The Summer Blockbuster

Why did I fall out of love with the Summer Blockbuster? A discussion on my history with the summer movie season.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This production is brought to you by the Recess Bell.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Hey everybody, my name is Justin Greenberg and this is
the Film Reel right here on the Recess Bell Network.
And I'm recording this in early June, and it got
me thinking about summer movies and just how much of
a love I had for the summer movie season growing up,

(00:27):
and as an adult, I just don't feel like I
have that same passion for these months, you know, the June,
the July, the August, for these.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Movies that I once had.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
And I'm gonna explain why that is, and maybe this
is something that could possibly change. So let's get into
it summer movies on this edition of Film Reel. Let's
start off with the history of the summer blockbuster. But
I'm not gonna get too much into that, because what
I like about this show is it's personal stories. I

(01:00):
wasn't around in nineteen seventy five, but most people would
say that the first blockbuster, the first summer blockbuster, was
Jews and it was a phenomenon. You talk to anybody
that grew up in that summer of seventy five, they
just talked about how much fear they had of the Ocean,
and the people were saying, you gotta see this movie.
You gotta see this movie, and it gained such a
steam and momentum and it ushered in a new age

(01:23):
of cinema and I love that film. In fact, this year,
celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, I did have the pleasure of
getting to see this movie on the big screen. Just
a few years ago, they re released it and I
got to watch it on an Imax screen. It's a beautiful,
beautiful film with some of the best acting from any
film from the seventies. I'll put Joe's acting up there

(01:44):
with stuff like The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse, Now, all
those great iconic movies from the seventies. The acting in
Jaws is that damn good and it was a spectacle.
It was something that you need to see.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
There is a creature alive today who has survived millions
of years of evolution, without change, without passion, and without logic.
It lives to kill, a mindless eating machine. It will

(02:18):
attack and devour anything. It is as if God created
the devil and gave him Jaws.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Now, a few years later, George Lucas would amp that
up with Star Wars which became the highest grossing movie
of all time, and this trend would continue. Most of
the Star Wars movies released moving forward would get a
May release.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Somewhere in space. This may all be happening right now.
Twentieth century Fonts and George Lucas, The Man Who'd browne
You a Man? And Graffiti now bring you an adventure
unlike anything on your planet. Star Wars hit up. How

(03:15):
do you do the story of a boy, a girl
and a universe Star Wars a billion years in the making,
and it's coming to your galaxy this summer.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
For me, the nineteen eighties is my It's my absolute
favorite decade for film, and there was a few summers
that I wish I was around to witness and get
to see these movies on the big screen. Let's go
back to nineteen eighty two, which a lot of people
think is the best year for movies, but let's focus

(03:59):
specific on the summer season. Let's start off with the
number one movie that year, which would actually surpass Star
Wars and become the highest grossing movie of all time
for a number of years, and now would be another
Spielberg movie. We were talking about Jaws earlier let's talk
about ET the Extraterrestrial. And I've talked about this movie
quite a bit. I think it's absolutely perfection. I have

(04:22):
it in my top three favorite movies of all time.
John Williams music in it is a masterpiece. The child acting,
it's so good. It's so important to have good child actors.
If they're gonna be the focal point of your story,
the kids better be good at acting. And you know,
let's go back to Star Wars. Star Wars Episode one,
one of the worst child acting performances of all time.

(04:43):
And I don't even blame the kid. I blame the casting,
I blame the direction, I blame the script. But Jake
Lloyd was horrendous as Anakin Skywalker now Elliott played by
Henry Thomas, and Et was just so realistic and relatable
and felt authentic and such great acting. And Drew Barrymore
as Gerty, another phenomenal child acting performance, really adds to

(05:07):
many of the reasons as to why ET is just
one of my favorite movies of all time. It was
definitely something that you had to watch in the summer.
But I want to reiterate this point, movies today have
such a short shelf life on the big screen. You know,
you watch something on the big screen, within a few

(05:27):
weeks it's already on streaming. And that's been a huge
problem for cinemas. That's a reason why, one of the
many reasons why I in my opinion, that movie theaters
are failing, it's because there's no real threat in a sense,
I don't know if that's the right word, but there's
no real like you have to see this in the theaters.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Because if a movie like Star.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Wars came out in nineteen seventy seven, right, you had
to see that in the movies. You know, you might
be lucky, it might be on TV in a year
or two years, three years, but you were going to
be able to rent it. You certainly obviously weren't going
to be able to stream it. You know, VCRs and
Beta Max. Nobody really had these things until really the

(06:12):
mid to late eighties is when it became more of
a commonplace. But even into the early eighties, if you
were to see something, it really had to be on
the big screen or else you weren't going to be
able to see it again unless you know, NBC or
ABC or any of these companies got the rights to
show it on TV. You weren't going to be able
to watch these films nowadays, Like I was saying, if

(06:34):
you watch something on the big screen a few weeks
from now, it's going to be on Disney. Plus it's
going to be on Netflix, and that takes away some
of the necessary I need to see this in theater
sort of rush that you get. Let's go back to
nineteen eighty two, because this is such an amazing year
for movies. Some of the movies that came out that
summer weren't that big of hits, but they were still fantastic.

(06:56):
I just want to say one other thing about you know,
not necessarily need to see these movies in the summer.
Movies would also be in theaters for such a long time.
E t was still the number one movie by the
time of Thanksgiving rolled around. I mean, that would never
happen today. Like I was saying, movies have such a
short shelf life, which is a very difficult sentence to say.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
But look at a movie that becomes.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
The number one movie in twenty twenty five, when I'm
recording this podcast, it's very rare for it to be
the number one movie for the second weekend and very
very rare for it to be relevant within five six weeks,
and usually it's pushed out of theaters by the seventh week.
And that's talking about like a really well you know,
received movie. Sometimes these movies get a week two weeks.

(07:43):
If it's failing, they're gonna pull it immediately from theaters.
And that's not a good thing because sometimes it takes
word of mouth to get a movie going. Now, there
are exceptions to the rule. Something like Barbie or something
like Wicked, you know, has a very long shelf life
and might get a re release here and there. But
for the most part, a lot of these movies have

(08:04):
their relevancy and their trending, and they're popular for two
three weeks and then the next thing comes out. But
back in the day, something like Star Wars or et
or Raiders of the Lost Ark, they would be in
theaters for half a year, nine months, ten months because
there was no video release, there was no streaming.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
All right, let's go back to nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Let's see some of these big movies that came out
that summer. The Road Warrior. Wo what a movie. What
a sequel? Mad Max? Great movie, Mad Max two, even better?
And again not a successful movie, though it ended up
being the twenty seventh highest grossing movie for the domestic

(08:43):
box office for the summer of nineteen eighty two, but
one of those iconic movies that gets talked about forty
plus years later. They're still making Mad Max movies all
these years later. Another one, not a big hit, but
certainly culturally it's one of the most important movies. I
think the quintessential high school film, and that would be

(09:04):
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. One of the best movies
of all time coming out in the summer of nineteen
eighty two. That one came out.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
In August of eighty two.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
How about this, we were talking about Raiders of the Lost
Arc that actually was re released that year, So Spielberg
having the number one movie with ETV Extraterrestrial his previous
hit from the year prior.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
Raiders of the Lost Arc did get a re release.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
In July of that year, and it actually cracked the
top twenty five movies for the domestic box office for
the summer of nineteen eighty two, which is just absolutely amazing.
Let's just quickly rattle off some of these other big
movies from a summer of nineteen eighty two. Rocky three
my personal favorite of the Rocky sequels. What a Juggernaut,
really catapulting Hulk Hogan into superstardom, cementing mister t as

(09:53):
a megastar, and Stalloane was on top of the world
with Rocky three. It's the Eye of the Freaking Tiger Baby.
Horror movie The Poltergeist was the number four highest grossing
movie for that summer. Star Trek to the Wrath of Khan.
Not a Star Trek guy, but most Star Trek fans
say this is the best Star Trek movie. Conan the
Barbarian we were talking about Saloon. How about his counterpart,

(10:16):
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Conan the Barbarian was the number nine highest
grossing movie for the domestic box office for the summer
of nineteen eighty two. One of my favorite movies came
out June twenty fifth of nineteen eighty two, and that
would be The Thing, John Carpenter's The Thing, which you know, wasn't.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Really that big of a hit. It made let's.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
See, around twenty million dollars domestically, but again, you know
that that necessarily wasn't that big of a failure because
these movies didn't cost nearly as much to make, so
if a movie made twenty million dollars in today's day
and age would be considered an absolute flop. Re releases

(10:59):
were huge, Like I was saying, you wouldn't be able
to get to watch these movies unless they were played
on television. So Disney in particular would always re release
its classics. And Bambi was re released June fourth of
nineteen eighty two and crack the top fifteen highest grossing
movies for that summer. Something like that would never happen.
The thing, Like we mentioned an influential sci fi film,

(11:21):
how about Blade Runner coming out also on June twenty fifth,
the same day as the thing. Listen to this, I mean,
just how insane this month of June is. You had Poltergeist,
Star Trek two e t the re release of Bambi,
Blade Runner, the thing. I mean, you just had Rocky

(11:44):
three coming out the end of May. It's wild. All
these hits and all these things, for the most part,
have stood the test of time. You know, Hollywood's still
using these properties. Right, Let's actually go through this. Let's
see what Hollywood is still touching. Within the last fifteen
twenty years. So e T thankfully has never had a sequel,

(12:07):
and I'm blessed that they haven't. Rocky they still make
Creed movies. They just had the Creed three. They're always
making new Star Trek stuff, new TV shows, new movies. Poltergeist,
I believe, did get a remake maybe ten years ago
or so. Conan and the Barbarian also had a remake,
maybe fifteen years ago or so. Blade Runner did have

(12:30):
a sequel a few years ago, Friday the thirteenth. They
haven't made one in a while, but they're always gonna
keep on pumping those out. Tron came out in the
summer of nineteen eighty two. There's a new Tron coming
out this year as I'm recording, in twenty twenty five.
So it's just funny that, you know, The Road Warrior
came out. They just had another Mad Max movie. It's

(12:54):
wild that some of these movies that came out almost
fifty years ago at this point are still influencing modern cinema.
So nineteen eighty two an amazing summer. Let's go over
one other summer real quick, and now'd be the summer
of nineteen eighty seven, which I don't think is nearly
as good as nineteen eighty two. But I've seen this

(13:14):
image online of a marquee of a movie theater from
nineteen eighty seven, and it shows three movies all being
played at the same time, and it's three of my
favorite movies of all time. And now'd be Predator, RoboCop,
and The Lost Boys, three iconic eighties properties, and they
were all playing at the same time. Also coming out

(13:36):
in nineteen eighty seven for that summer, you had some
iconic comedies, which is something that we're severely lacking. The
Adventures in Babysitting and Summer School. How about this Spaceball's
also coming out, the Steve Martin classic Rock sand The
number one highest grossing movie for that summer was Beverly
Hills Cop two. So I mean, comedies were on fire

(13:59):
in the eighties. It's such as damn shame that we
just don't get that anymore. But let's add to my
personal stories and why I love well, should I say why?
I loved the summer box office season, and I always
looked forward to this season more so than any season
for watching movies nowadays, not as much. I tend to

(14:20):
like the November to December. I just think those months
put out better movies. And let's start off with some
reasons why, in my opinion, I'm not a big fan
of the modern you know, summer blockbuster, and then we'll
get into some personal stories of some of my favorite
memories of watching movies during the summer. So I think

(14:42):
a big factor is when I was growing up, there
were certain months that there were just shitty movies being released,
and you weren't going to get anything that was going
to gross over one hundred million dollars in January and
February and March, and those are usually the dumping grounds
that studios would put out their movies that they knew

(15:05):
probably weren't going to be that successful. That has changed.
I've noticed in the last ten years February has been
a very big month for movies. Deadpool came out there,
Jordan Peel has released movies in February, The Black Panther
movies have come out in February. So now we're getting

(15:27):
big budget, you know, high box office you know, receipts
throughout not just January and February, but every single month
could have a big hit. So that takes away the
specialty of the summer box office. You weren't going to
usually get a big action movie in February back in
the day.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Now you do.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Also, the summer season I think starts even earlier and earlier.
When I was growing up, May, you know, Memorial Day
weekend usually was the start of that summer box office.
Now you're getting gigantic properties in April, sometimes in March
that normally always would have been a June July release.

(16:11):
You know when I saw Batman v. Superman, which was
a terrible movie, but that got released in March, and
that was a telltale sign that things have changed that
studios aren't necessarily needing a June or July release to
crack you know, five hundred million, six hundred million, a
billion dollars. The Avengers movies, a lot of them have

(16:34):
come out in April, which again wasn't always the biggest
month when I was a kid. Yeah, you get a few,
you know, Easter type of hits, but usually it was May, June, July,
that's when the big ones came out. I also think
a reason why I personally don't care for these movies.
I think everything's been done and we're regurgitating the same

(16:57):
plot the same movies. Literally, actually the same movies are
just getting remade shot for shot, and I've talked about
that a lot, so I don't want to get too
much into that on this show. But I'm sort of
sick of these over the top CGI slopfests. There's no originality.
Every action sequence has been done already.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
You know.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
All these movies end the same. There's a portal in
the sky and the interdimensional creature goes through it, and
then there's a giant battle with one army on one
side and the other army on the other side, and
they run together and they collide, and it's like, how
many movies have we seen that have had that? I
tend to like these story driven types of movies a

(17:39):
lot more, and those movies don't get released in June
and July.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
You know.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
I like the Oscar type of movies, movies like the
Holdovers that came out a few years ago. Maybe something
that doesn't have any computer generated images.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
I never would have thought i'd be that way. I'm
not saying I don't like action movies. I don't like
a superhero movie. I do when it's done right of
course I do. I'd be lying to you.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
If it said I don't like these movies. I do.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
I loved Guardians of the Galaxy three. I love those
latest Avengers movies. I thought they were fantastic, must watch
in movie theaters. I like the John Wick series. I
like these movies. They just need to do something original,
or it needs to be a spectacle that hasn't been seen,
and unfortunately we've seen it all.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
But let's go.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Back to the past to talk about my personal experience
with these movies. The first true summer movie I remember
seeing would be Jurassic Park, which is something that I
just remember being so hyped for. I remember staying home
from school one day and watching a news broadcast about

(18:56):
Jurassic Park.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
This fascination with dinosaurs is bound to get a boost
next month with the release of a much touted.

Speaker 6 (19:02):
Motion picture, William to Jurassic Park.

Speaker 5 (19:08):
Jurassic Park is the ultimate theme park where the dinosaurs
are real and out of control.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
Yes, I must figure out how.

Speaker 5 (19:21):
Factor fiction. The dinosaur craze has a firm grip on
our imaginations.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
And I was four and a half years old, and
this is some of my earliest memories. I was all
in on Jurassic Park that summer, and it didn't end
when the movie ended. I got books, I got action figures,
I got freaking chapstick. I literally got Chapstick with a
velociraptor head, and I remember eating that chapstick and no,

(19:48):
you're not supposed to eat chapstick, but I was four
and a half years old and it was delicious.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
I have a Jurassic Park.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Wallet to this day in my little toy room that
I got when I was a kid. So Jurassic Park
fever was everywhere, and I remember being so hyped for
that film, and I do wish I was just a
little bit older so I could really remember all of it.
But I do have those early memories of sitting in
that theater and being in awe and being in fear,

(20:17):
and you know, just witnessing a masterpiece on the big screen.
A few years later, the sequel would come out, Jurassic
Park The Lost World, which I know I have talked
about on various different podcasts, but I really like that movie,
and I know that's in the minority. Most people tend
to not like that movie, but I think I was
just the right age when that came out, and I

(20:39):
think it's actually visually really impressive, and John Williams score
is also fantastic. Is it as good as the first one?
Of course it's not. It's a dumb down summer blockbuster
movie where the first one was more cerebral and more
thought provoking. But I still like that and do have
fond memories of seeing Jurassic Park two The Lost World
in theaters. But let's travel back a year prior, so

(21:00):
Jurassic Park to the Lost World came out in ninety seven.
In ninety six, there was a big one that came out,
and that would be Independence Day. And you know, sometimes
you don't remember all of the movie, but you remember moments,
and you remember maybe things leading up to seeing the
movie or after the movie what happened. And I remember

(21:22):
seeing this one with my grandma and my cousin Stephanie,
and I remember the exact theater. It was a theater
that was in Lawrence, New York, and it's no longer there,
but I remember being.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Outside of that theater.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
It was a hot summer day and it was a
packed crowd, and this was before you could reserve seat,
so you had to get there before the movie started.
Sometimes an hour, an hour and twenty minutes, an hour
and a half before the movie started, because you wanted
that good seat or you wanted us seat. Sometimes that
you know the damn movie would be sold out. But

(21:55):
I remember watching that movie and the one moment I
remember from that movie is there's a scene where they're
doing an autopsy on one of the aliens and the
alien makes this loud sound and scares the entire audience.
I can remember that being the first jump scare that
I actually remember, because I remember that reaction from the

(22:16):
whole crowd of being frightened by what they thought was
a dead alien making a loud noise when its exo
suit was cut open.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (22:28):
Run this right easy.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
At that very same theater. The year prior to Independence
Day was a movie called Mortal Kombat. And these movies
I was so hyped for them, and we did a
whole episode on Mortal Kombat. It was one of the
earlier episodes of the film reel. But Mortal Kombat was
again one of those movies like Jurassic Park, where I
was absorbing all of it.

Speaker 7 (22:57):
Now.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
I was a fan of the property. I loved the
Mortal Combat video games, but I remember staying up and
watching behind the scenes featurettes. They would have stuff on television.
It would be the making of Mortal Kombat, and we
would record it on our VCR and I would just
rewatch it over and over again. And I remember going
to that very same Lawrence movie theater with my dad

(23:18):
and my brother and.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Loving the movie. We loved the movie.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
I could still remember the popcorn bag had Goro on it,
who was one of the characters from Mortal Kombat. It's
this iconic image of him in the shadows, and it's
definitely a poster. I want to get that specific same
image of Goro. It does exist, but I don't know.
It's just one of those things I remember. I remember,
you know, back to Jurassic Park, you know, the sequel

(23:42):
to The Lost World. I remember the standee. They had
cardboard cutouts. You know, if you go to any movie theater,
you see these large cardboard standees. And I remember the
cardboard cutouts for you know, Jurassic Park, the Lost World.
I remember these velociraptors really frightening me before seeing the movie.
I also remember this when seeing The Lost World. I

(24:03):
remember seeing a popcorn bucket for Titanic, because Titanic was
originally supposed to come out that summer, but because of
some issues that were going on with the filming, it
got pushed back to December, and it became the highest
grossing movie of all time. But I remember seeing that bucket,

(24:24):
you know, saying summer of nineteen ninety seven. So it's
little things like that, you know. After seeing Mortal Kombat,
I remember the discussions I had with my dad and
my brother. I remember my dad actually enjoying Mortal Kombat,
which was shocking. Another movie he enjoyed that was shocking,
came out in nineteen ninety seven. Ninety seven was a
great year for movies, particularly.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
In the summer.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
We're talking about summer releases. I'm not just talking about
random movies. I'm talking about the importance as a kid
of the summer blockbuster, and a lot of these are
superhero driven, and the one that jumps to mind from
nineteen ninety seven, there's a few, but Men in Black
and Spawn, both based off of comic books. And I

(25:05):
remember my dad loving Spawn, which is very shocking because
it's honestly not that good of a movie, but he
really liked it, and I was so looking forward to
that one. I watched the HBO series of Spawn at
a hotel the year prior, and I was hooked. And
I had magazines, and again that's something that was very

(25:25):
important because you didn't have the Internet. The Internet was
in its infancy and we had AOL, you know, but
you can't really get images on that. Magazines were very
important for spreading the word of movies and behind the
scenes stories and making of and you know, release schedules,
and I was so looking forward to Spawn, and it
really lived up to the hype. Men in Black Also

(25:46):
prior to that, I remember seeing Men in Black in
July of nineteen ninety seven, and earlier in the year
I rented a movie called Jerry Maguire and they had
a preview for Men in Black, and I remember telling
my dad, we got to see this this and it
lived up to all the expectations.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
You know.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
This got me thinking. Also, I mentioned Jurassic Park was
the first summer blockbuster I remember, and I actually take
that back because the year prior, in nineteen ninety two,
and this is a very very faint memory, but I
do remember it. I went to go see Batman Returns
at a drive in movie theater.

Speaker 6 (26:25):
If you always wanted to get your hands on Batman,
drop into McDonald's. Batman Returns is on a dramatic series
of thirty two months collector cups with five Frisbeef bat
desk lids straight from the movie.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
You can pick up a large drink.

Speaker 6 (26:44):
In one of six superhero collector cups at a special
times when you buy the the extra value here because
what you want is what you get at McDonalds today.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
And when you're a kid, an experience like that is
something you will never forget. I was three and a
half years old and Batman was my world and going
to a drive in movie theater, which doesn't exist for
the most part. You know, in Pennsylvania they.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Have a few. There's a bunch scattered about the world,
but not what it was.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Even in the nineties, it wasn't really a thing. You know,
in the fifties and sixties it was everywhere. That was
a big thing. The drive in movie theory. You take
your sweetheart to the drive in and make out. But
when you're a kid, the movie theater screen is gigantic.
You know, everything is bigger when you're a kid, but
imagine what a drive in theater screen which was just,

(27:37):
you know, monumentally bigger than a normal screen because it
needed to be because you're so far away, your car
is parked, and you need to be able to see
this from pretty far distance. So this is something that
really stuck with me, just the size of this theater.
And I remember little things from that night. I remember

(27:58):
my family interact with the family next to us because
we had to figure out how to get sound. You
had to tune in to a certain radio station to
get the sound playing through your car. It was such
a novel concept. I really wish something that I got
to do again. But it's been almost well it's been

(28:19):
over thirty years now since the last drive in theater
that I went to. But I remember loving Batman returns.
I remember going to the toy store the next day
and getting Batman action figures. And Batman is one of
those properties that tends to have their movies come out
in the summertime. The original Batman from eighty nine was

(28:41):
a huge success. Batmania was running wild, and I remember
being very hyped for Batman Forever in nineteen ninety five,
and I actually enjoyed that movie. And again I think
I'm in the minority with that, but I do enjoy
Batman Forever from nineteen ninety five, another conic summer movie
of my childhood. Let's flash forward, though, to some movies

(29:05):
within the last twenty years. The Dark Knight in the
summer of two thousand and eight was something everyone and
their mother was hyped for. I think with the passing
of Heath Ledger this added even more of an aura
for this film. I think it was still gonna be
a giant success, but I don't think it would have

(29:27):
had the success if it didn't have the unfortunate passing
of Heath Ledger behind it. I think people were morbidly
curious to see this role that some people say pushed
him over the edge. I don't believe that, but there
was that morbid curiosity of this is this guy's.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
You know, last role.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
I know there were some other movies that were released
after Batman The Dark Knight, but this was such a
great movie, lived up to all the expectations, and then
The Dark Knight one of those like summer movies for sure.
And you know, I'm just going through the rolodex in
my head. What are some big movies that I remember

(30:07):
watching during the Summer Signs was a big one. I
remember seeing that multiple times in the summer. I believe
that was two thousand and two. Horror movies are always
great during the summer. Another aspect of the summer movie
and why it's so important, especially back in the day,
a lot of people didn't have air conditioners. That was

(30:28):
actually a selling point for a lot of people to
go to the movies. So, oh, how do you get
out of a ninety five degree day? You have a
shitty fan that's barely blowing anything at you, hot air
just blowing in your face. We can escape to the
air conditioner. That was actually a selling point for a
lot of movie theaters is, oh, we have air conditioners,

(30:48):
have some cool drinks and refreshments, and be in the
cool air conditioned room while watching this feature film.

Speaker 7 (30:55):
Yes, you lucky people, just sit back for a moment relax.
I noticed the delight of a clean, cool, and refreshing
atmosphere of this scientifically air conditioned thinter. Great, isn't it.
Remember you can enjoy great motion picture entertainment all summer
long in cool comfort at this theinter.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
So you know, I love the summer movies as a
kid like I said, they've grown to be something that
I don't like nearly as much I could be, you know,
just a jaded, old piece of trash. I don't know
if that's the reasoning as to why I don't like
them as much. I think I gave fair reasons as
to why I don't care for them. I just think

(31:41):
everything's been done no originality, and I like the more
slower paced films with story driven type of stories, and
you don't really get that in the summertime. Another big
thing for the summertime we talked about, you know, horror
movies are big. Animated movies are gigantic in the summer.
That's usually what wins the summer box office these days

(32:03):
is an animated movie. Some Juggernauts have come out in
recent years. All the Pixar movies tend to come out
during the summertime. The Toy Story sequels, a lot of
them have been summer releases.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
A lot of Pixar movies, like.

Speaker 2 (32:17):
I mentioned, have that Lion King, what was a gigantic
kit in the summer of nineteen ninety four, the super
Mario Brothers movie from last year, or what was I
a few years ago? Now at this point huge hit.
You know, the animated movies. You get the kids, and
you know they're not in school, so you get a

(32:37):
lot of these summertime releases being gear towards kids. I'm
hoping this summer, as I'm recording, there's a lot of
movies I actually am looking forward to. I'm hoping we
get a good summer season this year. I'll have my
reviews later on in the year. I'll have my list
of my favorite movies of the year. But you know,
I'm looking forward to another Jurassic film. We got a

(32:59):
Fantastic Four movie which looks pretty good. Superman, I hope
we get a good one on the big screen in
my lifetime. I'm also really looking forward to the twenty
eight Days Later sequel. We got twenty eight Years Later,
which looks like it's going to be, in my opinion,
my favorite movie of the summer. But that's neither here
nor now. But this was just a look back at

(33:21):
some of my favorite memories moments while watching movies throughout
the summertime. It's a tradition that everybody has done, and
it's something I'll continue to do and I'm hoping. I'm
hopeful even though I'm a jaded asshole. I'm hopeful that
we do return to the glory years of original properties
and just great summer movies. This has been the film

(33:44):
reel right here on the Recess Belt Network.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Thank you all for listening.