For us mere mortals, Memorial Day is the last Monday of each May, when we honor those who have died in the military; for movie studios, it’s the Monday following the release of (usually) the year’s biggest movie. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull won the coveted slot this year–duh!–but what were the Mem-Day movies of the past decade like? Quite the mixed bag, to say the least…and we ranked them on our preferences.
10. 1999
Notting Hill (5/28/1999): $116 million
On Memorial Day weekend, nobody wants to sit through a movie about a bookstore and its owner (Hugh Grant)–unless it explodes and he illogically turns into a superhero. Sure, Notting Hill made loads of money by romantic-comedy standards, but…it’s a romantic comedy! Perhaps Universal mistook Memorial Day for Valentine’s Day.[PAGEBREAK]
9. 1998
Godzilla (5/19/1998): $136 million
The idea was noble: A movie of Godzilla’s ginormous scope and proportions is the kind of popcorn fare we crave when the end of May rolls around. But the execution? Uh, not so much. Director Roland Emmerich–who directed another movie on this list–turned his dream-gig-come-true into our movie-going nightmare. All in all, it was quite the monstrosity. (Had to slip that line in somewhere!)[PAGEBREAK]
8. 2002
Enough (5/24/2002): $39 million; Insomnia (5/24/2002): $67 million
If you were seeking a good time at the movies on Memorial Day weekend 2002, chances are you had to look elsewhere to find it. That’s because this twofer of releases was simply no fun–but for different reasons. The Jennifer Lopez-starring Enough lived up to its title midway through, thanks primarily to a nauseating Lifetime MOW feel; Insomnia, meanwhile, was a riveting drama but, again, a victim of its own release date: “Thought-provoking” and “Memorial Day movie” do not belong together, Christopher Nolan![PAGEBREAK]
7. 2004
The Day After Tomorrow (5/28/2004): $187 million
It’s that Emmerich guy again! The Day After Tomorrow was essentially Godzilla only with Mother Nature filling in for that hideous giant lizard. The expectations this time weren’t to re-create an iconic, skyscraper-high monster but rather to simulate a metropolis-ruining climate change, which resulted in a marginally better movie–and a box office juggernaut. Who knew it would be quasi-topical if released today?[PAGEBREAK]
6. 2001
Pearl Harbor (5/25/2001): $199 million
Pearl Harbor was the sort of bank-breaking, mind-numbing extravaganza that defines Memorial Day movies–with a fitting release date for the subject matter to boot. It was also a visual and audible masterpiece, but therein lied the somewhat moral dilemma: The blockbusterization and posterization, for which Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay are infamous, felt a wee bit blasphemous for a “war” movie.[PAGEBREAK]
5. 2003
Bruce Almighty (5/23/2003): $243 million
Ah, the best of both worlds: comedy and special effects–or was it Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston? Either way, Bruce had virtually all of America laughing and its financiers laughing all the way to the bank, as it became, and remains, the second-highest-grossing comedy of all time. The movie was vintage Carrey, not just because of the money it made or his performance, but because his dominating box office prowess has been absent ever since.[PAGEBREAK]
4. 2006
X-Men: The Last Stand (5/26/2006): $234 million
It’s funny how comic-book adaptations, at their core, should be niche movies, but always end up being the chief box office breadwinners. Of course, when a studio plunks down hundreds of millions on a budget, the effects become more special and the audiences wider. Brett Ratner’s elaborate Last Stand continued that theme in a huge way, endearing Marvel fans (for the most part) and converting those who wouldn’t be caught dead in a comic-book store.[PAGEBREAK]
3. 2000
Mission: Impossible II (5/24/2000): $215 million
Around this time in 2000, Tom Cruise was still the king of summer movies–and winter, spring and fall. In fact, it wasn’t until M:I 3 that his stock began to drop, following off-screen stunts like couch jumping and psychiatry bashing. But in M:I 2, he still had, and delivered, the goods, with some assistance from action maestro John Woo. While it wasn’t flawless, perfection is not necessarily what we require from our blockbuster extravaganzas. (Although the Bourne trilogy has since spoiled us rotten!)[PAGEBREAK]
2. 2007
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (5/25/2007): $309 million
Last Memorial Day got it right. Whether or not Pirates 3 was the most highly anticipated threequel in a summer teeming with them doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we had a behemoth piece of escapism to go see on Memorial Day, one that was a true movie-going event and one that cost what a Memorial Day movie is supposed to cost to make: roughly one gazillion dollars! Such movies should feel like theme-park rides, and Pirates 3–which is, of course, based on a Disney ride–definitely succeeded.[PAGEBREAK]
1. 2005
The Longest Yard (5/27/2005): $158 million; Madagascar (5/27/2005): $193 million
Two disparate but equally enjoyable options on Memorial Day–who could ask for anything more?! It turns out that a duo of comedies is preferable to a single mega-blockbuster a la Pirates 3, both for us and the movie industry. Longest Yard was chuckle-worthy the whole way through, as all Adam Sandler movies tend to be, while Madagascar was one of the best non-Pixar animated movies ever–although it made Pixar-like money (thus justifying the sequel, which hits theaters in November).
