The Worst Summer Movie Season

In my mind, 2007 has to be the absolute worst summer season for movies in modern times.

It was marked by a glut of sequels, many of them the third installment in a franchise, and nearly all of them awful.

I still don't understand how "Spider-Man 2" could be so good, and yet the same talent brought us "Spider-Man 3," which was hideous. Other high-profile three-peats that failed to impress were "Shrek the Third," "Ocean's Thirteen," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Rush Hour 3" and "The Bourne Ultimatum."

There were plenty of regular sequels that fell to earth, too: "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," "Evan Almighty," "Live Free or Die Hard" and "Halloween."

The new stuff wasn't much better: Adam Sandler's comedy "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" somehow managed to insult both gay people and firefighters, and "Transformers" was a completely incomprehensible mess.

Two overhyped comedies from the Judd Apatow factory turned out to be decent, but hardly the laugh riots we'd heard about: "Superbad" and "Knocked Up." Angelina Jolie's drama "A Mighty Heart" also wasn't bad, but died at the box office.

On the positive side of the ledger, "Hairspray" turned out to be a fun, music-filled confection, and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" was one of the better entries in that franchise.

The lone excellent movie was "Ratatouille," the animated romp from Pixar about a culinary-minded rat. In 2007, a vermin was the top of the heap.