Every year, June and July are “summer blockbuster season.” Hollywood releases a buzzworthy big-budget picture that is designed to drive us out of the heat and into air-conditioned movie theatres.
What is the best summer blockbuster of all time? BDBF attorneys debate it!
Tim Canney
When I say the name “Michael Bay”, people usually only recall recent travesties like the Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchises. But he was once a legitimate action movie director, and his masterpiece occurred in 1996 with the release of The Rock. The plot? Absurd. The acting? Ed Harris and Nicolas Cage do their part, but Sean Connery as a wrongfully imprisoned British SAS officer who, despite 30 years of incarceration, still has the mental fortitude to deliver Bond-like quips throughout the movie, while being the only feasible option to break into Alcatraz, makes this a 10/10 for me. Also, it is quite literally the same plot as Executive Decision (released 3 months earlier) except that The Rock is set in a prison instead of on an airplane.
Liz Farley
My favorite summer blockbuster is twofold – Summer 2023’s Barbenheimer. Not only did both movies come out on my birthday, but it was the first time I felt really excited to go see movies in the theater after the pandemic. Barbie was feminine, funny, and gave us Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” (and thereafter SNL’s “I’m Just Pete”). Oppenheimer was dramatic, loud, and the special effects of the nuclear bomb going off were amazing. Between both movies, there was something for everyone.
Phil Kuljurgis
For me, it has to be Independence Day. Although I prefer my movie presidents to either be Morgan Freeman or Harrison Ford, Bill Pullman turned in a very competent performance as the President of the United States, who is also its lead fighter pilot. Will Smith and Harry Connick Jr. were excellent, as always. Jeff Goldblum did his Jeff Goldblum thing, configured his Apple PowerBook 5300, and hacked into the alien mothership’s mainframe. Luckily, Vivica Fox and Mary McDonnell teamed up as an exotic dancer and the first lady, which helped to lend some believability to the story. The best part, however, was seeing all of humankind, even countries at war with each other, joining forces to counterattack the alien marauders. That sure taught the aliens not to mess with us on July 4th!
Jeremy Rachlin
The 1990s were the golden age of summer blockbusters. Jurassic Park…. Independence Day… But choosing my favorite, there is really only one – Armageddon. It has it all. A wildly implausible plot. An all-star cast – I mean, just look at this IMDB page! A cringeworthy love story featuring Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, and animal crackers. A side plot that gave the world what would become the nickname for Alexander Ovechkin. And an absolute banger of a power ballad by Aerosmith playing over the closing credits that was solidly in the rotation for every adult contemporary radio station for the next 2 years.
Meg Rosan
Not being a movie nerd in the same fashion as my colleagues, I had to search the web for a list of options before compiling this response. In full disclosure, my selections are being drawn from the Rotten Tomatoes list of “75 Best Summer Blockbusters of All Time” (some of which, I confess, I’d never heard of). Top picks for me were a tie between the nostalgic National Lampoon’s Vacation (this is crazy, this is crazy, this is CRAZY!) and the more modern Bridesmaids (“I’m ready to PARTAY”). Both evoke belly laughs, and neither involves war fights or explosions (though the word ‘explosive’ could be used to describe at least one scene in Bridesmaids). Honorable mention goes to: Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., and another nostalgic comedy, Airplane (“We have clearance, Clarence”).
Dan Shaivitz
While my esteemed colleagues are correct about the iconic 1990s summer blockbusters, I need to rewind the clock further and travel “back in time” for my pick, Back to the Future. Other classic blockbuster runners up are the likes of: Ghostbusters, Top Gun, and E.T. The style and nostalgia of the 80’s were perfectly captured by the imagery of a vest-wearing-skateboard-riding-walkman-wielding teenager piloting a time traveling DeLorean built by the neighborhood science-kook and fueled by nuclear material stolen from extremists – that’s what tips the scale for me. Plus, those were the days of the great Senator Theater in Baltimore. It’s like I can still taste the butter popcorn and have to pick Jujy Fruits candies out of my teeth. Great Scott!
What is your favorite summer blockbuster? Let us know in the comments below!
