RT's List Of The Best 75 Summer Movies & Worst 60 Since 1975

[Mitch Henessey]

Every now and then Rotten Tomatoes might come up with on okay list, but more often than not, they're shit. Although, the RT lists always spark some controversy one way or another for some unpopular choices. And here's how RT comes up with each list:

The Best:

In defense of the blockbuster, Rotten Tomatoes offers you Best Summer Movies, a countdown of the highest rated wide releases to hit theaters during the hot season since the release of Jaws in 1975. We're using a weighted formula that takes the Tomatometer, the number of reviews, and the year of release into account. In order to qualify, each movie needs at least twenty reviews, and to have been released wide in the months between May and August.

The Worst

Cinema history is filled with movies that got burned under the hot summer sun, and over the past few months, we've seen our share of critically panned box office duds (a list that includes, but is not limited to, such low achievers as After Earth and The Lone Ranger). Last week, Grown Ups 2 became the latest summer flick to be slaughtered by the critics. Still, it takes a rare kind of awful to merit inclusion into RT's Worst Summer Movies list, a compendium of cinematic horrors that were granted a wide theatrical release between the months of May and September in the years since the release of Jaws in 1975 kickstarted the blockbuster era.

The 75 best:

#75- The Freshman (1990)
#74- The Fly (1986)
#73-Face/Off (1997)
#72- Parenthood (1987)
#71- The Simpsons (2007)
#70- Speed (1994)
#69-Ruthless People (1986)
#68- Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
#67- Bridesmaids (2011)
#66-Die Hard (1988)
#65- Insomnia (2002)
#64- Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
#63- Minority Report (2002)
#62- Dave (1993)
#61- Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#60- Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
#59- A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
#58- Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004)
#57-Out Of Sight (1998)
#56-Hairspary (2007)
#55- The Lion King (1994)
#54- The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
#53- District 9 (2009)
#52-Midnight Run (1988)
#51- Knocked Up (2007)
#50- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
#49- Midnight In Paris (2011)
#48-Sicko (2007)
#47-National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
#46-Supercop (Police Story 3) (Ging chaat goo si 3: Chiu kap ging chaat) (1992)
#45- Fruitvale Station (2013)
#44- What's Love Got To Do With It (1993)
#43- Drag Me To Hell (2009)
#42-Hero (2004)
#41-In The Line Of Fire (1993)
#40-Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
#39-The Fugitive (1993)
#38- March Of The Penguins (2005)
#37- Jurassic Park (1993)
#36- Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#35-The Truman Show (1998)
#34-Ghostbusers (1984)
#33- Star Wars Episode IV- A New Hope (1977)
#32- Apollo 13 (1995)
#31- Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
#30- Spider-Man 2 (2004)
#29- Blade Runner (1982)
#28- Iron Man (2008)
#27- Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
#26- Babe (1995)
#25-Unfrogiven (1992)
#24-Bull Durham (1988)
#23-The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
#22-Chicken Run (2000)
#21- The Iron Giant (1999)
#20- Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
#19- Big (1988)
#18-Back To The Future (1985)
#17-Risky Business (1983)
#16- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
#15- Ratatouille (2007)
#14-Aliens (1986)
#13-Airplane! (1980)
#12-Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
#11-The Dark Knight (2008)
#10- WALL-E (2008)
#9-Mud (2013)
#8-Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)
#7-Star Trek (2009)
#6-Jaws (1975)
#5- Finding Nemo (2003)
#4-Toy Story 3 (2010)
#3-Alien (1979)
#2-Up (2009)
#1-E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

The fact that Bridesmaids is rated above T2.....I don't even. Not only is Bridesmaids an overrated piece of shit, it doesn't deserve a spot on this list at all. And neither Star Wars film, or Back To The Future is in the top ten? Terrible, terrible list. As far as E.T. goes, the #1 spot doesn't bother me that much. ET is one of the most universally praised sci-fi blockbusters of all time, featuring one of the most beloved and timeless tales of friendship ever.

The Worst 60

#60- Bratz: The Movie (2007)
#59- Marmaduke (2010)
#58- Catwoman (2004)
#57- Revenge Of The Nerds II: Nerds In Paradise (1987)
#56- Problem Child 2 (1991)
#55- The Next Karate Kid (1994)
#54-Spy Hard (1996)
#53-See No Evil (2006)
#52- Summer Catch (2001)
#51-Post Grad (2009)
#50-The New Guy (2002)
#49- Gone Fishin' (1997)
#48-House Arrest (1996)
#47-Ghost Dad (1990)
#46-In The Army Now (1994)
#45- From Justin To Kelly (2003)
#44-Undiscorved (2005)
#43-Licencse To Wed (2007)
#42- All About Steve (2009)
#41-Solo (1996)
#40- Kazaam (1996)
#39-Who's Your Caddy? (2007)
#38- Supercross (2005)
#37-I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
#36- Grown Ups 2 (2013)
#35-Underclassman (2004)
#34- Bablyon A.D. (2008)
#33- The Perfect Man (2005)
#32- Gigli (2003)
#31-The Last Airbender (2010)
#30-Cadyshack II (1988)
#29-Cocktail (1988)
#28- College (2008)
#27-The Cookout (2004)
#26-Delta Force (2007)
#25-Universal Soldier- The Return (1999)
#24-The Adventures Of Pluto Nash (2002)
#23-Serving Sara (2002)
#22-Mobsters (1991)
#21-Problem Child (1990)
#20-Getting Even With Dad (1994)
#19-Material Girls (2006)
#18-Vampires Suck (2010)
#17-Zoom (2006)
#16- Speed 2- Cruise Control (1997)
#15-Deuces Wild (2002)
#14- fear dot com (FeardotCom) (2002)
#13- Bless The Child (2000)
#12-The In Crowd (2000)
#11-Crossover (2006)
#10-Battlefield Earth (2000)
#9-Disaster Movie (2008)
#8- Daddy Day Camp (2007)
#7- The Master Of Disguise (2002)
#6-Staying Alice (1983)
#5- Jaws 4- The Revenge (1987)
#4- Mac & Me (1988)
#3-Return To The Blue Lagoon (1991)
#2- Wagons East! (1994)
#1-Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004)

I've never seen Superbabies 2 (and I probably never will), but Jaws 4 should be #1 on this list. It's a shining example of the embarrassing lows the Jaws franchise sunk to, and I'd easily rank it in my list of top ten worst films of all time. And I'd bump I Know Who Killed me into the top ten. Considering all the crap she's done, you would think picking out Lindsay Lohan's worst film is a hard task. Nope. It's I Know Who Killed Me, and it's not even close.

As always, if you want to know more about each movie, here are the lists on Rotten Tomatoes:

The Best- http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/best-summer-movies/

The Worst- http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/worst_summer_movies/

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Iron Giant's ranking is incredibly surprising to me.

I don't say that as a knock on the film at all as it's comfortably one of my favourite films and one I won't tire of watching and introducing to people that haven't seen it.

The ratings from the reviews of the film must be a big reason for it's high placing as I don't think it was that big a success at the box office. In fact, I know it's takings wouldn't hold much of a candle to the likes of T2, Dark Knight Rises, Saving Private Ryan and, well, pretty much most of the films it's rated higher than.

Long story short, if you haven't seen Iron Giant, watch it.

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

The Ones that irk me:

No offence to Up, it's not a bad movie by a long shot, but #2 is really pushing it. I'd have put it in the mid 20's.

Empire Strikes Back and Back to the Future should be #1 and #2. Simple as that. I especially raise my case to the former for the great surprise twist, and it has gone down in history as one of cinema's best moments ever.

Avengers should be a bit higher, being among one of the highest grossing movies of all time.

Battlefield Earth should've probably taken the worst spot. I can't really say much other than I've seen both BE and BG2, and I just thought BG2 was bad because I was expecting it, although Battlefield Earth was MUCH worse from what I envisioned it to be.

 

[Slash-LN]

In The Army Now as one of the worst? I personally find Pauly Shore to be quite funny and I love his movies. The Problem Child movies were funny to me as a kid but I don't know what I would think of them as an adult.
I've never even heard of a bunch of movies on this list and they were "blockbusters"?
If anything I can take from this list it's that I have some movies I've never heard of that I can check out.