20 iconic warm weather films that are best to watch in the summer

Ah, summer at the beach. The sand is hot, the ocean is warm and the vibes are impeccable. That is, until a giant shark tears into locals. Then it becomes a lyrical nightmare in Steven Spielberg's Jaws, the first ever blockbuster.

Nobody puts my baby in a corner! Dirty Dancing can't be cornered into a single genre, tangoing from comedy to romance to drama to melodrama. But the tale of lovers dancing at summer camp can be classified as one thing: a great summer movie.

A one-size-fits-all comedy that everyone can enjoy. It's hard for a guy to admit that this comedy about girls on vacation is enjoyable, but those magic pants really do perform wonders. 

Italy? Check. Pasta? Check. A villa dappled in sunlight? Check. This is a warm weather escape, even if the story of Diane Lane fixing her marital woes by fixing a broken villa is contrived. 

Get dumped? Take a tropical vacation for some personal space. Just don't take a tropical vacation where your ex is vacationing, like Jason Segel in this nakedly honest and occasionally hilarious comedy about breakups.

Federico Fellini's fantastical films often play out under the warm, inviting sunshine of Italy. His childhood films, in particular, give us a window into the summers of a small seaside village where a circus of playful caricatures, gorgeous vistas and incredibly transporting visuals unfold.

Keanu Reeves. Patrick Swayze. The sunny beach. Sounds like a photoshoot, but the only thing being shot here are innocent people in a sunny heist flick. It's action-packed escapism with a side of sun.

You can feel the sweat dripping down the frame of this erotic thriller, in which a man gets roped into murdering someone's husband so they can both collect the inheritance. Things don't go as planned, of course, and the twists may have your head spinning long after the credits roll. 

The sun beats down in Rome, but you never see these two sweat. Gregory Peck is simply cool and Audrey Hepburn is luminously lovely as the princess who is undercover--a princess who is almost as divine as the surrounding landscape.

Jaques Tati didn't burst onto the scene like many great directors, but he did arrive with the grace of an ocean breeze. In Hulot's Holiday, he gave comedy the dose of slapstick it needed. In this bizarre and bizarrely beautiful vacation, things unfold as if in a dream. 

Nothing goes right on this family road trip, but for whatever reason, this film makes me want to hit the open road in summer. In Lampoon's Vacation, the best jokes come from plans gone awry.

Is it one of the best warm-weather movies? Maybe. Is it one of the best child performances ever? Absolutely! Not enough can be said for Lindsay Lohan's performance as twins trying to get their parents back together. In a dual role, she brings empathy, jubilation, energy, confidence, uncertainty, spirit, honesty and emotion. It's incredible. 

The monsters are on the hunt for heat like a family searching for a spot at the beach. In this action extravaganza, a group of soldiers confronts aliens who use solar heat to detect their victims. It's sweaty, dirty and extremely entertaining. 

The concept is pretty genius: a man stares out the window and thinks he spots a murder. The execution? If the name Alfred Hitchcock means anything to you, then you can expect a taut, effective and claustrophobic thriller that sticks to your skin like sweat. 

Summer, turquoise waters and bubblegum homes set the backdrop for this fish-out-of-water tale, which is literally about a fish who leaves water to become a human. Expect to be dazzled by the visuals. 

Something you may notice if you watch enough Hayao Miyazaki is that the sun is almost always out, and if it isn't, it's probably peering majestically through the clouds. Just as you don't go to Monet or Renoir for stormy landscapes, you don't go to an impressionist like Miyazaki for drab scenery. The images in this tale of a fish becoming human are poetically luminous and dazzle the mind.

This satire on moviemaking is dripped in sweat and hilarious lines, cameos, performances, set-pieces, slapstick, makeup and effects. One of the last comedic masterpieces where artists could say whatever they wanted to for a laugh. 

The horror, the horror. The horror of staring at a ceiling fan in summer with no air conditioning. It's nowhere near as horrific as this journey into a jungle of madness, war, and hysteria, but it does set the film's ominous mood. 

The opening montage says it all. It's hot, humid and tempers are flaring on the streets. Al Pacino's bank robber loses his mind partly because of the heat and partly because of his circumstances. It's a pit stain of a situation that the movie orchestrates beautifully.

This comedy is more than just alright, alright, alright. It's cinematic mastery as Richard Linklater follows a group of high school students on their last day of school. It's hot and wonderful. It's funny and memorable. It's a masterpiece.