It usually takes about a week after the kids get out of school for summer to kick in, and if there was ever an official starting line, it's Fourth of July weekend. Maybe you're hitting up a barbecue with some friends this weekend, relaxing by the pool or shooting off some fireworks -- and that's cool. Enjoy yourself. Me? I'll be doing a little of the BBQ, but I'll also enjoy a screening of at least one of the following seven films. See, what's summer without a memorable summertime flick ... or several?

This year's best summertime film (according to me), The Wackness, hits theaters in limited release tomorrow before rolling out to other cities. That film caters a bit more toward a specific time period (1994) and a specific location (NYC), but those summer-in-the-city flicks are rare, especially a good one. Instead of following all those kids who left town, went to camp, traveled abroad, what have you, The Wackness remains with the one dude who didn't leave town. The kid who was stuck spending his summer on hot pavement, dealing pot to his therapist while chasing the girl of his dreams.

But perhaps that's how you remember summer growing up. Or maybe you spent most of your summers in camp, or on the baseball field, or with a few of your best pals on another bizarre adventure. Those summer months hold a lot of memories for you, I'm sure, as they do for me. And what's up with summertime movies and awesome soundtracks? Ever notice that? Anyway, here are some of my favorites ... feel free to tell me yours.

As Kim let us know last night, Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer. It's not a particularly easy sort of C to get over, but reports are saying that he's responding well to treatment. I hope so, as the world needs the Swayze. There have been some stinkers in his career, but there are also great gems. Like, oh, Dirty Dancing.

This is, in no way, a memorial, but rather appreciation of what makes Swayze so cool, and one of the reasons why I hope he's around for a long, long time to come. So, let's jump back in time to his special finale dance with Jennifer Grey. I'm usually not one for grandiose displays of affection, but this one I dig. It's one of the few "awh" romantic moments on screen that I think is natural -- both for the character and the situation. It's not breaking out into song randomly, but with a specific, thematic purpose. And really, it's nice to see an on-screen group dance where they all do their own thing, instead of magically falling into the same ultra-tricky dance moves.

Patrick Swayze, you rock.

Update: Swayze's reps hadn't commented more to Reuters at the time Moviefone ran their piece, but a reader kindly pointed us to this story on People that indicates a more optimistic outlook for Swayze. -- ed.

Well, this news is depressing as hell. Patrick Swayze, 55, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer., and has only a short time to live. According to a piece over on Moviefone, a rep for Swayze told the New York Post that the actor was diagnosed over a month ago. Swayze is perhaps best known for his leading role in Dirty Dancing, when his character, Johnny Castle, an older dance instructor, swept young and perky Jennifer Grey off her feet. My own favorite Swayze movies, though, are Red Dawn ("Wolverines!") and Ghost. The latter never fails to reduce me to a blubbering heap of tears, no matter how sternly I tell myself I won't cry this time.

I have no idea if Swayze reads Cinematical, but we would like to extend our condolences and sadness at this news, and wish him and his family well. I know we have lots of Swayze fans out there, so feel free to use this space to extend your own thoughts and well-wishes to Swayze. What's your favorite Swayze movie moment?

If you're one of the millions of kids who weren't able to snag (i.e. afford) tickets to see Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus in concert, you now have an opportunity to see the next best thing. For one week in early February, a film of one of the concerts will be shown at movie theaters nationwide. And to make it seem even more like you're attending the real thing, the film is in 3D! Compiled from three concerts in two cities from the "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds" tour, the Disney-produced film is directed by Bruce Hendricks (Ultimate X: The Movie) and was shot using 3D digital cameras rather than shot with regular digital cameras and rendered in the format later (meaning sorry, no 2D versions of this one), as has been the case with most digital 3D movies so far. By the way: the cinematographer in charge of those cameras is Transformers DP Mitchell Amundsen.

Not only is this a big deal for Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus fans, but also it's a huge deal for theater owners and their continued attempts to offer substantial alternative entertainment at their cinemas. I'm sure you all know this isn't the first concert to be shown in theaters. There have been Rolling Stones concerts, drumline concerts, Metropolitan Opera performances, Dane Cook stand-up concerts, and many other events. Some of them have even been broadcast live to theaters via satellite. Many of them, such as today's (Dec. 2) live presentation of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, are one-day-only events.

If the '80s left us anything, it was a melange of bad fashion that made us all wonder what we were thinking. Crimped hair. Lace gloves. Blue eye makeup. I wish I could say that we've never revisited the clothing atrocities of that era, but lately, some nuts have put on the leggings, leg warmers, and off-the-shoulder tops. Crazy kids! Many of us, however, still consider the '80s to be a decade of bad taste and temporary, wide-spread insanity.

That being said, the mistakes of the '80s also hold a heck of a lot of nostalgia. We love replicating those times at Halloween, and we talk fondly, if not embarrassingly, about our fashion forays. Many of the decade's disasters came from music and videos, but cinema also added its two cents (especially in 1985), whipping up its own fashion frenzies and regrettable outfits. With the Flashdance Collector's Edition DVD out today, here's a list of cinematic trendsetters that helped feed the fires of bad fashion.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985)

One of the big trendsetting characters of the eighties was, believe it or not, Helen Hunt. As Lynne Stone, she taught young girls everywhere about the splendor of hair spray, and even more importantly -- Velcro. By day, she was the rabble-rousing student at the local Catholic girls' school. But once the bell rang, the rip of Velcro would echo, and Lynne would turn her uniform inside-out to reveal sleeveless shirts, vests, and black leather miniskirts. Man, I was so jealous of her. She might have been an absolute fashion train wreck, but she was oh, so cool.

To me, nothing defines my awkward childhood better than those irresistible 80's movie tunes. Back in the day, before I saved up my hard-earned cash to purchase the Ghostbusters 2 soundtrack on a cassette tape (true story), I would take my boom box, hold it up to the TV and record the songs like that. Some of the time you'd even hear the actors' dialogue pop in -- but I didn't care; if that was the only way to get The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News right that second, so be it. There were loads of songs to choose from while writing this list, and I was tempted to include two from the same movie on several occasions (Footloose, to give one example), but in the end I decided to go with the songs that meant the most to me. The songs I would sing in the shower when I knew my parents weren't home. The songs that showed up at a certain point, kicked tons of ass, and defined a movie. So, without dragging this on any further, I present to you Seven Great 80s Soundtrack Songs ...

Don't You Forget About Me (Simple Minds), The Breakfast Club -- Perhaps the most memorable for any angst-ridden teenager trying to sort out their feelings about high school and the opposite sex, this song and this movie helped define a generation. When the time finally comes in the film for this song to be played, you feel like you've gone through such an emotional journey with the characters -- all of whom found their lives change forever over the course of one, long weekend detention session. Who knows if they ever remained friends after that; if their brief chats in the hallway progressively got shorter and eventually became friendly nods until, finally, they graduated, moved on with their lives, raised families and that whole experience became a distant memory. If it wasn't for that song, The Breakfast Club might have gone the same route -- and instead of becoming a classic, it may have gotten lost amidst a long list of films you remember from time to time, but quite often forget. -- Most Quotable Line: Don't you forget about me.

I wasn't even aware that the rights to Terminator 2: Judgment Day were owned by Lionsgate Films, but as of today the film is available on iTunes. Yes, that is right, Lionsgate titles are now offered through Apple's download store, almost six months after the studio had originally thought they would be. Back in September, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer announced to investors the deal to release movies through iTunes -- one of the first leaks that iTunes would definitely sell movies, in fact. But then a few weeks later Apple's movie store opened with no Lionsgate titles included, and no word on when they would be available.

I have a feeling that Lionsgate was finally clear to deal with Apple once Wal-Mart announced its own movie download service. Now iTunes has about 400 movies, which is still a lot less than Wal-Mart's 1,000. Some of the additions today include Total Recall, The Blair Witch Project, Dirty Dancing and Monster's Ball (which I bet is great for watching on public transportation). Hopefully, we'll hear from other studios soon. Next, likely, will be an announcement from 20th Century Fox since it was once thought it would be the first non-Disney studio to sign on.

Movie remakes can be risky business. There seems to be three main motivations: put it in English so North America doesn't have to read subtitles, use new technology for flashier effects, and re-introduce old films to newer, younger audiences. It seems that the films that do best are those that are so out of public consciousness, no one really compares it to the original, or at least, not the mainstream movie-going public. The easier it is to compare the two, the greater the chance for disappointment. We're not talking about improving on crappy movies, but new versions of the well-loved.

And sometimes, there is re-make movie news so amusing, that it is too good to be true. Moviehole has reported that Dirty Dancing might be re-made. (You know you're getting older when the films of your youth are sliding into the re-make pool.) It seems to be an interesting choice. It hasn't faded deep into the recesses of the mind, and the sequel wasn't a beloved hit.

But, even better: Mario Lopez is rumored to be at the top of the list to take over the reigns as Johnny Castle! The guy has slid himself into the pool of out-of-work actors so desperate to get back to work that they'll do anything – live together, sing, dance, and even eat grubs. He can dance, but can he really do justice to Patrick Swayze's dirty dancing?

Will Mario dance, or will he be kept in the corner?

Jette told us in March about the evolution of Dirty Dancing from gloriously cheeseball film to equally cheesy stage musical, and the show -- which has already had a run in Australia -- is finally in rehearsals for its London debut. And, frighteningly enough, London has gone wild over it, despite the fact that it isn't even in previews yet: British audiences are so eager to see The Lift in the flesh that they've completely sold out the first six months of the show's upcoming run, making Dirty Dancing (at least by whatever math the BBC's The Ticket uses) one of the most successful West End musicals of all time. Before anyone has seen it. I don't know about you, but I suddenly find myself a little frightened by our English friends.

According to the show's (and movie's) writer, Eleanor Bergstein (Who, by the way, based the screenplay on her own life -- ooooh Eleanor!), the show is more than a piece of fluff. In fact, in her mind, when Johnny interrupts the big posh gala at the end to dance with his lady, he's actually heralding in as big a cultural shift as Bob Dylan did when he sang "A change is gonna come." Seriously, she said that -- I just heard it on the radio. So keep your focus on his mind, not his tight pants, if you please. ...

You can add the 1987 film Dirty Dancing to the ever-increasing list of movies that have become lavish stage productions. (For me, nothing beats Reanimator: The Play. It wasn't lavish but it sure was gory.) The stage musical story about Baby and Johnny and their magical dances of looove played to record crowds in Australia last year and now is being staged for London's West End. The production includes special effects to re-create the memorable scene on the lake, among others. (I don't remember the memorable scene on the lake, but I saw the movie once on cable in a hotel room and wasn't impressed.)

Dates haven't been announced and the show seems not have have been cast yet ...but tickets go on sale next week. The stage musical was written by Eleanor Bergstein, who also wrote the screenplay for the Eighties movie. She says "The play has everything from the film, and more." True, but there's no Patrick Swayze, and will young women swoon over the stage-musical Johnny quite as passionately? And do you think anyone will transform Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights into a musical?