In writing the first edition of “If You Haven’t Scene It,” I came to realize how few movies I myself had seen, and how many needed to be viewed. In light of this situation I began to prep myself for nights of intense research. However, being plagued with finals and end of the year stress, I settled for movies I had already seen, and really love. So, if you’ve got no time on your hands due to an end of the year school rush, here are some movies you ought to catch up on over summer break.

Thrillers

Title: Silence of the Lambs

Year: 1991

Rated: R

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Crawford

What you need to know:



A young FBI agent by the name of Clarice Starling (Foster) has been assigned to help find a missing woman, the daughter of an important political figure who has been kidnapped by a psychopathic serial killer given the name Buffalo Bill for skinning his victims.



Clarice must meet with Dr. Hannibal Lector (Hopkins) who is not only a convicted criminal (a serial killer of the cannibal persuasion), but also a genius in the psychology of the human mind. Lector is Clarice’s only chance at finding this girl before she too is skinned for Buffalo Bill’s sadistic purposes, but before he will reveal anything about the psyche of this killer, Clarice must give him detailed accounts about her complicated life including the loss of her father and the waking to sound of screaming lambs being slaughtered when she was a child.

Movie Quote: “Hello Clarice.”

Title: The Sixth Sense

Year: 1999

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette

What you need to know:



Child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe’s newest patient, Cole Sear (Osment), has a rare gift; he can see the dead. Crowe (Willis) is greatly disturbed by this because of a former patient who had a similar gift. Crowe was unable to help this patient and a few months prior the patient shot and wounded Crowe and then killed himself. As time passes Cole’s mother (Collette) becomes more worried about Cole’s increasing problems at home and school. Crowe may be the boy’s only hope. Through Crowe’s guidance, Cole learns that he must help the dead find their way and somehow relay their last messages to the living.

Movie Quote: “I see dead people.”

Title: Jaws

Year: 1975

Rated: PG

Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

What you need to know:



Martin Brody (Scheider), the new police chief of the peaceful New England resort town of Amity, has a crisis on his hands: there is something in the water feeding on the unsuspecting vacationers. Mayor Larry Vaughn decides the best plan of action is to take no action and instead tell the media crews and tourists that vacationer Chrissie Watkins’ mangled body was the result of a motorboat accident. Shark expert Mark Hooper (Dreyfuss) isn’t convinced and believes this accident to actually be the attack of a shark, and not just any shark, a great white. A shark hunter by the name of Quint (Shaw) is called in to remedy the situation, but Vaughn, desperate to protect his money, refuses to pay the $10,000 fee for such a hunter.



When another person is killed by the shark, this time with Brody’s son, Michael, present at the attack, Brody hires Quint himself.

Quint, Brody and Hooper are sent out to sea to find and kill the shark.

Movie Quote: “He didn't eat a car, did he?”

Comedies

Title: Back to the Future

Year: 1985

Rated: PG

Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover

What you need to know:



With unsuccessful parents (Thompson & Glover), no plans for his future and his band suffering a blow of rejection to perform for a school dance, aspiring musician Marty McFly (Fox) has a life which is a little less than ideal. But always there to brighten his day is Emmett Brown (Lloyd), local crackpot scientist and friend to Marty, and he always has a new invention. This time: a time machine fitted into a Delorean. However, this time machine needs some serious power (plutonium) to run and Brown has gotten into a pretty tight position with some Libyans who gave him the plutonium in exchange for the creation of a bomb.



When Brown is shot, McFly races away in the Delorean/time machine, which, when it reaches 88 mph, travels through time. Marty is sent all the way back to 1955, the date when Emmett first conceived the idea for this time machine, which would be pretty cool, if he weren’t completely out of plutonium to get him back to his own time. The only solution is to find Emmett Brown and try to find an alternate power source for the time machine. Within a few days, a plan is constructed to harness the energy of a lightning storm that had destroyed the clock above city hall in 1955. But, Marty has run into another problem: his future mother has become enamored with him. Now Marty must reconnect his father and mother, save Brown from his untimely death and find a way back to the future.

Movie Quote: “I'm your density. I mean... your destiny.”

Title: Ed Wood

Year: 1994

Rated: R

Starring: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker

What you need to know:



Ed wood is the biographical comedy of director Ed J. Wood. The movie concentrates on the 1950’s, during the time which he created the campy horror films ‘Glen or Glenda,’ ‘Bride of the Monster,’ and ‘Plan 9 from Outer space.’ Through his relationships with his less than amazing cast, his friendship with the legendary Bela Lugosi, and his transvestitism, Ed Wood discovers what it means to be “the world’s worst director.”

Movie Quote: “Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else's dreams?”

Title: Coming to America

Year: 1988

Rated: R

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones.

What you need to know:



On his 21st birthday the Prince of Zamunda, Akeem (Murphy), must marry a woman whom he has never met. Breaking with tradition he heads off to America accompanied by his friend, Semmi (Hall), to seek out a woman who he may really be able to love.



He meets the woman of his dreams working at a fast food restaurant owned by her father. Now Akeem must fight to win not only Lisa’s, but her father’s affections while disguised as a janitor.

Movie Quote: “Wearing clothes must be a new experience for you.”

Title: Airplane!

Year: 1980

Rated: PG

Starring: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

What you need to know:



Airplane! Is the campy story of Ted Striker (Hays), an ex-Navy pilot who has been nervous about flying ever since that incident in the war, (you know, THAT incident.) Having just been dumped by the love of his life, Elaine Dickinson (Hagerty), a stewardess at Trans American Airlines, he follows her onto a flight in attempts to win her back. When food poisoning breaks out due to a bad fish dinner, Striker is the only one left healthy enough to pilot the plane. Striker must face high anxiety toward flying and land the plane before causalities occur as a result of a crash, or, a bad fish dinner.

Movie Quote: “Surely you can’t be serious.” “I am serious… and don’t call my Shirley.”

Title: The Blues Brothers

Year: 1980

Rated: R

Starring: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd

What you need to know:



When Jake Blues (Belushi) is released from prison, he and his brother Elwood (Aykroyd)

go to visit the orphanage where they were raised. When they learn their home has stopped receiving support and will be sold to the education authority unless a $5000 property tax can be paid in 11 days of their arrival, the brothers set off to reunite their old band and stage a gig that will provide the cash. Convinced it is a mission from God, they will let nothing stand in their way.

Movie Quote: “We’re on a mission from God.”

Family Movies

Title: Stand By Me

Year: 1986

Rated: R

Starring: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman

What you need to know:



Gordie Lachance, a writer looking back on his childhood, recounts the story of the summer after his older brother’s death. He and three of his friends go off in an almost desperate search to see the body of a child missing and presumed dead. A tale of growing up and coming to terms with life and death, Stand By Me is definitely a coming-of-age classic.

Movie Quote: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”

Title: Sixteen Candles

Year:1984

Rated: R

Starring: Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling, Anthony Michael Hall

What you need to know:



Fifteen-year-old Samantha Baker’s (Ringwald) life is nowhere close to perfect. With all the frustrations of her teen years, and, in true high school fashion, she has a crush on the most popular boy in school, Jake Ryan (Schoeffling), who doesn’t even know she exists. The only boy that seems to be aware of her existence is the geekiest high school freshman you’ve ever met (Hall), who won’t give up no matter how many times he’s turned down. Her grandparents have come to visit for her sister’s wedding and with them a foreign exchange student and more than a fair share of embarrassment. And, with all the excitement and commotion of her less than brilliant sister’s wedding, her family forgets her 16th birthday.

Movie Quote: “I really love Rudy. He is totally enamored of me. I mean, I've had other men love me before, but not for six months in a row.”

Animated Films

Title: Shrek

Year: 2000

Rated: PG

Starring: Mike Meyers, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, Eddie Murphy

What you need to know:



Shrek is the story of an ogre whose home in the swamp of an enchanted forest is being run be exiled fairy-tale creatures, including a Donkey by the name of Donkey (Murphy) he has saved. The person responsible? Lord Farquaad (Lithgow), ruler of the kingdom of Duloc. Shrek (Meyers) sets off in search of this Lord Farquaad to give him a piece of his mind, but instead ends up as part of a tournament being held for the “honor” of saving Princess Fiona (Diaz) from a dragon-guarded castle. Shrek sets off with Donkey to save the Princess. After rescuing Princess Fiona, Shrek falls in love with her. The problem? What princess could ever love an ogre?

Movie Quote: “Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

Title: Monsters, INC.

Year: 2001

Rated: G

Starring: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs

What you need to know:



James P. Sullivan, also known as “Sulley”, and Mike Wazowski work for the utility company Monsters, INC which provides all of the energy (in the form of frightened children’s screams) to the city of Monstropolis. Sulley, the number-one scream generator at Monsters, INC., accidentally allows a child, Boo (Gibbs), to pass into their own world. When the child laughs, however, they discover something else very startling: a power surge, apparently the laughter of children supplies much more energy than their screams. The head honchos of Monsters, INC. must be informed. But, after making a startling discovery about the company, Sulley and Mike must fight to protect this child at all costs.

Movie Quote: “There's nothing more toxic or deadly than a human child. A single touch could kill you. Leave a door open, and one can walk right into this factory; right into the monster world.”

Note: For other great movie ideas, a top ten list works great.

My personal top ten:



1) Star Wars (A New Hope)

2) Clerks

3) Office Space

4) Animal House

5) Hedwig and the Angry Inch

6) Adaptation

7) Monty Python's the Meaning of Life

8) I Heart Huckabees

9) Airplane!

10) Wayne’s World