The last Starfighter Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Erik Davis ordered me to come up with a new approach to summer movies, and he demanded that the concept be intelligent, engaging, and jam-packed with vowels and consonants. (One out of three isn't bad.) And since I'm a childish movie nerd who had a deep affection for all things nostalgic, my first idea was "Hey, let's have the writers pick their favorite 'movie summer' and write a piece about it." And since my next eleven ideas stunk, he said "Ugh, fine. Do your Favorite Summers thing. But don't forget the vowels."

Nearly all of the Cinematicaleers will be penning their own pieces, but since I like to lead by example (when I'm not leading by guilt), I figured I'd get the ball rolling first. (Special thanks to Box Office Mojo for displaying OLD release dates in very handy fashion.) Also, for the sake of this series, let's say "summer" counts as "May through August," even though May is technically spring and part of September is definitely summer.

5/4 -- The Bounty // Breakin' // Hardbodies // Sixteen Candles -- So which one of these would be the big "Iron Man" release? We got Gibson and Hopkins in a nautical remake; a whole lot of pop-lockin' looneys; a leering sex comedy that helped to kill the sub-genre of mid-'80s sex comedies; and the directorial debut of one John Hughes.

5/11 -- Firestarter // The Natural -- Robert Redford knocking the cover off a baseball and Drew Barrymore immolating George C. Scott. Now THAT's summer!

5/18 -- Finders Keepers // Making the Grade -- A pair of justifiably forgotten farces, yes, both of which I saw theatrically.

5/23 -- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom -- Even back in 1984 Indiana Jones demanded his very own weekend ... one that starts on a Wednesday, no less! I distinctly remember seeing this on the afternoon of opening day, and while I was waiting for Mom to come pick us up, there was a woman BERATING the box office girl. Honest! Something about the heart-tearing scene had upset her small child. And just like that, the PG-13 was born.

• Joseph Barbera (1911-2006) - Writer, director and producer who was half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team. Read my full tribute here.
• Desmond Briscoe (1925-2006) - Sound engineer who did sound effects for The Man Who Fell to Earth, Children of the Damned, The Haunting (1963) and The Ipcress File and composed music for Phase IV. He died December 7.
  
• James Brown (1933-2006) - Read my full tribute to the "Godfather of Soul" here.
• Robin Buss (1939-2006) - English writer, critic and translator who was a well-known Francophile. He worked as a film critic for The Independent and wrote the books The French Through Their Films, Italian Films and French Film Noir. He also served as a translator in the documentary Drug-Taking and the Arts. He died of cancer December 16, in London.
• Hallie D'Amore (c.1940-2006) - Oscar-nominated makeup artist for Forrest Gump. She also worked on Dick Tracy, xXx, Bugsy, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Apollo 13. She also won an Emmy for the HBO movie Normal and she appeared in Forrest Gump as an extra. She was found dead in her home, along with her husband, December 15. A police investigation has ruled that she shot her husband, photographer Richard D'Amore, and then shot herself because of "domestic discord."