2020 has been a weird year thus far. No one could have imagined what world we would live in right now. Normally, I’d go on vacation in the summer, probably Italy once again. But that’s not going to happen. No sunny beach, beautiful countryside or the best pasta I’ve ever had. So that means one thing: I’ll have to bring the vacation vibe home. With music and food I’ll probably come a far way, but there’s one thing that works best: Movies. There are plenty of movies to give me a summer vacation vibe. Here’s a list guaranteed to give you the vibe you’re looking for, while at home. Just put on shorts, some sunglasses, a glass of wine and you’re ready to go!
It’s the 1980’s and seventeen-year-old Elio spends his summer vacation with his family in Italy, in a beautiful rural village. When his dad hires a research assistant, Elio finds his world turned upside down. At first, he doesn’t seem to like Oliver at all, but things grow between the two of them and the guys slowly become friends and later even more than that.
Genre: Drama, romance
Runtime: 2h 12min
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer
IMDb score: 7,9
Tomatometer: 95%
Won 1 Oscar
Everybody’s guilty pleasure and packed with a summer vacationvibe! Mamma Mia tells us all about Sophies marriage to Sky while still in doubt which of the three men in her father. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again tells us all about her mothers journey – how Sophie came to be – while Sophie makes herself ready for the opening of her mother’s hotel. Set in Greece, it makes you dream of a relaxing vacation where there’s only ABBA music. That sounds like the dream!
Mamma Mia!
Genre: Comedy, romance, musical
Runtime: 1h 48min
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Cast: Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski and Dominic Cooper
IMDb score: 6,4
Tomatometer: 54%
Nominated for 2 Golden Globes
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
Genre: Comedy, romance, musical
Runtime: 1h 54min
Director: Ol Paker
Cast: Same as the first one PLUS Lily James, Hugh Skinner, Josh Dylan, Jeremy Irvine and Cher
IMDb score: 6,7
Tomatometer: 79%
Sophie (yep, same actress and character name as Mamma Mia!) dreams of becoming a writer. While on vacation in Verona, Italy, Sophie meets the Secretaries of Juliet. These women write back to the people who left letters to Juliet at Romeo and Juliets balcony in Verona. Sophie finds a long-lost letter and decides to find the woman who wrote it.
Genre: Adventure, comedy, romance
Runtime: 1h 45min
Director: Gary Winick
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Egan
IMDb score: 6,5
Tomatometer: 41%
Taylor and her sister a on vacation in Italy, but here’s one thing she doesn’t know: her sister’s marrying Taylor’s ex. A movie filled with covers of 80’s songs that might lack some quality while giving of the perfect vacation vibe.
Genre: Comedy, musical, romance
Runtime: 1h 37min
Director: Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini
Cast: Annabel Scholey, Hannah Artertone, Giulio Berruti
IMDb score: 5,4
Tomatometer: 31%
Have you ever bought a house impulsivly? And in another country? No, I haven’t too. Frances does in this movie. She’s a writer and while on vacation in Italy, she buys a villa in Tuscany. It need a lot of work but she might just make something beautiful out of it.
Genre: Comedy, drama, romance
Runtime: 1h 53min
Director: Audrey Wells
Cast: Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Raoul Bova
IMDb score: 6,8
Tomatometer: 62%
Nominated for 1 Golden Globe
Ever wanted to own your own vineyard in France? I think we all do! When this happens to a British investment broker who inherits his uncle’s vineyard, he tries to enjoy his new life in France as he renovates the chateau.
Genre: Comedy, drama, romance
Runtime: 1h 57min
Director: Disley Scott
Cast: Russel Crowe, Abbie CornishAlbert Finney, Marion Cotillard, Freddy Highmore
IMDb score: 7,0
Tomatometer: 25%
This movie includes not one, not two, but three destinations! After having a painful divorce, Liz Gilbert takes on a journey across the world. She eats in Italy, prays in India and finds love in Bali. Based on the book by Liz Gilbert herself, this one is a bit more grown-up than most of the others on this list.
Genre: Biography, drama, romance
Runtime: 2h 13min
Director: Ryan Murphy
Cast: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, Viola Davis, Dave Franco
IMDb score: 5,8
Tomatometer: 36%
Frank’s a tourist in Venice, a pretty normal American guy. He meets Elise, who looks like an ordinary women but isn’t. She get Frank involved in something he has got nothing to do with. A movie mostly set in Venice, with some beautiful shots of the country, that’s pretty good – but only if you’re watching it for the first time.
Genre: Action, adventure, crime
Runtime: 1h 43min
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Cast: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany
IMDb score: 6,0
Tomatometer: 20%
Nominated for 3 Golden Globes
Georgia is an American-Greek woman who works as a tour guide in Greece. She doesn’t find a lot of happiness in her work and decides to give one last tour. But there’s a man on this tour that just might change her view on her job and life.
Genre: Comedy, romance
Runtime: 1h 35min
Director: Donald Petrie
Cast: Nia Vardalous, Richard Dreyfuss
IMDb score: 5,9
Tomatometer: 9%
I think we can all agree that this movie is an absolute classic. Nothing better that a dancing Patrick Swayze, right? Frances, though everybody calls her baby, spends her summer vacation in a resort where she starts feeling something for the dance instructor, Johnny Castle. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.”
Genre: Drama, romance
Runtime: 1h 40min
Director: Emile Ardolino
Cast: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey
IMDb score: 7,0
Tomatometer: 69%
Won 1 Oscar
This is by far my favourite Spider-Man movie ever made (followed closely by the Spiderverse). Yet another one set in Italy, oops. Anyways: Peter Parker is going on vacation after graduating high school. He just really wants to enjoy his vacation, not be Spider-Man for just a moment. But every far away from home, in Italy, there are threats. (Includes a hilarious scene with Dutch comedian/personality Jeroen van Koningsbrugge that mocks Dutch people)
Genre: Action, adventure, sci-fi
Runtime: 2h 9min
Director: Jon Watts
Cast: Tom Holland, Samuel L. Jackson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon
IMDb score: 7,5
Tomatometer: 90%
Lizzie McGuire, the TV show, premiered in 2001. Considering I was born in 1999, I did not watch the show. It wasn’t until replays (at around 2006, I think) I started watching some of the episodes. And then the movie came out, and I loved it. You don’t even have to know what the show is about to understand the movie. It’s just about a girl, Lizzie McGuire, and her class (including best friend Gordo) going on a school trip to Rome where she casually doubles for the most popular Italian popstar. It’s like everyday business for an awkward schoolgirl.
Genre: Adventure, comedy, family
Runtime: 1h 34min
Director: Jim Fall
Cast: Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg, Yani Gellman
IMDb score: 5,5
Tomatometer: 41%
Disney Channel is really good at making bad but enjoyable movies with a summer vibe. These are two of them. In the first one, two surfers, Mack and Brady, find themselves sucked into a beach movie musical from the 60’s where there are two gangs that hate each other. Teen Beach 2 starts where the first one left off, and is the other way around: a few of the gangpeople get sucked into the 21st century world of Mack and Brady.
Genre: Family, fantasy, musical
Runtime: 2h 9min
Director: Jeffrey Hornaday
Cast: Ross Lynch, Maia Mitchell, Gracie GIllam, Garrett Clayton, John DeLuca, Chrissie Fit
IMDb score: 5,9 & 6,1
Tomatometer: 86% & N/A
Everybody loves Mr. Bean. Even I, although I wasn’t there during his prime time. But I was there in 2007, when Mr. Bean’s Holiday came out. I remember renting it at the Dutch equivalent of Blockbuster, a videotheek. This movie makes Mr. Bean take a solo trip to France. Filled with lots of typical Mr. Bean plot points, he ends off at the most prestigous film festival in Cannes.
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 1h 30min
Director: Steve Bendelack
Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Willem Dafoe, Emma de Caunes
IMDb score: 6,4
Tomatometer: 52%
What will you be doing this summer? Leave in the comments below: I’m curious!
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