#9 - link (1998)
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson
The Parent Trap starts off at camp, and it's a great movie with no school, so here it is on my summer list. Annie and Hallie meet at camp, hate each other, try to ruin each other's lives, and eventually realize they're twins and grow to love each other. You know how it goes. I love the whole movie, but the camp part has always been my favorite. They really upped the pranks (compared to the Hayley Mills version), and the modernization really worked for this remake. Camp is fun, plotting to remove the evil fiance from the picture and make way for Mom to come back, and the whole switching lives thing is always fun to watch.
#8 - link (1997)
Starring: Kenan Thompson & Kel Mitchell
Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order? A summer job at a burger joint sounds like hell for most of us, but Good Burger isn't your average fast food restaurant. Dexter comes to work with a bunch of weirdos at Good Burger to pay for damages in a car accident, and ends up making friends and going to war with the new restaurant across the street, Mondo Burger. (Home of the Mondo Idiots.) Not the first movie that comes to mind when you think 'summer freedom', but Good Burger is hilarious from start to finish. Even in the loony bin!
#7 - link (1995)
Starring: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Kirstie Alley, Steve Guttenberg
Ah, peak of Mary-Kate and Ashley movies. About half the film takes place at a summer camp for orphans. The movie is centered on two unrelated but identical characters switching places, so it's a rich girl taking part in normal camp activities that are brand new to her - like football, pranks, and eating sloppy joes. Amanda the Orphan gets to experience fun stuff like fancy dresses, dinner parties, and escargots. (This tastes like a balloon.) The main plot is about Alyssa and Amanda trying to get rid of Alyssa's future step-monster and set her father up with Amanda's favorite social worker, but there's also a lot of camp, friendship, and fun with MK&A's characters being completely out of their elements.
#6 - link (1996)
Starring: Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffman, Ashleigh Aston Moore
The 'then' part of Now and Then takes place in the 70s, before there were video games, good stuff on TV, and whatever else keeps us busy nowadays. What else was there to do, other than befriend random hippies and spy on naked boys? Probably plenty, but that's what the girls do during their last real summer as kids in 1970, and it's a great coming-of-age story.
#5 - link (1995)
Starring: Schuyler Fisk, Bre Blair, Rachel Leigh Cook, Larisa Oleynik
The teenage girls of the BSC start a summer camp for their clients, realizing a little too late that they know nothing about running a summer camp. (Bathrooms? Permits? Maybe warn the neighbors about the onslaught screaming children?) They pull it off with just enough profits for a pizza, so while it wasn't a great business venture, at least they had a fun summer that they (and I) will never forget.
#4 - link (1993)
Starring: Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi
Playing baseball with your friends, making out with hot chicks at the pool, spraying a crowd with vomit at a carnival. Could The Sandlot BE more of a summer classic? [/Chandler Bing] The movie revolves around baseball, which I guess is a normal summer pasttime for the average American, but the gang also goes on a few memorable outings to summer staples like the pool and the carnival, and has a camp-out (with s'mores!). Haaave I mentioned summer enough?
#3 - link: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995)
Starring: Christina Ricci & Anna Chlumsky
Gold Diggers takes place during the summer, but the movie's biggest event takes place during the summer solstice. On the longest day of the year, the two main characters are able to see the sun hit a certain place in Bear Mountain and reveal the location of the gold. (Look, TWO title references!) In addition to the summer-y feel and the gold-digging, it's a great story of two best friends who stick together no matter what.
#2 - link (1995)
Starring: Aaron Schwartz, Ben Stiller, Shaun Weiss, Kenan Thompson
Attention, campers. Lunch has been cancelled today due to lack of hustle. Deal with it. A fun weight loss camp is taken over by a fitness freak trying to sell an infomercial. Doesn't that just scream summer fun? No? The portly adolescents of once-fun Camp Hope suffer through new management and physical activity, then revolt against an insane mega-fit Ben Stiller. Better? Thought so. Heavyweights will top a lot of my lists, but since this is the summer one: camp misery, camp fun, campers unite against great villains, mega-quoteable, and the good guys win in the end. Chipmunks, move out!
#1 - link (1994)[/b]
Starring: Jonathan Jackson, Christopher Lloyd, Andrew Keegan
I've never been to summer camp, so the idea has always fascinated/terrified me. If I could only choose one 90s camp to go to, it'd be Camp Nowhere. After their parents pick out a bunch of lame camps to ship their kids off to for the summer, Mud and his friends create their own camp and blackmail an ex-drama teacher into convincing their parents to shell out some serious dough to send their kids to fake camps. Instead of camps for computer nerds, fat kids, or juvenile delinquents, they hang out by the lake all summer with plenty of funding and no adult supervision. Best. Summer. Ever.
