I have friends that love summer for all that the outdoors has to offer….golf, soccer, sailing, gardening, cycling, beach volleyball. Me? I love it for the movies.

I’ve got friends that say going to the movies is too expensive, and really when a 3D movie costs about $15 per person, plus another $15 for a pop & popcorn, they are right. But I would rather pay to see a summer action movie then pay to watch the grass grow and lose my balls on a golf course.

I usually see about 20-30 movies a year, with many of them opening in the summer, and I tend to avoid the “talking head” type of movies…romance, drama…those are the kind that can be seen on your t.v. without losing their impact. Actions movies are what top my list.

I start making my list of movies as soon as the preview magazines come out (yes, I have an actual list), and then I add to it as I go. My 2013 movie list is currently at 36, and I have seen 7 of them already. I won’t go to see all 36, some of them will get bad ratings and I’ll mark them as rental. Of course, there will be a few movies that I haven’t seen previews for or read about yet that will get added.

I judge most of my movie watching thru a site called rottentomatoes.com. I love this site!! I’ve been using it for years, and I know that 90% for a talking heads movie really means nothing to me, but that 50% on certain thriller types movies might still mean it’s a good movie. I’ve even gone to see movies that are at 25% because at least a quarter of the people liked it, and if it is my kind of movie then it is MY KIND OF MOVIE. (Admittedly I draw the line at spending that kind of money on anything less than about 20%.)

May is the kick-off for my summer movie obsession and I saw Star Trek Into Darkness last night. It is sitting at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I LOVED IT!! (And not just because Chris Pine has gorgeous blue eyes.)
What are some of the other wallet-breaking movies I have on my list for the summer?
Fast & Furious opens next weekend, and Now You See Me the weekend after.
June offers up the Bling Ring (not usually my kind of movie, but I love Hermoine), After Earth, World War Z and Whitehouse Down.
For July, it starts with Dispicable Me 2 (really!), as well as RIPD, RED2 and Wolverine.
And right now the only one on my August list is Mortel Instruments.

So there are a dozen MUST SEE summer movies, and the list doesn’t even include my “maybe” movies.

Yes, I’ll still make it to the beach every other weekend for The Daughter’s volleyball, and I’ll get the flowers in and the garden cleaned at some point. More importantly though, I think I better start rolling the jar of coins I have sitting on my dresser so that I can have my movie and my popcorn, too.