April 28th, 2008
13. Back To The Future (1985)
Buried deep within the spectacle, fantasy, and excitement of Robert Zemeckis' beloved Back To The Future is the heartwarming story of a clean-cut, all-American teen time-traveler (Michael J. Fox) who must resist the urge to fuck his fetching, hot-to-trot mother (Lea Thompson) in order to avoid disintegrating into nothingness. While the instantly iconic classic amply delivered the summer-blockbuster goods it did so with the subversive edge, kinky black humor, and Mad-style irreverence that distinguished earlier Zemeckis projects like Used Cars and I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
14. There's Something About Mary (1998)
Sophisticated comedy doesn't fly in the summertime, but funny movies don't have to be completely heartless. Peter and Bobby Farrelly enjoyed great success with Dumb And Dumber in 1994, but it was the largely overlooked smart-dumb bowling comedy Kingpin that set the table for There's Something About Mary, combining gross-out gags with surprising emotion. With Mary's tale of a former high-school loser (Ben Stiller) who tracks down the dream girl who got away, then winds up facing stiff competition, the Farrellys found a way to combine testicle injuries, dog mutilation, and "hair gel" jokes with a sly take on male romantic obsession. The many copycats that followed, including some produced by the Farrellys themselves, got the grossness but lost the substance.
15. Die Hard (1988)
Die Hard doesn't seem as fresh as it did back in 1988, when Bruce Willis was presented as a down-to-earth alternative to the era's reigning action-movie he-men, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. That's because Die Hard's central concept—an everyman fending off a small army of terrorists single-handedly while trapped in an enclosed space—set the template for countless action thrillers for the next two decades, gradually turning what was once inventive into a cliché. Still, there's still enough punch and wit left in the original to make it stand out among the imitators. (Not to mention Die Hard's three sequels.) Alan Rickman's frighteningly funny turn as bad guy Hans Gruber covers the price of admission on its own.
16. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The first Terminator film is a cult classic, but Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of the greatest action films ever made, and a crowning achievement for writer-producer-director James Cameron, who picked up the torch for top-flight summertime action-adventure filmmaking after Steven Spielberg moved on to prestige projects in the late '80s. (Cameron himself soon left for Oscar-friendly pastures with Titanic.) "Bigger is better" is the standard equation for summer sequels, but Terminator 2 is the one of the few examples where more money, more special effects, and more pretension added up to a superior film. Finding time for nuanced characterizations and a poignant father-son relationship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong amid a series of staggeringly exciting action setpieces, Terminator 2 is equal parts style and substance, and all awesome.
17. Face/Off (1997)
Blockbusters mean blockbuster stars, and while John Travolta and Nicolas Cage have enough flops on their résumés to make Sly Stallone feel better, 1997's Face/Off is a bright spot on their commercial and critical records. Directed by John Woo, whose career dipped afterward, Face/Off succeeds in spite of a preposterous plot due in large part to the charisma of its stars, who play up the movie's silliness by chewing whatever scenery they can get their hands on. The mad overacting by Travolta and Cage actually makes Face/Off more believable—only a shameless ham like Travolta could plausibly convey Cage's batshit intensity, and vice versa.
18. Superman II (1982)
Richard Donner's original Superman is one of the best big-budget blockbusters of the late '70s, but 1980's Superman II has the advantage of being exposition-free. Instead of waiting almost an hour for Clark Kent to put on the red cape, Superman II goes straight to the action, picking up on a group of criminals sentenced to exile from Krypton in the first film who escape and wreak havoc on Earth. Meanwhile, Superman reveals himself to Lois Lane in more ways one at the Fortress Of Solitude. With plenty of adventure, a little bit of sex, and a touch of slapstick humor courtesy of director Richard Lester (who replaced to Donner), Superman II is one of the most well-rounded and satisfying superhero movies ever.
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