Summer blockbusters rattle us and get people excited about going to the movies, but it’s safe to say that most of them are pretty unremarkable. Sure, the studios make krillions of dollars and lots of kids walk away happy. But how many of these movies will you remember next summer? Or five summers from now?

It’s been a long time since we’ve been treated to a whole season of truly entertaining motion pictures to choose from. You would have to go back many years to find a summer where something new and dazzling came out virtually every week.

In fact, 1982 may very well be the last time we saw a summer jam-packed with great films. That year, from the middle of May to the end of August, a string of genre-defining and groundbreaking films came out almost weekly that captured imaginations and reminded us just how cool cinema can be.

Check out this murderer’s row of classic films. All of them among the most memorable movies of the last few decades, and they all came out in the summer of ’82.

• Conan the Barbarian – Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, etc., etc. This film introduced the world to Arnold Schwarzenegger and put him on the path to superstardom.
• The Road Warrior – Known to the rest of the world as Mad Max 2, Warner Brothers changed the name since the original Mad Max didn’t do well in the U.S. This movie inspired a wave of post-apocalyptic flicks that went on for the rest of the decade.
• Rocky III – The 2nd Stallone movie ever to break $100 million at the box office, and began his dominance of 80s action films. Rocky IV would soon follow, as would Rambo II, Planet Hollywood, and so forth.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – They can make a hundred Star Trek movies, but none will ever top this one. The most quoted, the most beloved, the most referred-to of all the Star Trek films that featured the original crew. Khhaaannn!
• Poltergeist – Producer Steven Spielberg got most of the credit for this one, but Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was the one behind the camera. Either way, they both proved that a PG-rated movie can still scare the crap out of you.
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – Not only the biggest movie of 1982, but the biggest movie in the world until Titanic came out in 1997. And to its credit, it never spawned a sequel or an insane rash of toys.
• Blade Runner – This one had a tough time finding an audience when it was released, but it is now considered a film classic that ranks among some of the greatest sci-fi films ever made.
• The Thing – Even after the huge success of Halloween, John Carpenter had trouble making the films he wanted to make. Nevertheless, this remake of a 1950s sci-fi flick became a classic in its own right. No one who has seen Carpenter’s version will ever forget it. Ever.
• Tron – It was the butt of many jokes at the time, but this film featured groundbreaking special effects that included the first use of CGI in cinema. It also confirmed that video games were here to stay.
• The World According to Garp – This quirky film was an adaptation of a novel by John Irving, one of America’s greatest writers. It proved that there was more to Robin Williams than just spastic TV comedy, and it became a cult classic.
• An Officer and a Gentleman – Up where we belong. Richard Gere. Debra Winger. Every woman in America fell in love with this romance classic, making it the 3rd biggest film of 1982.
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High – The most memorable and quotable of 80s teen movies, it launched Sean Penn’s career along with several other young actors. Even in our desensitized modern age, it remains the benchmark against which all T&A flicks are measured.
• Pink Floyd The Wall – The band had broken up by the time this film was released. Based on one of the biggest selling albums in music history, people still ask if this film was a midnight art house flick or a rock and roll classic. I’d say both.

Any thoughts on this list? Email me and I’ll share your comments on the site.