Movies to Watch When You’re Sick

Whenever one of my sisters or I was sick, Mom would let us watch a Christmas movie no matter the month. White Christmas was usually the number one film of choice. Nothing like Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby to lift the spirits. Today, I reinstated that tradition when I came down with a cold–this time I chose

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Blockbuster Summer

The era of blockbusters began in summer of 1975 when a little beach movie directed by a 20-something unknown made audiences everywhere afraid to go in the water. Since the release of Jaws, blockbusters have been a Hollywood mainstay. Many are forgettable, few are truly epic, but most are just plain fun to watch.

This summer is a great one for movie fans, with blockbusters opening nearly every week from May through August. With so many cinematic treats to choose from it’s hard to resist shelling out the bucks at the box office. Here’s a Married to the Movies recap of the films in theatres so far and a look ahead at those to come.

2011 Blockbuster Reviews and Previews:

• Thor: Surprisingly well-crafted, this superhero epic brings us one step closer to the much-anticipated Avengers film. Check out our earlier review.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: Still getting over the disappointment of the third Pirates film, so this flick goes on the wait-to-rent list.
• Super 8: The critics love it, but friends are giving this Steven Spielberg-J. J. Abrams collaboration mixed reviews—putting it on the rent list.
• X-Men: First Class: A classy prequel to the X-Men trilogy with great acting, awesome special effects, and poignant drama.
• Green Lantern: The critics hate it, but we think the latest DC Comics hero to hit the big screen is worth the ticket price.
• Cars 2: We’re huge Pixar fans, so it saddens us to say that this is the first of their films to disappoint us. We actually walked out of theatre talking about what went wrong and how we would have told the story differently. The biggest flaw: making hickseed Mater the Tow Truck the star. He’s a novelty, not a leading…car. As Dr. Sci-Fi put it, it’d be like making Kramer the star of Seinfeld. Sigh. Logically speaking, we knew Pixar had to stumble at somepoint—but we secretly hoped and hoped they would beat the odds. But don’t get us wrong: kids will love it and it will make bank.
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The most recently released blockbuster—we’ll be seeing it tonight with our college pals. We highly doubt this metal-crunching, gear-grinding action flick will surprise anyone with a good storyline—but, hey, it’s about the robots, not the plot.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: Probably the most anticipated movie of the summer. We’ve already purchased our tickets and you can bet we’ll will pay tribute to Harry’s last adventure in an upcoming post.
• Captain America: The First Avenger: A superhero taking down Nazis? Sign us up!
• Cowboys & Aliens: The title says it all—oh, and it’s starring Harrison Ford. (Yes, Daniel Craig is there, too, and, yes, he’s the new Bond—but is he Han Solo and Indiana Jones? Enough said.)

How about you? What makes your list of must-see movies this season?