Top 5 Screenplays of the Summer

With the Christmas season upon us, we have also come upon the Oscar season.  The Oscar season is the time of year when movie studios release the films that (they think) have the most potential of winning Academy Awards.  For those who don’t know, this is why the multiplexes are usually full of tragic dramas or big budget James Cameron movies around this time of year.

But before we immerse ourselves fully into Oscar season, I want to take a look back.  What were the best written films of the SUMMER?  The films that probably won’t win any Oscars for screenwriting, but deserve to be recognized anyway.

If you haven’t seen any of these, rent them over the holidays.  I present to you:  The Top 5 Screenplays of Summer 2009!

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5. The Hangover

Rude, crude and absolutely hysterical.  By starting with the overdone, typical bachelor party schtick and then (brilliantly) skipping the bachelor party altogether, screenwriters Jon Lucas & Scott Moore deliver an expertly-crafted mystery, cleverly disguised as a comedy.  Waking up, hungover, in a trashed hotel room, 3 groomsmen race around Las Vegas to find their friend, the groom, in time for his wedding.  It’s not often a movie has me guessing until the very end, let alone a comedy!

4. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

When I first caught wind of this movie, I vowed never to see it.  But I don’t think I’ve EVER laughed so hard at a clean, family movie!  Outlandish premise and searing comedy aside, screenwriters Phil Lord & Chris Miller (having previously written the affecting “Nothing Good Happens After 2AM” episode of How I Met Your Mother) grappled themes that are critical for youthful viewers and 20-somethings alike. This is a kid’s movie, but it’s also one of the most poignant and inspiring I’ve seen in a long time!

3. Star Trek

If you haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie by now, go see it.  Screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman effectively resurrected a franchise collecting dust and injected it with heavy doses of excitement, whimsicality and sex appeal.  And, if you were looking for them, you would have also found, as I did, traces of the familiar philosophical themes that fuelled the original Star Trek series.  Not bad for a flick that, in it’s promotional campaigns, assumed to be nothing more than a fun action romp.

2. Zombieland

Am I ever glad I got over my low expectations and saw Zombieland.  I don’t know if I’ve seen a theatrical release in my lifetime for which I would be more excited for a sequel.  And word is, they’re already working on it.  In interviews, screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick explain that Zombieland was originally written as a TV series.  But if the impending big screen sequel(s) are able to capture the magic that the original possesses, I don’t see a need for Zombieland to settle into TV-land anytime soon.

And … drumroll please …

1. District 9

How do you take a dried out sci-fi genre, a cast nobody recognizes, a location that North Americans aren’t familiar with and a lead character that you don’t really like … and make a global smash-hit out of it?  Ask screenwriters Neill Bomkamp & Terri Tatchell, because they did.  I randomly read about this movie on a website and, with cursory interest, decided to investigate.  District 9 proved once and for all that you don’t need a A-list cast and overinflated budget to to make an audience cheer, cry, flinch and scream at a science fiction movie.  And don’t even get started on the barrel full of themes this screenplay explored, not by telling, but by showing.

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Here’s a list of movies that I didn’t get around to seeing, but that probably would have made my list had I seen them:  Moon, Away We Go, (500) Days of Summer, The Hurt Locker, The Answer Man.

And here’s a list of movies that I had high hopes for and let me down in a giant way: Funny People, Terminator: Salvation, Love Happens and, to a lesser extent, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

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Now that the summer movie season is officially behind me, I can really dig into these Academy Award contenders.  What flicks are YOU looking forward to seeing over the Christmas break?

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francy