Summer has arrived, and unfortunately, due to the economy, a lot of us will be foregoing vacations this year. But just because you might not get to have your own magical summer adventure this year doesn’t mean you can’t live vicariously through the best summers ever captured on film. Here are six films to get you through those long hot nights in front of your DVD player, and five more that are so bad, they’ll have you feeling better about your own summer.

The Best

Jaws
Steven Spielberg‘s shark-tastic horror classic will have you so scared of the water, you won’t miss the beach at all.

Dirty Dancing
Over twenty years after its theatrical release, Dirty Dancing might not seem nearly as dirty in comparison to some more recent films, but it’s still the greatest summer movie romance of all time.

Summer School

Released the same year as Dirty Dancing, this breezy comedy about a teacher whose about as excited to be spending the summer in class as his students, is still good for a chuckle when your broken air conditioner is keeping you up at night.

The Parent Trap

The plot is as ridiculous as it is fun: Twin sisters, separated as babies by their divorced parents, find each other at summer camp, switch places, and concoct a crazy scheme to get their parents back together — and it works! Disney managed to make two decent versions of this family comedy, but I prefer the original Hayley Mills version over the Lindsay Lohan remake, just to avoid being reminded of Lohan’s decidedly un-Disney future.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

This teen film follows four friends as they experience their ultimate summer fantasies — trips abroad, first loves, and being able to fit in the same jeans as their skinny friends.

Bonus: The Sandlot

Five films make a well-rounded list, but I couldn’t leave off this highly quotable coming-of-age comedy about a boy who learns to love baseball.

The Worst

Summer School

OK, so we’ve already established that it’s a fun comedy. But seriously, it’s still a pretty standard cheesy ’80s movie.

src="http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/5/4/4/9/28419445-28419447-medium.jpg" alt="Summer Catch" width="200" height="132" align="left" hspace="6"/>Summer Catch

This unnecessarily angsty rom-com starring Jessica Biel and Freddie Prinze Jr. just may be the least fun summer film of all time.

From Justin to Kelly

For those of you wishing for an Adam Lambert/Kris Allen bromance movie, I present this abomination as evidence of why no Idols should ever convene on film together again.

American Pie Presents Band Camp

This trip to band camp, sans Alyson Hannigan or any of the other major players from the first three Pie films, marked the beginning of the hit franchise’s descent into straight-to-DVD hell.

Beach Blanket Bingo

This too-silly-to-be-fun ’60s beach party movie will make you glad this genre fizzled out four decades ago.

Tags: dirty dancing, jaws, jessica biel, summer movies