D2 / SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2016 / THE SAGINAW NEWS
Entertainment
From left, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford star in “Star Wars.” (Studio photos)
Richard Dreyfuss, left, and Robert Shaw star in “Jaws.” (Studio photo)
ON THE BIG SCREEN Drew Barrymore stars in in “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.”
Top summer blockbusters By John Serba
healed by a so-ugly-it’s-cute animatronic space alien. logging through a We laughed at his hijinks, less-than-stellar wept for his tragedy, sat in summer-blockawe of that breathtaking buster season — hi shot of Elliott’s bike flying there, “Warcraft,” across the face of the full “Independence moon as that iconic stringDay: Resurgence” and swept score swelled. (I’m “Alice Through the getting misty-eyed as I type Looking Glass” — prompts this.) No popcorn blocka cinema lover such as buster has ever been so myself to exercise nostalemotionally poignant. gic longing for those halcyon days when everything ‘Raiders of the Lost seemed better, but probArk’ (1981) ably really wasn’t. (Youth: Indiana Jones’ crackso it goes.) ing whip is the perfect The recent release of the audio-visual symbol for “Ghostbusters” remake this ripping, roaring, Naziprompted some pondering melting fresh-throwback over big-money big-screen pulp adventure. Harrison smashes, and subsequently Ford’s charming smirk has listing and ranking the best never been so winning. A ones. So I narrowed my fun, suspenseful and, most criteria to films of the post- importantly, timeless film. “Jaws” era (the shark flick Spielberg does it again. generally is considered to be the first of the modern ‘Jurassic Park’ (1993) event-movie blockbustWe believed that ers); they also had to be dinosaurs could walk released between May and among us. It broke sigAugust and gross at least nificant ground technically, $100 million internationthanks to its combination ally. So here’s my highly of live action, wily camera subjective picks for the tricks and computergreatest popcorn season generated effects — and if movies ever. you think we would be able to see the seams 23 years ‘Jaws’ (1975) later, well, you would be “We’re gonna very, very wrong. Watch need a bigger boat.” Roy it again now, and it’s still Scheider said it, and every pretty damn terrifying. Hollywood producer Spielberg tapped into the thought it after Steven primal wonders of youthful Spielberg’s hugely susfascination for the giant penseful giant-shark masextinct lizards — and the terpiece set the standard primal fears of getting for the modern blockbuststepped on and/or eaten by er/event picture. It took a something with really big big bite out of us all. teeth.
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jserba@mlive.com
Harrison Ford stars in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
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Sam Neill stars in “Jurassic Park.”
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1 Robert Downey Jr. stars in “The Avengers.”
2 From left, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis star in “Ghostbusters.”
Tie: ‘Star Wars’ (1977) and ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980) Go ahead — you try to pick one or the other. George Lucas’ timeless space saga set the standard for the modern blockbuster franchise, hugely important in light of the serial-franchise insanity we’re dealing with now, for better and worse. Beneath Han Solo’s cornball wisecracks, Luke Skywalker’s journey from chump to hero, the endless merchandising and sprawling mythology, we tend to forget that its matte paintings, puppetry, models and sound design also broke significant new ground for special effects artistry. These two films (and the slightly lesser “Return of the Jedi,” of course) dominated the pop-cultural identity of a generation, and exist objectively as cross-cultural classics, not just nostalgia pieces.
3 Christian Bale and Heath Ledger star in “The Dark Knight.”
‘E.T.’ (1982) And here, Spielberg officially begins dominating the top five. Every person who watched this had their hearts broken and
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‘The Avengers’ (2012) I can’t imagine being 10 years old and seeing this. I might not have survived. (“I’m always angry” summons preadolescent goosebumps every time. Every. Time.) Joss Whedon made the comic-bookiest of all comic-book movies, a smartly scripted, superb superhero epic exploding at the seams with action and comedy and heart. It’s still amazing the fifth and sixth and seven times through, and I would know.
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‘Ghostbusters’ (1984) Is there a script in existence that’s more quotable? This all-time great comedy with one of the alltime greatest comedy casts delivers many all-time great one-liners, ranging from “Back off, man. I’m a scientist” to “And the flowers are still standing!” to “Mother pus bucket!” to “Ray, when someone asks you if you’re a god, you say, ‘Yes!’” If we didn’t love Bill Murray enough already, after seeing “Ghostbusters” we wanted to move in with him. If someone asks me if this is a perfect movie, I’d probably say, “Yes!”
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‘The Dark Knight’ (2008) Here’s where things got very, very … dark? Yes. Dark. Sure, Christopher Nolan made Batman more convincing than ever, casting a broodingly intense Christian Bale as the caped hero, who found himself in a credible urban-nightmare context rife with moral corruption. But Heath Ledger’s unforgettable Joker rendered the film a classic, and upped the dramatic and thematic stakes considerably (“Everything burns!”). And the Batpod/semi-truck chase under the streets of Gotham is an exquisitely shot, cut and choreographed barnburner of an action sequence.
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‘Back to the Future’ (1985) Robert Zemeckis’ popclassic time-travel comedy is endlessly watchable thanks to a buoyant, appealing Michael J. Fox performance and a quietly insightful (and sometimes frighteningly oedipal) screenplay about growing up and adulthood. Christopher “1.21 gigawatts!” Lloyd steals many scenes, Crispin Glover plays an immortal dweeb and nearly everyone is upstaged by that ridiculously awesome DeLorean, as it leaves flaming tire tracks behind it.
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‘Aliens’ (1986) After “Alien,” Ridley Scott’s elegant lurking-horror killfest, came James Cameron’s sequel, a pedal-to-the-metal shredder and therefore, a significant shift in tone and style. It’s a triumph. It builds slowly, setting the stage for a tremendous confrontation with those slobbering, shrieking, phallic-headed apex predators, protecting their mighty queen, who squares off with determined heroine Sigourney Weaver for a nerve-wracking finale. When it comes to aliens-attack monster movies, there is none better. Game over, man. Game over.
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‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ (1991) He promised he would be back, and he returned, better than ever. Despite its raw energy and ambition, James Cameron’s first “Terminator” faced the limitations of budget and its director’s immaturity. His vision came to fruition with the explosive “Judgment Day,” which filled our peripheral vision with action and groundbreaking effects, notably, the digitalmorphing Terminator, one of the pioneering efforts in CGI technology.
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‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ (1988) We believed cartoons and human beings could co-exist. When Roger’s eyes popped out of his head, Looney Tunes-style, it was a hyperbolic representation of what was happening with audiences — very, very large audiences — in the theater. We were wowed by what we saw, and amused by the ’40s-noir tone of this retrodetective tale anchored by an inspired Bob Hoskins. This would be easy to make now, but 30 years ago? You might as well use ropes and pulleys to drag a steamship over a mountain.
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‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998) Who says summer movies need to be escapist fare? Despite a bowelchurner of an opening sequence — 30 minutes of gory wartime horror at the Normandy landing — Spielberg’s World War II epic raked in hundreds of millions, thanks to Tom Hanks’ star power and its significant emotional punch.
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‘WALL-E’ (2008) This vital Pixar film will be a classic via my sheer force of will, even if I die trying. It’s a masterpiece, the story of a plucky robot who’s THIS CLOSE to self-awareness when we meet him — and he discovers it, his mindbogglingly lonely existence rendered complete via hope and love and a little bit of high-stakes adventure. Filmmaker Andrew Stanton is a craftsman of wit, heart and wonder. The first 30 minutes, bereft of any significant dialogue, are a masterwork of storytelling and characterbuilding through pictures and sound — filmmaking in its purest form.
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‘Spider-Man 2’ (2004) Sure, we could put “Spider-Man” on this list, but its sequel is a superior film on all fronts. Sam Raimi skillfully and exquisitely captured the superhumanity and superhumility of the character that make him so appealing to crossover audiences — even those who might not normally watch costumedhero movies. Hence, this franchise’s success. OTHER NOTABLES
“Gladiator,” 2000; “Toy Story 3,” 2011; “Inception,” 2010; “Inside Out,” 2015; “Batman,” 1989; “Top Gun,” 1986; “The Sixth Sense,” 1999; “The Bourne Ultimatum,” 2007; “There’s Something About Mary,” 1998.