There’s been a lot of talk lately about Hollywood’s absolutely blockbuster summer of 2012, with such heavily hyped films as Marvel’s The Avengers, MIB 3, Snow White and the Huntsman, Prometheus, Battleship, and Dark Shadows having already glutted movie theatre screens vying for your entertainment dollar.

PHOTO CREDIT - TheGloss.com

Edmonton - June 15, 2012 - There’s been a lot of talk lately about Hollywood’s absolutely blockbuster summer of 2012, with such heavily hyped films as Marvel’s The Avengers, MIB 3, Snow White and the Huntsman, Prometheus, Battleship, and Dark Shadows having already glutted movie theatre screens vying for your entertainment dollar (and at twenty bucks a pop for IMAX 3D tickets, it’s quite a hefty entertainment dollar, indeed!). Keeping in mind the fact the The Amazing Spider Man, The Dark Knight Rises, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Bourne Legacy, and Total Recall are yet to come, summer of 2012 could (and likely will) go down as the most successful in Hollywood history (The Avengers alone has already made nearly 1.5 BILLION dollars worldwide!).

Of course, nary a film on this list can be considered ‘original’ - chock-full as it is with remakes, sequels, prequels, and ‘re-imaginings’ (Hollywood’s favorite buzzword these days) - but hey, that’s what summer moviegoing is all about, right?

Which brings me back 30 years (gulp! Has it really been that long??), to a summer many consider to be the all-time greatest ever. I was just a kid in the summer of ’82, and I swear I spent nearly every day that summer in the cool, dark confines of as many of my local downtown Winnipeg theatres as possible. So grab a large pop and a tub of corn, and join me on this little trip down memory lane, as we look back my ‘personal’ Top 10 Movies of Summer ’82…

10. TRON - this heavily-hyped Disney flick with the ‘state of the art’ special effects turned to be a major box office disappointment, but thanks to the truly addictive video game (I spent more quarters on this thing than I care to ever admit) and the advent of home video, TRON became a massive cult classic. Fans clamoured for a sequel for so long that Disney finally released the long-awaited sequel last year. The result? A dark and murky mess that made no one forget the original.



9. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP - arguably the best adaptation of a John Irving novel ever filmed, this was one of Robin Williams’s first attempts to tackle a bit more of a dramatic role, and he’s perfect here. This film was a huge breakthrough for Broadway actress Glenn Close, who, despite a mere 4 year age difference between her and Robin Williams, was nominated for as Oscar for playing his mother. If you haven’t seen this one, it’s well worth seeking out.



8. NIGHT SHIFT - Ron Howard’s absolutely hilarious comedy brilliantly cast ‘Fonzie’ himself - Henry Winkler - against type as a nebbishy morgue attendant confined to the dreaded night shift; and introduced a young and very unknown Michael Keaton to the world (and the world shall be eternally grateful). Although not quite the ‘huge’ hit it should have been, this nonetheless remains one of the year’s great crowd pleasers.



7. BLADE RUNNER - after you’ve checked out Ridley Scott’s latest sci-fi extravaganza (the polarizing epic, Prometheus), check out another one of his (initially) misunderstood gems, Blade Runner. Considered a major box-office disappointment at the time (star Harrison Ford was just coming off of the 1-2 punch of The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark), this is now considered one of the most influential and visionary science fiction films ever made. Even the studio, Warner Bros., lacked faith in the project, adding in an unnecessary narration track and forcing Scott to change the ending. Be sure to see the Director’s Cut.



6. E.T. The EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL - there wasn’t a dry eye in the house after director Steven Spielberg unleashed this massive blockbuster on the world, and in a summer filled with more sinister sci-fi visions, E.T. kicked them all to the curb with this sweeter, more family-friendly alien invasion flick. E.T. was the alien we all ‘wanted’ aliens to be, and people lined up around the block for months to get in to see this movie over and over and over again. Reese’s Pieces stock went through the roof, Drew Barrymore became a child start (in rehab a few short years later), and poor Henry Thomas pretty much disappeared from the face of the planet (but not before making 1984’s awesome Cloak and Dagger!).




Next time…we’ll countdown my Top 5 movies from the Summer of ’82, and I’ll give you a few more 30-year old classics to seek out!