975)

Director Steven Spielberg brought us the movie that scared people out of the water and off the beaches for a complete summer. Even though the special effects seem a bit lame in light of the current computer generated monsters, "Bruce" the shark still scared the daylights out of audiences. And no one forgets the rumbling bass line that gave Bruce the most recognizable theme music since the Lone Ranger.

5. Dirty Dancing (1987)

A guilty pleasure. What's not to like? A trip to a Catskills summer resort, a young Patrick Swayze showing us why he was a talented dancer, a pre-Dancing With the Stars Jennifer Grey as the ingenue, and a simply dynamite soundtrack. Nobody puts this movie in a corner.

6. Caddyshack(1980)

Rodney Dangerfield as the boorishly wealthy Al Czervik and Ted Knight as the stuck-up hoity-toity Judge Smails square off in a high stakes golf match at Bushwood Country Club. The stellar cast includes Chevy Chase as the wealthy besotted Ty Webb, and Bill Murray as the burned out greenskeeper Carl Spackler. "I think he got all of that one"

7. Summer of '42 (1971)

This movie still ranks as one of the most poignant of all coming of age movies. What teenage boy could resist Jennifer O'Neill, as the grieving young Army wife.

8. Vacation (1983)

The road trip from hell or every family vacation from our youth. A trip in the family Truckster with the Griswolds, as Clark (Chevy Chase) and the family make the cross country journey to the Wally World amusement park. John Candy is hilarious as the security guard. "Park's closed folks. The moose out front should have told ya."

9. American Graffiti(1973)

This movie chronicling the last night of the summer of '62 before two friends are scheduled to leave for college is among the first of George Lucas's directorial efforts. A well-crafted story that almost makes you feel the warm summer breezes. Cool cars, great music and a cast that included an almost unknown Harrison Ford as the bad guy put this movie on the list.

10. 500 Days of Summer(2009)

This odd little movie makes the list intriguingly even though it has nothing to do with the season. This film tracks the up and down romance of Tom and Summer, played by the always interesting and quirky Zooey Deschanel. It makes the list because of its unique treatment of their relationship and the fact that it avoids the trap of the neat happy ending.