50 Summer Films

This was a tough one. We tried to look everywhere while compiling our fifty favorite summertime films. We looked at the big summer blockbusters (Iron Man, The Rock, etc.), films set on hot summer days (Do the Right Thing, Dazed and Confused, etc.), hangout/stoner flicks (Half Baked, Friday, Pineapple Express, etc.), baseball movies (Major League, Eight Men Out, Sugar, etc.) and, of course, classic summertime movies like The Sandlot, American Pie, Stand by Me and more. We’re sure we missed a lot, but, for now at least, here’s our list of the fifty films that remind us most of summertime. 

50. Half Baked (Tamara Davis)

49. Can’t Hardly Wait (Harry Elfont)

48. American Pie (Chris Weitz)

47. The Wackness (Jonathan Levine)

46. Clueless (Amy Heckerling)

45. A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall)

44. Crooklyn (Spike Lee)

43. Major League (David S. Ward)

42. Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg)

41. I Know What You Did Last Summer (Jim Gillespie)

40. Slacker (Richard Linklater)

39. Summer School (Carl Reiner)

38. Caddyshack (Harold Ramis)

37. Con Air (Simon West)

36. Can’t Buy Me Love (Steve Rash)

35. Grease (Randal Kleiser)

34. The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick)

33. Armageddon (Michael Bay)

32. Encino Man (Les Mayfield)

31. Iron Man (Jon Favreau)

30. Mission Impossible (Brian De Palma)

29. Repo Man (Alex Cox)

28. The Rock (Michael Bay)

27. Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau)

26. The Burbs (Joe Dante)

25. Teen Wolf (Rob Daniel)

24. Eight Men Out (John Sayles)

23. Stand By Me (Rob Reiner)

22. Revenge of the Nerds (Jeff Kanew)

21. Iron Man (Jon Favreau)

20. Sugar (Ryan Fleck)

19. The Bourne Identity (Doug Liman)

18. The Sandlot (David M. Evans)

17. Signs (M. Night Shyamalan)

16. European Vacation (Amy Heckerling)

15. Superbad (Greg Mottola)

14. Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green)

13. The Sure Thing (Rob Reiner)

12. National Lampoon’s Vacation (Harold Ramis)

11. White Men Can’t Jump (Ron Shelton)

10. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron)

9. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis)

8. Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis)

7. Adventureland (Greg Mottola)

6. Friday (F. Gary Gray)

5. Say Anything (Cameron Crowe)

4. Die Hard with a Vengeance (John McTiernan)

3. Kids (Larry Clark)

2. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater)

1. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee)

Compiled by G. William Locke