10. Summer 2005
Best Film: It’s become a little fashionable to diss it now and to be sure, it’s yet another origin story, the third act is a mess and the casting of Katie Holmes… questionable. But it also can’t be overstated what a paradigm shift Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins” was a dozen years ago: the first superhero film to take its superheroics absolutely seriously. It would be outdone by its own sequels, and would spawn the current post-Nolan era of lumberingly self-serious DC films, but “Batman Begins” is still a really good time at the movies.
Worst Film: Not wanting for choice here, but if only for the sheer scale of its puzzling unfunniness, we’re going to have to go with the Nicole Kidman/Will Ferrell vehicle “Bewitched.” While the practice of adapting TV shows into movies has spotty results at best, the premise here was high-concept enough, and the A-list cast appealing enough, that it would have seemed a can’t-miss proposition. But an uncomfortable Ferrell is hemmed into a straight-man role, and his chemistry-free pairing with Kidman leaves her twitching her nose in the wind. Not unbearable, perhaps, but an enormous waste of everyone’s time and talent.
And The Rest: The year’s biggest potential bang-crash-boombusters were disappointing: Michael Bay ventured as far from his normal path as he ever has but “The Island” is still dumb-as-paint sci-fi; Jason Statham returned and had less fun in “The Transporter 2“; ‘Revenge of the Sith‘ was bad, but at least released us from having to anticipate any more ‘Star Wars’ prequels and featured a final 15 minutes that was all anyone had ever wanted from the whole trilogy; “Fantastic Four” would be the lamest comic book adaptation until, well, “Fantastic Four”; “Kingdom of Heaven” was an overblown bore (anyone saying right now how you really have to see the reedited Director’s Cut because it’s actually a masterpiece, pipe down, it wasn’t in theaters); Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” was grimness undercut by a facile ending; and Tim Burton‘s take on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” got with the freakiness of the original while scrubbing its wipe-down surfaces clean of the old film’s cock-eyed warmth. However, there was a slew of smaller titles that have stood the test of time much better, like Wes Craven‘s fun b-movie “Red Eye“; Iain Softley’s unfeasibly creepy if daft “Skeleton Key“; total blast “Sky High” and two pretty much all-timers in the comedy genre, “Wedding Crashers” and “The 40 Year-Old Virgin.”
9. Summer 2015
Best Film: There were some terrific films released across this summer season but oh who are we even kidding the year’s best blockbuster, and probably the year’s best film, was George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.” It’s sadly appropriate in retrospect that the prelapsarian paradise that was 2015 yielded one of the most unifying movies in recent memory, with both arthouse critics and genre aficionados emerging with hearts for eyes, even if it did not do as well financially as it deserved to.
Worst Film: “United Passions” was the most dismal film of the year but got almost no theatrical release stateside, and “Entourage” should be fired into the sun, but since no one saw that either, we’ll let both slither off into the forgotten yonder. Under the “Never Forget” rule that we just made up, our pick for the worst of 2015 therefore goes to Josh Trank‘s “Fantastic Four,” which had so many promising ingredients and still left us stumbling from the theater clawing at our eyes, begging for our sacrfice not to be in vain, screaming “Earn this, Hollywood, earn this!”
And The Rest: The season proved a distinctly mixed bag: “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” “Spy,” “Straight Outta Compton,” Pixar’s “Inside Out,” low-budget genre gem “The Gift,” “Sicario,” “Trainwreck” female-gaze service “Magic Mike XXL” and of course franchise-rejuvenating, quasi-Brechtian monument to blowing shit up real good “Furious 7” were sprinkled across the summer months and were collectively strong/fun enough to make us pretty happy with our lot. But that was mainly because, with some exceptions like “Terminator: Genisys,” “American Ultra,” “Hitman: Agent 47,” “The Gunman,” “Mortdecai,” “Irrational Man” and “Kingsman,” which we loathed with a united passion (@ us all you like, “Kingsman” is the worst) the other big films of 2015, decent and otherwise, were pretty forgettable. Massive hits “Jurassic World” and “Minions” contributed to Universal’s record-shattering year (they had 3 2015 titles that grossed more than $1bn, ‘Furious 7’ being the other) but all we really remember about them is the spirited defence of running in heels for the former and the mild headache from the latter. “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Tomorrowland,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “San Andreas,” “Everest,” “Southpaw” and “The Man From UNCLE” all disappointed, but in such blandly inoffensive ways that it’s hard to muster up all that animus towards to them. And if we were to spare a thought for Cameron Crowe‘s reviled “Aloha,” for which the whitewashing controversy was only one of its myriad problems, it would be the first thought we’ve spared for it since seeing it, so quickly did it vaporize from the popular consciousness as anything but a punchline.
8. Summer 2010
Best Movie: In another weird summer saved by a few all-time classics, “Inception” was the movie that made the greatest impact. Now, Christopher Nolan is as mighty as box office force as any filmmaker can be right now, but it’s easy to forget that he’s never had a big hit outside his two “Batman” movies before this, a movie that was kept fiercely under wraps until just before release, with even its longest trailer barely giving anything away. That he could make a film as strange and personal, on such a grand scale, and it could make $800 million and pick up an Oscar nomination, was a glimmer of hope in the future of the blockbuster.
Worst Movie: “Jonah Hex” wasn’t just the worst film of the summer of 2010 (which also included a notable number of shitty movies), or the worst film of the whole of 2010, or the worst film of any of the worst films on this list, it might be the worst film this writer saw in nearly a decade as a critic. Based on the undead DC Western hero, played by Josh Brolin in off-putting prosthetic make-up, it’s overlong and unbearable even at a barely-a-movie 81 minutes, most of which are almost totally incomprehensible, and notable for wasting some pretty good actors like Michael Shannon and Michael Fassbender. One sort of admires that Warner Bros. went ahead and released in theaters: most studios would have been too embarrassed to do so.
And The Rest: Mid-list seems like the fairest place for the summer of 2010, a year which had more truly terrible movies than most (along with “Jonah Hex,” there was also Ridley Scott’s baffling “Robin Hood,” the hateful “Sex And The City 2,” Jake Gyllenhaal’s failed franchise-started “Prince Of Persia,” Joe Carnahan’s empty “The A-Team,” Adam Sandler’s near-nadir “Grown Ups,” M. Night Shyamalan’s near-laughable “The Last Airbender,” the deeply stupid “Salt,” the cheap-looking “Clash of the Titans” and “The Sorceror’s Apprentice,” an attempt to give a hipster “Harry Potter”-style makeover to the bit with the broomsticks in “Fantasia” and starring Nicolas Cage as a wizard, and we promise you this was an actual movie, we’re not making it up) And it also, in seeing the March 5th release of the billion-dollar soulless CG of “Alice in Wonderland,” truly marked the irrevocable embrace of March as a part of a studio exec’s “summer” strategy. But we made a decision to reward years for their good movies more than punish them for their bad ones, and there were a few crackers in 2010. One was also the most successful: “Toy Story 3,” the tear-jerking conclusion to Pixar’s defining trilogy. One was a bit of a flop: Edgar Wright’s mad pop-art kung-fu teen-romance musical “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” which was the sweeter-natured alternative to the earlier, more foulmouthed and cynical but still fairly fun “Kick-Ass.” Plus there were two legitimately tremendous comedies with “MacGruber” and the underrated “The Other Guys,” another charming animation, this time from DreamWorks with “How To Train Your Dragon,” plus the decent “Get Him To The Greek” and “Hot Tub Time Machine” and the pleasingly creepy “Splice,” and that’s more good movies than most summers hold, even if they had to compete with a lot of crap too.
7. Summer 2006
Best Film: Hrrmm. This is a tough one. It wasn’t a bad year on average, but its highlights weren’t so very high. Given that, and wanting to balance out our double-pick for “worst,” we’re going to anoint two contrasting solidly-good-not-brilliant films as the best of the season. JJ Abrams’ “Mission: Impossible III” doesn’t ever quite feel like more than an extended riff on ‘Alias,’ but we liked ‘Alias,’ plus Philip Seymour Hoffman brings it as the villain, even if he gets a crap death. And David Frankel‘s “The Devil Wears Prada” has really grown on us over time: more than just an iconic late-period Meryl performance, it introduced the wider world to Emily Blunt and gave Anne Hathaway a role that capitalized on her eager-to-please persona without becoming annoying.
Worst Film: We just can’t choose between them, so we’re going to award two films with the uncoveted “worst of Summer 2006” ribbon: “The Da Vinci Code” and “Lady in the Water.” Ron Howard‘s adaptation of Dan Brown‘s ubiquitous yet borderline unreadable bestseller is a sludgy slog that can’t even boast a pope-murdering priest parachuting out of an exploding plane like the sequel. And M. Night Shyamalan‘s mermaid fable is similarly murky and uninspired, and was the first concrete proof that the director’s supply of trademark twists and surprises was not bottomless.
And The Rest: Also contending for our favorites of this rather muted season are films like Michael Mann‘s divisive “Miami Vice,” which we love for the film it is but also understand the complaint that it’s nothing at all like its namesake TV show. “Superman Returns” was notoriously a franchise non-starter but recent rewatches suggest it was given an unfairly rough ride, with Brandon Routh an appealingly Reeves-y Clark Kent/Superman and Kevin Spacey having a rare old time as Lex Luthor. There are those “Fast & Furious” aficionados who will insist that franchise outlier ‘Tokyo Drift‘ is actually the best of all of them, and while we don’t see it that way, it’s a perfectly solid, largely standalone entry into the series. Oliver Stone was on non-firebrand form with “World Trade Center” the lesser of the 2 2006 films relating to 9/11 (Paul Greengrass‘ “United 93” released at the end of April). Funny bones were tickled to slightly diminished returns with the latest in a line of Will Ferrell vehicles, though “Talladega Nights” does have a brilliant “Dr Quinn Medicine Woman” joke. And we’ve a sneaking suspicion that of all 2006 titles, Gil Kenan‘s animated delight “Monster House” might actually live on the longest: it didn’t make big bank, but it’s as entertaining, funny-scary and heartfelt a family animation as we’ve seen. It wasn’t all fun and games, though: Wolfgang Petersen remade ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ for no discernible reason; ditto John Moore with “The Omen“; Brett Ratner threw the Golden Gate Bridge at the till-then-great ‘X-Men’ franchise; the second ‘Pirates’ movie already contained a foretaste of the joyless bloat to come; “Cars” was the first Pixar movie that suggested Pixar wasn’t infallible. And then there were the films we’d rather forget altogether, like “Garfield 2,” “Click,” “Little Man,” and “My Super-Ex Girlfriend” (though we’ll weirdly go to bat for the obviously sappy but strangely compelling “The Lake House“). Yeah, 2006 is defiantly upper-mid-table.
6. Summer 2009
Best Film: Guys, you’re going to hate this pick, but after careful consideration, and with a salutory shout to Pixar’s glorious “UP” as runner-UP, according to an extremely scientific process of deduction, the best summer blockbuster of 2009 was in fact “Star Trek.” JJ Abrams‘ launchpad for the subsequent letdowns of the very bad ‘Into Darkness’ and the slightly better ‘Beyond‘ is a pure popcorn blast. If it relies too heavily on Abrams’ old tricks (time travel! Mystery-box Maguffins!) and has a weak villain in Eric Bana‘s Nero, it more than compensates with the brio of its action sequences and the cast chemistry, showcased in the satisfyingly even-handed way that every member of the team gets a hero moment or three. It is also the only blockbuster that can make this hardheaded filmgoer cry before the opening credits roll. Every. Single. Time.
Worst Film: Tough call, but we’ll go for McG’s “Terminator: Salvation” because we’ve seen it.
And The Rest: Let’s start with the bad stuff, because no year, however strong, is without its significant black spots and 2009 had “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” “Year One” (huh, had completely forgotten this existed), “Angels & Demons,” “Night at the Museum 2,” “Land of the Lost,” “GI Joe: Rise of COBRA” and the hideous “Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen.” It also had its fair share of pointless and/or disappointing titles, like “Bruno,” “The Taking of Pelham 123,” “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” drab killer-of-otherwise-guilty-pleasure-franchise “The Final Destination,” and one film that 100% definitely got greenlit while someone was high, guinea pig spy caper “G-Force.” But low as those troughs are, they are not the characterizing features of summer 2009 at the movies: actually from the last week n May when “UP” and Sam Raimi‘s nastily fun “Drag Me To Hell” provided a perfect double-bill, we got some real treats. The first ‘Hangover‘ is legit hilarious, even if the sequels have throttled our goodwill down; “Orphan” is a particularly inventive, original low-budget horror and “The Proposal” is the rare formula rom-com that doesn’t make you want to join a monastery. Better yet, Michael Mann‘s underrated gangster movie/digital experiment “Public Enemies” definitely warrants rewatching, as does Judd Apatow‘s maligned-at-the-time “Funny People” — a film that a certain Playlister (OLI) may well choose as the hill he’ll die on. August then saw one of the best films of the year, Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9” get its release, and one of the most eternally overrated too, with Quentin Taratino’s “Inglourious Basterds” — a film whose inherent badness is the hill upon which another certain Playlister (JESS) will very likely expire. Highs, lows, franchise starters, franchise-killers, underrated gems and overrated cult hits — Summer 2009 had it all.