Movies for Every Situation

Sparkler inthenameofjd will keep you busy this summer with a list of summer must-sees! Enjoy! —SparkNotes Editors

Summer is the time to see all the movies you missed, and movies you just plain miss. There's plenty of time to get up to speed now that you're out of school, but starting a summer movie marathon can be intimidating. That's why I’ve compiled a list of the movies that can help get you through your summer blues or give your party a boost!

For the lame party you thought wouldn’t be lame but everyone’s just sitting around:

Try the classics and the comedies you know all the people at the party will like. Movies like John Tucker Must Die, Mean Girls, Joe Dirt, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Star Dust, 21, and Dodgeball are the perfect uppers to your downer party.

For the day you have to spend watching your little brother or sister:

Choose movies that’ll make them sit still for a while but also hold your interest. Movies like The Lion King, Finding Nemo, Pocahontas, and Mary Poppins can captivate your sibling as you bask in the memories of your own younger days. Don’t even pretend like you don’t know every word to "Part of Your World."

For the “must watch before I die” list:

These movies are the classics. They are the movies you have to watch or you will never quite understand when someone stands outside your window with a boom box over their head playing “In Your Eyes” or when a random stranger yells “Inconceivable!” in your face with an obvious lisp: Say Anything, The Princess Bride, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ghostbusters, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

For the day after you watched Grease for the first time in two years and just have an uncontrollable urge for more singalongs:

From the oldies collection, I recommend Charlotte's Web, The Wizard of Oz, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but musicals have only gotten bigger and better since 1973. Some you may already be familiar with are Hairspray, Rent, Newsies (can you imagine Batman singing and dancing?), and Sweeney Todd. (Demon barbers! Scary!)

For your action-packed summer sleepover:

Try Transformers, Terminator, Planet of the Apes, Alien vs. Predator, or a lesser known movie called Toy Soldiers about a prep school that gets taken over by the Colombian Mafia. Can you say hardcore?

Finally, I present a list of movies for the day you just want to sit on the couch and not move at all because you think you might incinerate if you do:

For an all-day sitfest, you need to invest in a series that goes on forever: Stars Wars 1-6, Back to the Future 1-3, Harry Potter 1-6 (I will be watching the first five on July 14 and going to the midnight showing for the sixth on the 15th!), Cruel Intentions 1-3, Lord of the Rings 1-3, Star Trek 1-11 (Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but Captain Kirk is a love child born in 1964, not 2009), X-men 1-3, Spiderman 1-3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3.

I know I left a lot of movies out. What movies do you guys think are noteworthy?