This is a superhero-heavy summer, with Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America and X-Men: First Class all likely to kick ass on the big screen (or in the case of Thor, already in the process of hammering it). But how does this summer rate against other hit-heavy summers?
1. 1980- While you were but a nagging itch in your old man's Jockeys, the summer of '80 was yielding Stanley Kubrick's masterwork of pants-shitting horror The Shining; the greatest installment in the Star Wars franchise (Empire, duh); Airplane; Superman II; and the only SNL-alumni comedies worth a crap, The Blues Brothers and Caddyshack.
2. 2008- Batman and the Joker blew a billion dollars' worth of minds (and counting) in the Oscar-worthy The Dark Knight, which alone makes 2008 a summer for the history books. Unsatisfied by that effort, however, 2008 also gave audiences the unbridled fun of Iron Man, the big green slug-fest that was The Incredible Hulk and more Downey brilliance in Tropic Thunder. Even the stink-fest that was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Bullshit CGI Gopher failed to ruin the awesomeness.
3. 1986- So powerful was Top Gun's grip on our formative years that we still rock our youth-size aviator jacket, refusing to respond to anything but our call sign (Stork). And if a blockbuster that deftly captured the homoeroticism of naval aviation wasn't enough, the summer of '86's wondrous womb also birthed Aliens; Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Big Trouble in Little China; Labyrinth; and the lone proof that Rebecca Romijn's bridegroom Jerry O'Connell was once a tubby dumpster, Stand by Me.
4. 1981- Not only did Raiders of the Lost Ark which introduced us to our lifelong hero, Indiana Jonesteach us that old stuff is cool, but it was also nominated for Best Picture. How many blockbusters can claim that? And if that wasn't enough education for a summer, we also learned that booze-dependent deadbeats could finish first thanks to gut-busters Arthur and Stripes. Finally, Escape From New York confirmed our suspicions that Manhattan is indeed a dystopian prison and that Kurt Russell is the coolest man on earth.
5. 1987- It can be argued that Spaceballs begat the unimaginative blockbuster-spoof genre typified by Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans, but no one could deftly cram one year of pop culture into a movie like Mel Brooks. Add action-franchise kick-starters Predator and Robocop, Vietnam epic Full Metal Jacket, Sean Connery's Oscar turn in The Untouchables, and one of Eddie Murphy's last funny roles in Beverly Hills Cop II, and you've got nearly all of the "fall back" movies in your DVD collection.
6. 1984- Temple of Doom brought Kano-style heart ripping to the summer blockbuster, and it headlined a summer of supernatural cinema. Highlights included three wack-job paranormal pest controllers in Ghostbusters; thousands of cute, puffy fur balls that morphed into demonic, bloodthirsty gremlins in, uh, Gremlins; and one middle-age teen who, with the help of an old strange man and no inappropriate touching, discovered the metaphysical link between waxing old jalopies and thrashing bouffant bullies in The Karate Kid.
7. 1982- Set out to plan a "cult hit summer," and you still won't beat '82. The third chapter in Sly Stallone's illiterate-leg-breaker-cum-heavyweight-champ franchise Rocky introduced Mr. T and Hulk Hogan to the Balboa mythos just two weeks before E.T. acquainted us with the heart-wrenching tale of a young boy and his grody alien pal. Fast Times at Ridgemont High not only provided us the hottest bikini scene of our pre-pre-prepubescence, but also the rarest of Hollywood sightings: a tolerable Sean Penn. So spoiled were moviegoers that summer that they completely ignored Harrison Ford's inevitable sci-fi classic Blade Runner, which would only be truly appreciated years later.
8. 1999- Ninety-nine was supposed to be the summer of Star Wars, but after Lucas botched the franchise's all but guaranteed triumphant return, we were left with nothing, right? Wrong. In The Phantom Menace's disappointing wake, we got sleeper hits like The Sixth Sense; The Matrix; and the scariest low-budget horror film of all time, The Blair Witch Project.
9. 1989- Besides giving us suitable sequels to both Ghostbusters and Lethal Weapon and juicing up the Indiana Jones series with The Last Crusade (hear that, George? Last Crusade!), the ´80s went out on a high note, thanks to James Cameron’s The Abyss (whose morphing water creature was James Cameron’s dry run for the badass T-1000 in Terminator 2) and Tim Burton´s Batman, a then-dark, gothic take on the masked vigilante that took nearly 20 years to top.
10. 1993- We were always taught that dinosaurs once ruled the earth, but we didn't really believe it until we saw a towering T.rex laying waste to a Ford Explorer in Steven Spielberg's CGI masterpiece Jurassic Park. After our 30th viewing (we were still virgins), we finally moved on to more contemporary fare, like thrillers The Fugitive, The Firm, In the Line of Fire and action-adventure romps like Cliffhanger and Sleepless in Seattle. Man, we loved that last one.
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