How to plan out your whole summer movie season during lockdown

Films like Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984 may still be on the calendar for summer 2020, but does it even matter if people are still afraid to sit in a theater?

We should all be getting comfortable with the idea that any indoor group activity isn’t going to happen as planned until the pandemic threat has receded. But that doesn’t mean your summer blockbuster season isn’t happening. Not during the era of streaming entertainment.

If Hollywood is denying you the new films you want to see – a safe and very correct decision, to be clear – then program your own blockbuster schedule. We’ve all been spending a lot of time at home coming up with inventive ways to stave off the boredom. So why not program your own summer blockbuster season?

Some ground rules

I put together a summer schedule of my own, and I stuck to a small set of rules to make things easier and avoid getting into that situation where I just scroll through hundreds of options on Netflix only to settle on my millionth rewatch of a Parks and Rec episode. You can make your own rules, or even just skip rules all together and let anarchy reign in your living room!

Here the plan I stuck to:

• Any movie I picked had to have been released in the month I was watching it.

• Genre variety was a priority. I wanted horror and comedy and romance to go with my action, just like a normal summer season.

• I’m planning to watch these on Fridays, to re-capture that opening night experience.

• I’m also planning some thematically appropriate activities. Make some theater-style homemade popcorn, or use a projector to watch outside.

• Even with a full summer of at-home blockbusters laid out, I’ll still go see Tenet in July.

Now, on to the recs….

Dick Tracy

Original release: June 15, 1990

Where to begin? Warren Beatty directed and starred in this adaptation of the 1930s comic strip Dick Tracy, which follows the eponymous yellow trench coat-wearing detective and his pursuit of gangland crime. The movie features a preposterously stacked cast that also stars Madonna and Al Pacino, and features Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Dick Van Dyke, and so many more. On top of that, you get five original Stephen Sondheim songs just for shits and giggles. What else? Oh yeah, Dick Tracy made the smart watch cool before it was ever a real thing.

Streaming on: HBO Max

The Lake House

Original release: June 16, 2006

The summer is a great time for films that don’t make any sense, and the Transformers series hardly has that market cornered. Enter The Lake House, a romantic fantasy starring the Speed duo of Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock as time-crossed lovers. Time-crossed, you ask? Yes! Bullock’s Kate is getting ready to leave the lake house she’s been summering at in 2006, and she leaves a note in the mailbox for the next tenant. Reeves’ Alex receives the note, but for him it’s 2004 and the house is unlivable. Weird! And what leads them to discover they’re separated by time, not space? A dog. You’ve gotta see this movie.

Streaming on: Netflix

The Truman Show

Original release: June 5, 1998

This is a funny one. The Truman Show‘s premise doesn’t seem so far-fetched now, in 2020, but it was unthinkable in 1998. Still, the movie works because of Jim Carrey’s career-best performance. He stars as Truman Burbank, a mild-mannered, small town guy who married his college sweetheart (Laura Linney) and loves to throw back a cold one with his childhood chum (Noah Emmerich). But all is not as it seems. Truman’s entire world is actually a 24-hour reality series populated by actors and overseen by the aloof and enigmatic Christof (Ed Harris), and the show is a global sensation.

Streaming on: Starz

World War Z

Original release: June 21, 2013

Take a break from the steady dread of an IRL pandemic with this soothing, genteel account of [checks notes]…oh. World War Z is a zombie action flick starring Brad Pitt. It’s based on a book of the same name, though it’s better to describe the movie as a reimagining. These zombies move fast and spread their illness quickly, and walls won’t stop them because they’ll just pile on top of each other until they’ve built a meat hill for their zombie pals to climb. If nothing else, World War Z delivers some striking visuals.

Streaming on: iTunes

Check here for more past June releases. 

Boyz n the Hood

Original release: July 2, 1991

Boyz n the Hood is the first-ever feature from the late, great filmmaker John Singleton and it marks a hell of a starting point. Singleton delivered a challenging portrait of life in the gang-controlled streets of ’80s and ’90s South Central Los Angeles. It’s an honest and frequently painful coming-of-age tale whose success hangs entirely on a richly detailed ensemble of characters. A classic among classics, with career-making performances for Cuba Gooding, Jr., Laurence (credited as Larry!) Fishburne, and Angela Bassett. Consider it a must-watch.

Streaming on: Showtime

Mamma Mia!

Original release: July 18, 2008

The groovy pop disco of Sweden’s ABBA comes to star-studded life in Mamma Mia!, which yes, is a movie version of the ’90s musical. It features a ridiculous ensemble of talents: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried, and Christine Baranski. And if you don’t know the wholesome-yet-bonkers story, it’s about a young bride-to-be (Seyfried) who invites three total strangers to her wedding because one of them – she doesn’t know which – might be her long-lost father. Surprise, mom (Streep)!

Streaming on: Starz

Inception

Original release: July 13, 2010

It’s not Tenet, but it is Christopher Nolan weirdness. Inception is a movie about dreams, and dreams-within-dreams, and dreams-within-dreams-within-dreams. (And possibly even deeper?) If you’re a fan of mind-bending visuals and special effects that use computer animation sparingly, this is the movie for you. Yeah, you’ll be hard-pressed to figure out just what the hell is going on, but that’s Nolan for you. You’ll have a blast watching it all unfold, especially with an ensemble cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy.

Streaming on: Netflix

Ghostbusters

Original release: July 11, 2016

Take advantage of your time in lockdown to give the Ghostbusters reboot a chance (or even a second chance). The Paul Feig-directed comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Kristen Wiig is better than it gets credit for, thanks to the talents of its four stars and a story that honors the original while forging ahead in new directions. Also, Chris Hemsworth. We may never see this lineup of ‘Busters on the job again, what with Ghostbusters: Afterlife returning to the original cast timeline. But we’ll always have this glimpse of a franchise that could’ve been.

Streaming on: iTunes

Sorry to Bother You

Original release: July 6, 2018

It’s no easy feat to make sense of Sorry to Bother You, but that’s part of the fun. First-time director (and writer) Boots Riley sends a perfectly cast Lakeith Stanfield, as Cassius, off to work for a shady telemarketer called RegalView. It’s rough going until Cassius discovers his powerful knack for speaking in a “white voice,” which wins him customers, income, and a sweet promotion. But all is not as it seems at RegalView. As his co-workers fight to unionize, Cassius discovers a dark secret. Everything you just read about Sorry to Bother You is 100 percent true, but also doesn’t come close to capturing what this story is and what the movie has to say. Let’s just leave it this: It’s a perfect movie to watch against the backdrop of 2020’s hopefully transformative times.

Streaming on: Hulu

The Haunting

Original release: July 23, 1999

There have been many different adaptations over the years of author Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House but this one stands out. It comes from director Jan de Bont, who also brought Hollywood classics Speed and Twister to life. It stars Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, and Lili Taylor. It’s also widely hated by critics and audiences alike, despite having so much going in its favor. It’s a bonkers movie where ridiculous things happen. No summer season is complete without some trash, and The Haunting more than delivers.

Streaming on: iTunes

Check here for more past July releases. 

The Meg

Original release: August 10, 2018

It’s widely acknowledged that Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is the first true summer blockbuster. While you can stream that classic among classics (and should definitely watch it if you’ve never seen it), let’s give some love to a more recent shark movie: The Meg. The premise basically boils down to: “What if Jaws, but big? Like, really big.” The “Meg” of the title is short for megalodon, a 75-foot long dinosaur-era era shark that terrorizes a group of scientists deep below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. If you’re looking for gratuitous shark-horror thrills, The Meg more than delivers.

Streaming on: HBO Max

Inglourious Basterds

Original release: August 21, 2009

There’s no reason at all why a World War II fairy tale about a squad of American soldiers hunting Nazis for sport would resonate now, in 2020. Right? Quentin Tarantino’s blaxploitation-inspired romp through Nazi-occupied France is thrilling, beautifully shot, and filled with stellar performances – most notably from Christoph Waltz in his breakout role as Nazi officer Hans Landa. Tarantino’s films aren’t for everyone, but Basterds is an especially cathartic watch in the here and now for everyone who despises fascism.

Streaming on: Netflix

Straight Outta Compton

Original release: August 14, 2015

N.W.A. was one of the pioneers of gangsta rap and their 1988 album, “Straight Outta Compton,” marks the starting point. Director F. Gary Gray’s biopic adopts the seminal album’s title for its story charting the famed hip hop group from their early days on through their biggest successes and post-breakup moves. It’s more than that, too; Straight Outta Compton is also the story of five young men who took on a system that was rigged against them, and won.

Streaming on: iTunes

Freddy vs. Jason

Original release: August 13. 2003

Sometimes you just want to see two classic movie monsters duke it out in a completely implausible scenario. Before Freddy vs. Jason, there was no reason to believe that Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees existed in the same cinematic universe. This movie changed that. While there are scenes meant to frighten, this is much more of an action-fueled summer blockbuster than your traditional horror movie. And the eventual, inevitable showdown that caps off the story more than justifies the (uneven) journey you take to get there.

Streaming on: Vudu

Mystery Men

Original release: August 6, 1999

Cap off your summer with a hilarious superhero comedy that never really got its due: Mystery Men. Ben Stiller stars in this entirely weird adventure that follows a squad of failure-prone, offbeat…uh…people with incredibly mundane “powers” as they fight to save the city from the master criminal Casanova Frankenstein (Geoffrey Rush). Filled with hilarious performances and a bonkers premise, this criminally underrated movie features an ensemble cast that also includes Janeane Garofalo, Paul Reubens, Hank Azaria, William H. Macy, Kel Mitchell, Wes Studi, Greg Kinnear, and Eddie Izzard. If you’ve never seen this one, it’s a must-watch.

Streaming on: Starz

Check here for more past August releases.