Well, summer’s almost over. This summer I watched a lot of movies in the theater. Last summer I hardly watched any movies at all because they all kinda sucked. But this year it seemed there was a lot of flicks worth watching on the big screen in comparison. So I thought today I’d write a little blog with brief reviews of all the movies I’ve seen this summer, and give out a Best Summer Movie award! Read on to find out what it is. You’ll be surprised, I bet!

Indiana Jones
This was actually one of the first movies I saw this summer. I even wrote a whole blog about it a few months ago, so I suggest you go read that if you haven’t already. I’m too lazy to post a link, but it’s down there…somewhere. Oh, okay, okay, I’ll at least summarize it for you. In my Indiana Jones blog, I talked about how, as I am a child of the 80’s, Indiana Jones was almost as big a part of my childhood as Star Wars was. And when I was in high school, one year our marching band show featured the music of the Indiana Jones movies, and that was my favorite marching show we did. Also in my blog, I talked about the first three movies and the LEGO game.

So what did I think of the fourth movie? Well, it certainly wasn’t as good as the first three. A little too much CG and not enough ‘on location’ shots. And a lot of times it seemed that the two oldest little boys around (Lucas and Spielberg) were just putting stuff in the movie they thought was cool. But you know what? It was still a fun action movie, and I was entertained, and that’s all that matters. Of course, it still kind of paled in comparison to the other movies that came out later this summer.

Iron Man
I don’t know much about comic books, so coming into the Iron Man movie the only things I knew about the hero was that he was made of iron, and he was a man. And he was in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Iron Man turned out to be a great superhero action movie with lots of, well, action. However, I still felt that it was a typical paint-by-numbers Marvel superhero movie.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
When I was a kid, I loved the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. While talking to my grandmother about them when I was visiting family in Alabama a couple of months ago, turns out she’s the one who gave the set of books to me as a Christmas present when I was little. I remember reading the books mostly as a form of escape when I had tough times as a kid when my parents were going through their divorce. I think those books are now lost after years of use by little brothers, but oh well.

One thing I remember about the books was that the Prince Caspian was my least favorite of the series (along with The Silver Chair). But surprisingly, I really liked the Prince Caspian movie. It was a fun, family friendly fantasy fairytale film. Say that three times fast! If they make another Narnia movie and follow the order of the books, it’ll be my favorite in the series: Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

Wall-E
When this movie first came out I wrote a whole blog about it, too, where I listed all the Pixar movies in order of my favorites. Wall-E was around the middle of the list and I think it’ll stay that way. I loved the first half of the movie as the lack of dialogue gave it an artsy feel and left room for a lot of physical comedy, which I like. However, I felt the environmental messages were a little bit preachy and heavy-handed. Still a very charming movie, though.

X-Files: I Want to Believe
Just recently, I wrote a blog in honor of this movie where I listed my favorite live action TV shows, X-Files being one of them. I think the main problem I had with this movie was it felt like it could’ve been done on TV. In fact, the plot was pretty similar to some of the TV episodes, if I’m not mistaken. I think they probably could’ve made it into a TV movie if they wanted to, but I bet the two main stars wanted too much money so they put it in theaters so it could make more sales. But you know what? I still enjoyed the movie anyway. It didn’t have as much splash and action as some of the other bigger summer blockbusters, but that’s okay. Not every film has to. Of course I also made sure not to pay full price for this one, either.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Actually, as of this writing I haven’t seen this movie yet. But that’s okay because even if I had, I wouldn’t write too much about it as to not spoil the movie for anyone else. I’m hoping to see this movie with a friend this weekend (at the early showing, again, so we don’t have to pay full price), but if I don’t get to see it this weekend, it’s okay. I can see it another time. I like the Star Wars films and stuff, but I’m not a drooling Star Wars fanboy or anything. Besides, I had to turn in my Star Wars fan badge years ago when I said I actually liked the Ewoks. At any rate, I’m not expecting too much out of this CG Star Wars cartoon. Seems like it’s just Lucas trying to milk even more money out of the franchise. But if it’s fun and at least mildly entertaining, I won’t mind.

The Dark Knight
Now this was a movie! I loved Batman Begins (though it was pretty violent), and the sequel does not disappoint. Definitely not a paint-by-numbers superhero movie like Iron Man was. It’s neat how they were able to pull off a superhero movie without being the least bit cheesy. And oh man, was Joker a scary clown! One of my favorite video game villains is evil clown Kefka from FF6. Well the Joker in this movie makes Kefka seem tame in comparison. In The Dark Knight, when you heard the sound that was like an off kilter air conditioner (Joker’s ‘theme’), you KNEW something bad was going to go down! Very exciting movie. And Alfred still rocks. Oh yeah, out of all the movies I saw this summer, The Dark Knight is definitely the one that’s most ‘NOT for kids!’

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Cary’s award for best 2008 summer movie goes to…

Hey wait a minute, Cary, you already mentioned The Dark Knight. Shouldn’t that have won your best movie award?

Well, technically, yes, it was the best movie of the summer. But the staggering ticket sales and rave reviews give it enough recognition already. I wanted to give credit to something that was deserving, but didn’t get the chance it needed.

So now, Cary’s award for best 2008 summer movie is…

Hey wait another minute, Cary, what about movies like Get Smart, The Hulk, Mummy, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda, etc.?

Well I can’t go see ALL the movies. I may end up renting those or watching them when they hit the dollar theater. I don’t have time to see that many movies, and I certainly can’t afford it!

OK, no more interruptions. Cary’s award for best summer movie of 2008 goes to…get ready for it:

Speed Racer
Yeah I know what you all are thinking. “Huh? How did such a cheesy movie win over everything else?” Yeah I guess I’d better explain. I’m not really a big fan of the old Speed Racer cartoon at all, but I’ve watched it enough in my childhood that I know enough about the characters, plots, and themes. As a kid I only watched the cartoon because there wasn’t anything else on and like most other dumb kids, I didn’t have enough sense to turn the TV off and go do something else. As a teen I watched Speed Racer late at night on MTV while waiting for MST3K to come on Comedy Central. And later I just watched Speed Racer to laugh at how bad it was! Anyone remember the Dexter’s Lab spoof of Speed Racer? Man that was funny.

Anyway, the Speed Racer movie was also very cheesy, silly, and over the top, and a lot of people complained about that. But I don’t know what they were expecting…it’s based on a CARTOON! I think they got the feel pretty right. And the racing parts were like watching a really exciting F-Zero cutscene. A great blend of action and comedy. And aside from a poo flinging monkey, the movie was relatively clean and cuss word free. If a little kid could sit through it all, I bet they’d think Speed Racer was a really cool movie. And it had a lot of good messages, too. With all its overly bright colors, when the movie was over and we stepped outside, the real world just seemed a lot more grey and drab.

The reason why I gave Speed Racer the award is because it really bombed in the theater and was trounced by other movies by Iron Man. But I think it deserved better than that. So if you can catch it before it leaves the dollar theaters, I recommend going to see Speed Racer. Bring the family, too. Or definitely rent it when it comes out on video. But don’t watch the new Speed Racer: Next Generation cartoon on Nicktoons Network. Now that…is AWFUL!

What were your favorite summer movies?

Tags: Movies with Children