"Like a blast of chlorine water on the first day the pool's open, the joys of summer come fast and sudden. For every person, that joy can be different too. For some it might mean the smell of barbecue and a cold beverage; for others it could be an escape into the wilds of a sun-kissed coast or a rolling hiking trail. For almost everyone, however, summer has also long meant a chance to disappear into the fantasies of their local cinema for a few hours, preferably with ice-cold air conditioning cranked all the way up.
While being able to define what a "summer movie" is can be difficult, much like the Supreme Court's ability to sniff out obscenity, we know it when we see it. It needs to be a film the audience responds to passionately, and it needs to be a shared experience that got folks to vanish into another world—or at least a gripping story set in our own—for a precious few hours."
