Oh, man, here we are at Labor Day again, and I didn't get half my Summer projects finished!  Plus, I've got that nagging feeling that I have to go back to high school even though I graduated in 1990.  And, most frightening of all, now I've got to answer for those predictions I made back in April about which would be the 15 best Summer movies!  Overall, it was a pretty good Summer season, laced with only a few true turkeys.  As always, there was a lot of that “well, I enjoyed that, but I really came in expecting Citizen Kane with explosions, so I can't say I'm happy” feeling, and a general sinking feeling that if you have to add “threequel” to your dictionary because you're using it so often, Hollywood is in trouble.  But there were pleasant surprises as well (granted, none of them were threequels), and a few of the uber-blockbusters managed to deliver the goods.

So, what about that list?  I ultimately saw only 13 of the 15 movies I spotlighted, through no fault of my own.  Fanboys (predicted #11) dropped off the Summer schedule and slipped all the way to 2008.  And that quirky-looking indie horror comedy Black Sheep (#15), about which I wrote “Now, I just need to get this IFC Films release someplace where I can see it!” never played on more than 8 screens Nationally.  Over all, it was a frustrating Summer for getting even higher profile limited releases to Central Pennsylvania (I'm still weeping over Sunshine's failure to reach the area).  I suppose the best way to start tackling the fate of the other 13 is to unleash my list of what actually turned out to be the 10 best movies of the summer.  As many as none ended up in the position I predicted.

1.Hairspray
Prediction:  #13
How Good Was It?:  In a word, awesome.  I saw the toe-tapping, spirit-lifting musical 4 times and listened to the soundtrack about 300 more.
What's My Excuse?:  Hey, I don't generally like musicals!  And I'd never seen the Broadway show or even the original John Waters movie.  Guess I should have taken that strong trailer a little more seriously.  I know I can't wait for the next time Marc Shaiman writes a musical.

2.Mr. Brooks
Prediction:  #12
How Good Was It?:  Brilliant.  A creepy, intense and thoughtful thriller that proved original screenwriting is still alive and well in a season of threequels.
What's My Excuse?:  Come on, how can you know a screenplay's gonna be great until you see the movie?  For that matter, that Kevin Costner and William Hurt, two actors whose work has been erratic the last few years, would show up at the top of their games?  I could use more surprises like this one.

3.Sicko
Prediction:  Unranked
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to start a revolution if more people had seen it.  Michael Moore's populist assault on the health care industry specifically and Americans' fear of their own government in general both outraged me and made me feel like change would really be possible.  If only...
What's My Excuse?:  Damn you, FOX News!  Since the brilliant Fahrenheit 9/11 underscored Michael Moore's position as our premiere advocate documentarian, the Political Right has done everything it can to make his name a dirty word.  And I have to say that Moore's own self-promotional rants about the Bush Administration trying to punish him for his cinematic trip to Cuba didn't exactly serve to make me anticipate Sicko's approach.  But while I'd love to see his name in the papers a little less, I won't be doubting the entertainment value of Moore's cinematic rabble-rousing again anytime soon.

4.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Prediction:  #1
How Good Was It?:  A tiny little drop-off from the series-best previous chapter, The Goblet of Fire, but still pretty darn awesome as the Potter saga only grows darker and more intense.
What's My Excuse?:  An embarrassment of riches.  HPATOOTP was about as good as I expected, and three movies I didn't see coming just happened to be better.

5.Evan Almighty
Prediction:  #8
How Good Was It?:  Probably the Summer's purest mass audience entertainment machine.  Alas, it tanked at the box office, so a mass audience didn't get to find that out.
What's My Excuse?:  I've pointed out my share of times that the best sequels are usually to flawed movies.  Bruce Almighty was pretty flawed.  Still a tough prediction to make.  Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised by how effectively Steve Carell was able to blend his wacky Daily Show/Office persona with the greater gravity required of a leading man when he needed it.

6.Stardust
Prediction:  Not Ranked
How Good Was It?:  An instant comic fantasy classic.  Another movie people would have loved that they decided not to give a chance.
What's My Excuse?: Stardust is a movie that's all about it's wonderful, whimsical tone, and the ads did nothing to put it across.  It's probably impossible to squeeze a magical wall between the real and fantasy worlds, a hero smitten with an awful woman, a Fallen Star that's a human being, an ancient witch pretending to be young, a cross-dressing Pirate in a flying ship, and a greek chorus of murdered pretenders to a vacant throne watching their surviving brothers battle on for it into a 2-minute trailer even without trying to give you a sense of how much fun it all is.  I bet this one attracts a major cult following over time.

7.Transformers
Prediction:  #4
How Good Was It?:  A little jarringly comic on the first viewing, but it packs more bone (or metal)-crunching fighting robot action than pretty much every movie made before it put together.  And it got even better when I saw it again.
What's My Excuse?:  The trailer conveniently hides the amount of teen-friendly silliness that probably did help the movie reach a wider audience than the hard-edged action-fest they promised would have.  It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it regardless.

8.DOA:  Dead or Alive
Prediction:  Not Ranked
How Good Was It?:  A pure, cheesy, B-Movie good time that was the season's ultimate “You know who you are” case.  Seen by no one during a 3-week theatrical run, it should click with lovers of campy junk when it reaches DVD.
What's My Excuse?:  How can you see something like THIS coming?

9.Live Free or Die Hard
Prediction:  #5
How Good Was It?:  A little long and a little short in the supporting cast, but amazingly staged action and a return to form by Bruce Willis made this the best of the Die Hard sequels.  I just wish that was more of an achievement given that the original is the greatest modern action movie.
What's My Excuse?:  There'd be no Summer Movie Season if we didn't expect sequels to our favorites to be better than they turn out.  Of course, this was really a sequel to Die Hard With a Vengeance rather than Die Hard itself, and as such it was actually a pretty impressive improvement.

10.Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World's End
Prediction:  #7
How Good Was It?:  The Summer's best Threequel was nowhere near the zip code of the classic original, but a nice improvement over last Summer's dreary Dead Man's Chest.  The last hour really packed a wallop!
What's My Excuse?:  See my Live Free or Die Hard excuse, although it's even more pie in the sky to expect a return to form from one of these back-to-back sequels that are shot at the same time.

For the record, I'd round out the top 15 with (in alphabetical order) Balls of Fury, The Invasion, Lucky You, Resurrecting the Champ, and Waitress, none of which were in my Preseason Poll.  The lesson is threefold.  1)Preseason polls are always wrong (as the college football fans reading this will know soon enough); 2)Summer Hype Machines usually turn out to be mediocre (yes, a whopping 7 of my predicted Top 15 actually made the list), and; 3)Most of the best movies take you by surprise.

That last one actually has me a little worried.  It's easier and easier to get large numbers of people into theaters for sequels, remakes and pre-sold properties, but it's never been harder to get the moviegoing public to give something new a chance.  And that's where most of the truly rewarding moviegoing experiences, the ones that keep you coming back for more, come from.  Crappy threequels only help to feed that sense that you're not really getting anything out of the movies you couldn't get by waiting to watch them at home, and those of us who treasure the theatrical experience can't be happy about that.

For the record, as for the rest of my predicted list, Fantastic Four:  Rise of the Silver Surfer (#2), The Simpsons Movie (#6), and Underdog (#9) weren't half bad.  Spider-Man 3 (#3), 1408 (#10), and Ratatouille (#14) were.  For now, I can give Hype Brain a bit of a rest and enjoy fall offerings that have to prove their own merits, starting with this coming weekend's promising one-two punch of 3:10 to Yuma and Shoot 'Em Up.  But my eyes have started to dart toward that Christmas weekend and National Treasure 2:  Book of Secrets.  Surely, it wouldn't let me down... would it?