Top 5 Summer Movie Seasons

Let's face it: this summer already has been a disappointing one for movies. Yes, "Star Trek" and "Up" flew high, but with the utter, crushing disappointments of "Terminator Salvation" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," and not a whole lot else to look forward to (Can the Transformers save this year? Harry Potter?), it's looking like a long, dreary summer.

So what better time to look back on Hollywood's biggest triumphs? Your Head Yappers, Chris Lloyd and yours truly, along with junior member Caine Gardner, got together, armed with a rather comprehensive list of summer movies sorted by year, aimed to answer the question of which summer season was the best.

We of course established some rules. We started at 1975, the year of "Jaws," which is widely considered the first true summer blockbuster. The "summer season" is defined as the beginning of May through the end of August for any particular year.

Also, the quality of the films trumps simple box office receipts. That's not to say a turkey or two that made huge money particularly hurts or helps a given summer, nor does a film that is considered a classic today that was a box-office disappointment. We played it by ear to an extent. But generally we're looking for good movies, not big money makers.

So, without further ado, here are your top 5 summers:

5. 2008: Three words: The Dark Knight. It's simply the best super hero movie ever made, it's "Heat" with a cape and cowl, it's two and a half hours of organized chaos that makes one hell of an awesome story. But last year had more than just Batman running around: "Iron Man" was a huge crowd pleaser, and a heckuva movie to boot, "Wall-E" was at the top of many people's top ten for the year and is an instant classic, and there's a terrific second tier that includes "Kung Fu Panda," "The Incredible Hulk, "Wanted," "Pineapple Express," "Hellboy 2," and "Narnia: Prince Caspian."

Among the summer's flops are "Speed Racer" (which I've vehemently argued in favor for personally), and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (which isn't a terrible movie, though it's deeply flawed).

4. 1989: 1989 was anchored by a couple of familiar heroes, with Tim Burton's "Batman" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" providing two high-profile classics, and the season stayed strong through August.

Also making waves that year was "Lethal Weapon 2," "Ghostbusters II," "Dead Poet's Society," "Do the Right Thing," "When Harry Met Sally," "Parenthood," "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," "The Abyss," "Uncle Buck," the surprise megahit that was "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," and for schlock lovers out there you get "Road House" and "Weekend at Bernie's." A little something for everyone, and four or five legit classics.

3. 1981: The late 70s and early 80s didn't have the whirlwind of releases that later years did, as the summer hysteria was still in its infancy (prior to that the summer was actually a down period for Hollywood, the rationale being no one wants to sit in a dark theater when it's warm outside). As a result, the early 80s don't have a ton of memorable summer flicks, but boy did they make the best of what they had.

Here's your lineup: "Clash of the Titans," "History of the World, Part I," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "The Cannonball Run," "Superman II," "The Great Muppet Caper," "Stripes," "For Your Eyes Only," "Escape from New York," "The Fox and the Hound," "Arthur," "Endless Love," "An American Werewolf in London," and "Body Heat." Every one of those films are widely watched today, 28 years later, and the majority hold up as well as they did when they came out.

2. 1980: 1980 has an even smaller resume than the next year, but each and seven of them goes beyond being memorable and were legitimately seminal films that changed their respective genres.

The list (and note that this is the entire list of releases for this summer): "Friday the 13th," "Fame," "The Empire Strikes Back," "The Shining," "Urban Cowboy," "The Blues Brothers," "The Blue Lagoon," "Airplane!," "Caddyshack," "Smokey and the Bandit II."

"Smokey" and "Blue Lagoon" aren't exactly classics, but were very popular in their day, but "Friday" and "The Shining" helped kick off a whole new wave of horror films, "Empire" is the best film in the single most influential series of films in Hollywood's history, "Blues Brothers, " "Airplane!" and "Caddyshack" are three of the best comedies of the 1980s, and "Fame" was a phenomenon that brought musicals back to the collective American consciousness.

So here we are at number 1. Drumroll, please...

1. 1982: The first overloaded movie season is certainly the best. '82 is well-stocked with classics in a variety of genres, and is Hollywood's dynasty summer.

"ET: The Extra-Terrestrial" is considered by many to be Steven Spielberg's best movie, was a huge hit, and continues to endure as one of the great family films of all time, digitally-inserted walkie-talkies be damned.

It was a great year for sci-fi and fantasy as well, with The Road Warrior, Conan the Barbarian, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Thing, Tron, and The Beastmaster.

Even the flops were great. Anyone hear of a little picture called "Blade Runner?" It made $33 million in its initial run, a respectable number, but with its budget was considered a disappointment. Nowadays it's a mainstay in film classes, Top 10 lists, and no fewer than 46 (or so) different DVD releases.

How about dramas? "An Officer and a Gentleman," and Robin Williams' first "serious" role, "The World According to Garp."

But you wanna laugh, right? Try the Ron Howard comedy "Night Shift," or better yet, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," or the musical "Annie."

Let's do scary: "Poltergeist," or "Friday the 13th Part 3," could slake your thirst for blood.

And we haven't even gotten to "Rocky III," the film that made Mr. T, and the Clint Eastwood jet-plane actioner "Firefox." The year was packed full of thrills, chills, laughs and tears, and its qualifications are unmatched.

So what do you think? Feel any better about 2009? Didn't think so. Well, that's okay, there's always next year.

In the meantime, be sure to tell us what you thought. Do you agree with our list? Are we totally off base? If you got some game, bring it. We wanna hear why we're wrong.