Summer Movies for the Outdoor Set

April 21st, 2008 Wade

I love to be outside in the summer. I like it when it’s hot and I can go down to the creek and float all day. There are days that the heat is unbearable in the Southeast US though. And summertime is the time for movies. So on those really bad scorchers many of us like to head into a cool theater and let them pay for the electric bill.

Hollywood has focused largely on horror movies with a little girl in the trailer saying something like, “They’re coming,” the last few years. The Into the Wilds and Touching the Voids are rarities. So, I was wondering if there were any “outdoor adventure” oriented flicks debuting this summer. Below is a list of what I found…

Mongol - see trailer here

The life and times of Genghis Kahn. If Braveheart and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had a baby, this is what it would look like. Great cinematography and beautiful scenery on the Asian plains.

The Happening - see trailer here
M. Night Shamamalalamamama has scared us with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, while not really wowing us with Lady in the Water. But this one looks interesting to me. Basically something is “Happening” and everyone is dying from some biological agent. Leave it to Marky Mark to traipse around the countryside and solve this problem. Maybe those Good Vibrations will save the day?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - see trailer here
The original adventurer. Ole Indy is in fact getting some age on him, but we’ll see if he can still dodge arrows and outrun giant stone balls. Now this is going to be fun…

BlindSight - see trailer here
“Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, BLINDSIGHT follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers who set out to climb the 23,000-foot Lhakpa Ri on the north side of Mount Everest.” … You had me at “set against the breathtaking backdrop the Himilayas.

The Fall - see trailer here
If ever there was a movie that should win an award for costume design… based purely on what I’ve seen in the trailer… it would be The Fall. This is one of those movies that nobody will see in the theater, but looks like it could become a beloved classic. The story of a little girl, sick in the hospital, and a dying man who tells her a story to keep her mind from her pain. The landscapes look like they were inspired by a Dali painting.

Surfwise - see trailer here
Midway through this century, when it was rare for people to stray from the mainstream, a man loaded his 9 children and his wife into a 24 foot RV and hit the road. They found surf spots from Florida to Venezuela and bonded as a family. This looks like an interesting documentary with commentary from the kids today about how it changed their lives.

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