Do something once and it's just a thing.  Do it twice and it's a tradition.  So it goes with the Palace's Summer Movie Scorecard, where I take myself to task for the predictions I made at the beginning of this most hype-filled of seasons.  I picked the 15 movies I thought I'd like the best, and now I stand before you to present my Summer Top Ten.

I also offer good news on two fronts.  First and most important, this was a GREAT summer movie season.  Loads of great movies, lots more good ones.  In fact, between the opening week counterprograming dud Made of Honor and August 15th's Star Wars:  The Clone Wars, I didn't see a single movie I gave less than 2 1/2 stars.  Of course, I did hand out 2 stars or less four times in the season's last two weeks, but we're emphasizing the positive here, folks!

Second, I get me some bragging rights!  Because unlike last year, when I didn't get one spot on this top ten right ahead of time, this year I actually knew based on hype alone what my favorite movie of the summer would be.  And I think I had lots of company.

1.The Dark Knight
Prediction:  #1 CHA-CHING!
How Good Was It?:  So good, it got America buzzing about a Summer blockbuster AFTER it was released.
How Did I Know?:  I bet on pedigree.  Not only did Christopher Nolan direct the brilliant previous Batman sequel/prequel, Batman Begins, but he's put together a truly amazing run since exploding onto the scene with Memento.  And all three films (Memento, Knight and 2006's The Prestige) he's co-written with brother Jonathan have been absolute Masterpieces.

2.Swing Vote
Prediction:  Unranked
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to make me believe in the American electoral process.  At least until the lights came up.
What's My Excuse?:  Hype giveth, hype taketh away, and because his brand of movie has fallen from favor, I seem to underestimate Kevin Costner every single year.  But for the 2nd summer in a row (last year it was Mr. Brooks) he's in the runner-up spot.  I knew Swing Vote had a great idea, but political comedies are notoriously tricky to pull off, not the least because they have a way of ending up very thinly veiled Democratic campaign commercials.  Not this time.  Has any actor over the last twenty years racked up as many great non-franchise credits as Costner?  There may be better actors, but just about nobody has better taste in scripts.

3.Iron Man
Prediction:  #4
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to start a revolution.  It and The Dark Knight provide the proof that each other's quality is no aberration:  you really can make a superhero movie that also works as a drama.
What's My Excuse?:  Hey, I was close!  The error I'll cop to is slotting the Marvel blockbusters in the wrong order.  But that's what hype is all about:  Incredible Hulk's trailer was better...

4.Get Smart
Prediction:  #8
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to prove Steve Carrell can do ANYTHING, even action, and to demonstrate once again that you get a lot better product laughing with a classic TV property than at it.
What's My Excuse?:  I never expected that writers Tom J. Astle & Matt Ember would dust the high-flying action and hilarious gags with real character depth.  Love Maxwell Smart, sure!  Laugh at him, of course!  But FEEL for him?  Now THAT'S an achievement.  But Carrell is our most empathetic comic star and I shouldn't have been surprised.

5.The Happening
Prediction:  #11
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to relaunch M. Night Shayamalan's career, if only more people had agreed with me...
What's My Excuse?:  The Sixth Sense auteur had been in a two-movie slump since Signs, and the notion of him kicking up the content to an R-rated level seemed to work against his strengths.  But he found some new notes to play, dusting this eco-horror flick with a ghoulish EC Comics sensibility that helped make it both the summer's scariest movie and one of its' funniest.  Alas, it proved to be a divider and not a uniter, and there was no summer movie I had more arguments about.

6.Tropic Thunder
Prediction:  #6 CHA-CHING!
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to finish the summer (as the final major release before two weeks of filler) the same way it began:  with a movie so smart it transcended a genre it also executed to perfection.
How Did I Know?: The trailer may not have prepared me for how clever the movie's Hollywood satire would be, or how good Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey would be in mostly hidden roles, but it put us on notice that the summer would belong to Robert Downey, Jr., who followed up his leading man triumph in Iron Man with one of the year's best character turns, working on so many different levels it's hard to list them all while being screamingly funny besides.  Every moment he's on screen is a treat

7.The Incredible Hulk
Prediction:  #2
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to make Marvel maniacs drool over the comic company-turned studio's master plan to unleash The Avengers on the world in 2011.
What's My Excuse?:  OK, so the trailer made the movie itself look a little deeper than the finished product proved to be (but I reserve final judgment until I see the longer cut star Edward Norton favored), but it still packed a first-rate cast into a slam-bang thrill ride about a character who'd never before come off as kinetic on-screen.  Best viewed as I saw it, as a de factor Iron Man sequel that continues the story of a rising tide of superheroism in The Marvel Movie Universe.

8.Hellboy II:  The Golden Army
Prediction:  #7
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to prove the heroes of The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense could anchor a good movie and not just be the highlights of a mediocre one.
What's My Excuse?:  Again, I was pretty close, although the slam-bang trailer did raise my expectations unreasonably high.  And despite the glory of their cast of characters, the Hellboy movies continue to be lesser bullet points on Guillermo del Toro's outstanding resume.

9.The X-Files:  I Want to Believe
Prediction:  #3
How Good Was It?:  Good enough to give a Day One X-Phille much needed closure, if not to relaunch the franchise.
What's My Excuse?:  I had HOPED it would be good enough to relaunch that franchise, but co-writer/director Chris Carter made the questionable choice to make the comeback vehicle a moody drama whose genre elements were its' weakest feature.  But its' character moments soared, and it deserved a better fate than it got from the X-Files' former fan base.

10.You Don't Mess With the Zohan
Prediction:  Unranked
How Good Was It?:  I'll admit, it was really inconsistent, but the last hour is comic gold and in a close race, I prefer to take the highest highs and forgive what are, admittedly, some low lows.
What's My Excuse?:  It sounded ridiculous (and not in a good way), in large part because the studio was promoting the parts of the movie that don't really work (commando-turned-hairdresser, all that) at the expense of the ones that do (political satire, action movie spoofery and one of the craziest casts you'll ever see).  The kind of movie that only gets made if your star has pretty much unlimited power, and I'm glad Adam Sandler's using his for goodness instead of for evil.

What about the rest of my list?  Well, this year I was pleased to see all 15 movies on it, and to enjoy all but one (#15 Hancock, with its' implosive final third).  #5 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was fun, albeit forgettable time spent with one of our greatest movie heroes, #9 Journey to the Center of the Earth delivered the 3-D goods and #14 WALL-E was, despite its' flaws, one of the more interesting animated movies in recent years.  #10 Wanted, #12 Speed Racer and #13 The Mummy:  Tomb of the Dragon Emperor all had their moments, but I'd be lying if I said they didn't disappoint.

Other summer highlights that took me by surprise?  Unranked and off my radar, the totally different Step Brothers and Traitor were happy surprises.  And The Chronicles of Narnia:  Prince Caspian improved on its' predecessor in a way that made its' box office failure one of the season's biggest surprises.  What wasn't a surprise was that I resisted having any urge to see chic hits Sex and the City and Mamma Mia!.

Some will look at the season's box office results and opine the continued decline of the non-pre-sold property.  I can't argue:  there was never even a glimmer of hope that people would go to see a movie like Swing Vote and fewer and fewer movies that aren't part of some kind of ongoing box office machine (adaptation, sequel, A-list star/director vehicle, or a product of the Pixar or Dreamworks animation machines) even bother to come out between May 1 and Labor Day.  But if cineastes take any hope from this season, it's that revolution is ongoing from the inside.  There's nothing wrong with franchise movies if they're are good as The Dark Knight, Iron Man or Tropic Thunder.  And maybe raising the kiddies on that kind of quality product will lead them to expect it every time they go.  Hey, Disaster Movie tanked:  I choose to believe in an optimistic future.