Cosmo Kramer has some great lines in
Seinfeld. One of my favorite things he says is when he's suggesting a video for Elaine to rent: "What you need is some summertime adolescent hijinks." I never thought of that as being a genre of film, but you know what, it totally is and it's one of my favorites. Now I've been keeping a summer movie diary on my blog but there are a few summer movies that just go together. These movies are about kids going on adventures, causing mischief, and just having fun during summer break. If you are looking for an entertaining summer movie with lovable characters, memorable one-liners, and friendships that remind you of when you were young, then this is the list for you. Inspired by some of my favorite movies of all time (and my most successful Tumblr post to date), here are, in no particular order, some summertime adolescent hijinks.
The Goonies (1985)
The Goonies is rated PG and the opening scene involves a cop in a jail who finds a prisoner that has hanged himself. The prisoner is actually faking it; he takes out the cop and runs out of the jail to find his mom and his brother in a car waiting for him outside. The brother proceeds to pour gasoline in front the prison and light it on fire. You know just from this first scene that this movie is gonna be something special.
The Goonies is a cult classic, directed by Richard Donner and written by Chris Columbus from a story by Steven Spielberg. These three dudes knew how to make movies about kids in the 1980's.
The Goonies is one of their finest and one of my favorite films of all time. The movie tells the story of a group of kids who call themselves the Goonies as they go on a quest for a pirate treasure. First off, the casting is great. You've got everyone from baby Sean Astin to baby Josh Brolin. The Goonies themselves were relatable and each had different strengths: the inventor, the talker, the natural leader, the...Chunk. Who didn't watch this movie and not want to be a Goonie?
The Goondocks (the nickname for where the Goonies lived) was also the most beautiful place in the world. The ocean is right next to the woods;
The Goonies made Astoria, Oregon my dream place to live. Another wonderful element of this movie was the score. The main theme is unforgettable, somehow perfectly representing kids on a treasure hunt. And who can forget Cyndi Lauper's "The Goonies R Good Enough" and that bizarre music video?
The Goonies is funny, exciting, and it remains good throughout the years. I enjoy it just as much now as I did as a kid. It's not completely flawless in its writing, editing, and story execution. But it remains a favorite among audiences thirty years later because it represents a type of movie that hasn't been made in a long time. It's an adventure movie that stars kids that actually talk and act like real kids. Its combination of good score, funny writing, and practical effects makes this a summer adventure movie that will have you wishing you were a kid again. For all these reasons, I think
The Goonies will continue to be a cult classic and audience favorite for years to come. And also because Goonies never say die.
Super 8 (2011)
I first saw this J.J. Abrams movie at the dollar theater when I was in college. It was love at first sight.
Super 8 is a summer blockbuster that's a little underrated, in my opinion. It's the late 1970's and school has just ended for the summer. Six kids are making a short film when they witness a major train crash. Afterwards, strange things keep happening in their town and the kids discover that a creature came from that train and is now wreaking havoc.
Like
The Goonies, Super 8 has middle school kids that actually act realistically. The child actors, who were relatively unknown at the time except for Elle Fanning, were all great. Joel Courtney and Fanning were particularly fantastic. The cinematography is absolutely beautiful. This movie is just nice to look at. What I really love about
Super 8 is the story. I love that it's about kids making a movie. You get to see a bunch of twelve-year-olds in the seventies make a short film about zombies. It's fun to see the old equipment, like the Super 8 camera, of course, and the way they did their special effects. The main character Joe Lamb made models and he used them in the film. The end credits of the movie are even fun. We get to see the short film the kids made. It's quite a treat.
Abrams and Spielberg joined forces to make an
E.T. for my generation. If you are loving
Stranger Things right now, then you will love
Super 8. It's a movie about making movies with some great monster action. It's the perfect summer movie if you want less beach parties and more explosions.
The Sandlot (1993)
You wanna know why, in 2016, you can still buy T-shirts at Target that say "You're killin' me, Smalls" on them? Because
The Sandlot is an American gem and a cultural icon.
The Sandlot, set in the 1960's, is about a kid named Scottie Smalls who moves to a new town. He's a bookworm who's not too good at sports but he eventually becomes accepted by a group of kids who are obsessed with baseball and teach him how to play.
The Sandlot isn't the smartest or most grown-up movie in the world. In fact, if you didn't grow up watching it, you might not really get it. But here's why you should give it a chance.
The Sandlot is the definition of light-hearted. If you want something fun and silly to watch this summer, with nothing too heavy in it, this movie is perfect. It's funny, simple, relatable. My favorite thing about
The Sandlot is that there isn't too much of a plot up until the last half hour or so. If you have read my blog for a while, you know that characters are the most important thing for me in a movie; there doesn't even really need to be much of a plot if the characters are good. And that's what this movie is. For most of time, it's just a group of kids doing stereotypical summer activities: playing baseball, going to the pool, having Fourth of July barbecues, telling scary neighborhood legends, going to the fair, having treehouse campouts. Each kid at the sandlot is unique and funny in their own way. You want to join their group and do all of these fun summer activities, too. And coming from someone who sucks at sports like no other,
The Sandlot makes me want to play baseball more than any other movie. Now that's something.
The Sandlot is the ultimate summer movie and it will make you laugh and give you ideas on how to enjoy your summer. If there is a place in your heart for
The Mighty Ducks and
Heavyweights, then there is plenty of room for
The Sandlot.
Stand by Me (1986)
Okay, now it's time for the heavy stuff. If you're looking for a summer movie that will make you laugh one minute and cry the next, look no further than the 1980's classic
Stand by Me. Based on a short story by Stephen King, this film tells the story of four best friends in 1959 going out into the woods to find the dead body of a kid named Ray Brower. From the description it might sound like a typical horror story by Stephen King but it isn't a horror movie at all. It's a movie about four friends learning about each other, overcoming their own personal problems, and growing up.
The four best friends are played by Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell. The casting in
Stand by Me is wonderful. A
quote from Wheaton describes the perfect casting choices: "Rob Reiner found four young boys who basically were the characters we played. I was awkward and nerdy and shy and uncomfortable in my own skin and really, really sensitive and River was cool and really smart and passionate and even at that age kind of like a father figure to some of us, Jerry was one of the funniest people I had ever seen in my life, either before or since, and Corey was unbelievably angry and in an incredible amount of pain and had an absolute terrible relationship with his parents." The writing is also amazing. There are some really funny or poignant lines that stay with you. I also love the soundtrack. It has some of the most classic songs from that time, including "Rockin' Robin," "Lollipop," and, of course, "Stand by Me." It's one of my favorite things to listen to, during the summer especially.
If
The Goonies adventure was pure fun, then the
Stand by Me adventure is all existential (and lucky for Feldman, he got to go on both of them). Even though it has a lot of funny moments, it also has a lot of sad ones, too, which it makes it a very relatable film.
Stand by Me is the perfect coming-of-age movie. In the beginning of the film, the kids argue about whether Goofy is a dog or not. By the end, they have all experienced death firsthand as they discover the body of Ray Brower. By the end, they have grown up. It's kind of sad, but that's how life is. We grow up. And that's the beauty of
Stand by Me.
Heavyweights (1995)
One of the most bizarre and least-known movies on this list,
Heavyweights is a hidden gem among the sea of Disney's live-action sports and comedy movies that were released in the nineties. This movie is about a group of kids who go to a weight loss camp called Camp Hope for the summer. While it seems it may actually be a fun experience at first, a new camp owner, the tough and borderline psychotic fitness guru Tony Perkis, proves otherwise.
First, we need to talk about the crazy cast and filmmakers. This movie was co-written by Judd Apatow and stars Paul Feig; just a few years later they would be making
Freaks and Geeks together and now both have amazing careers. It also stars Tom McGowan from
Frasier, Aaron Schwartz and Shaun Weiss from
The Mighty Ducks, and a young Kenan Thompson. There are also cameos from Jeffrey Tambor and Tim Blake Nelson. But no one in
Heavyweights shines quite as much as a very young, not-famous-yet Ben Stiller as Tony Perkis. Surprisingly buff and absolutely hilarious, Stiller is definitely the best part of this movie. Even his parents play parts in this film as the former owners of Camp Hope.
With its funny script and choice casting,
Heavyweights deserves more love. It's a great summertime movie because it is set in a summer camp and it's full of pranks, mischief, and fun. The message of the movie is also inspiring: pick the right exercise plan and diet for
you and take responsibility for yourself. The end-of-the-movie moral could have easily taken other sketchy roads but it ended up being encouraging and sincere. If all these aren't reasons enough to give an hour and a half of your summer to
Heavyweights, then maybe this one scene will change your mind:
everyone in the camp, including the counselors, gorging on junk food in slow motion while "The Thieving Magpie" plays in the background.
The Parent Trap (1998)
Does anything say summertime adolescent hijinks more than switching places with your secret twin that you met at summer camp?
The Parent Trap is the remake of the 1961 Disney movie and stars Lindsay Lohan as both Hallie Parker and Annie James in her film debut. Both girls are from different sides of the world and meet by chance at a summer camp. They soon realize that they are really twins, separated as babies after their parents divorced and never learning of the other's existence. Hallie and Annie come up with a plan to switch places after camp, hoping to get their parents back together.
This movie could have been a disaster for Lindsay Lohan - she was a child actor, it was her first movie, and she was playing two parts, But she pulls it together and does a fantastic job.
The Parent Trap made the world fall in love with Lohan and I think she was able to make a lot of good movies after this because she did just such a great job. Elaine Hendrix as Meredith Blake, the woman who wants to marry Hallie and Annie's father, was another great casting choice. She is overdramatic and malicious, making her character hilarious as well as downright awful.
The Parent Trap is also a great movie if you enjoy nineties styles. Hallie and Annie have great outfits and if you grew up in the late '90's and early 2000's, you would love the styles in this movie. It's got everything from scrunchies to denim jackets to Lipsmackers.
The Parent Trap is a great summer movie. It's a lot of fun and really heartwarming. And after watching it, you will be wishing that the tagline of this film could have been: "Prepare for trouble, and make it double."
Good Burger (1997)
This might be the weirdest movie on this list. But it's Dan Schneider, so that's not too surprising. Based on the comedy sketch from
All That, Good Burger is a nineties staple that tells the story of the restaurant Good Burger as it competes with a new burger joint called Mondo Burger. At Good Burger, two unlikely friends must team up to stop Mondo Burger from putting their restaurant out of business: simpleminded, Good Burger-obsessed Ed and slacker Dexter.
If you are familiar with
All That and are fans of Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, you probably have already seen
Good Burger. Written by and starring Dan Schneider, this film is the precursor to later Schneider successes like
Drake and Josh and
Victorious. He uses his special brand of bizarre comedy to make this movie unique. I think it actually gets funnier the more times you watch it. Plus, both Shaquille O'Neal and Linda Cardellini make appearances. Does it get any better than that?
Good Burger is pure nineties, from the sets to the costumes. Even the R&B-heavy soundtrack in the background (including the gem "We're All Dudes" by Kel Mitchell and Less Than Jake) leaves you feeling nostalgic.
Good Burger is weird and wild. It's pure silliness and that's what makes it great for summer. You'll laugh and remember the crappy summer jobs you had. And then you'll wish that the Demented Hills Dancers was a real dance group you could join.
The Sasquatch Gang (2006)
The Sasquatch Gang is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen and nobody knows what it is. Hopefully I can help spread the good word. From the producer of
Napoleon Dynamite and starring Justin Long and Jeremy Sumpter,
The Sasquatch Gang takes place during one fateful summer in Oregon. Four nerdy friends discover what they believe to be Sasquatch tracks and scat and they report what they find. Everyone in town gets excited and patiently waits for a Sasquatch expert named Artimus Snodgrass to declare it a real find. We follow different people's stories throughout the few days this movie takes place and learn how they all are involved in the Sasquatch incident.
If you are a fan of the kind of humor in
Napoleon Dynamite, you will love
The Sasquatch Gang. For whatever reason, comedies are never recognized at the Oscar's but I honestly think Justin Long deserved a nomination for his performance as metalhead doofus Zeke Wilder. It's one of the funniest performances I've ever seen in a movie. Even with all the silliness involving Big Foot, the characters are very real and fleshed out. There are unconfident girls trying to find themselves, douchey teenage boys, cops obsessed with conspiracy theories. Every character is funny and interesting. Technical aspects of
The Sasquatch Gang are also wonderful. The soundtrack and the costumes are fantastic. The editing and cinematography are also awesome. The movie is not linear: we go forward and backwards in time. We may even see a scene we've watched already again but from another character's perspective. The movie is also set in chapters; each new chapter begins with a drawing done in comic book-style art. It's really cool.
The Sasquatch Gang is a funny, surprising movie. There are a lot of good morals hidden in between the jokes. And it will make you long for a summer vacation filled with nothing but enjoying your favorite hobbies and hanging out with your friends.
