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For decades, blockbuster movies have been as popular in summer as backyard barbecues. So, for this year, we tapped recent graduate Scott Gordon 鈥�13 to put together his Top 5 flicks for 2013.

Mr. Gordon, who majored in and graduated from the , wrote his senior thesis on 鈥淩evolution of the Dead: The New Zombie Apocalypse鈥� and he was recently on air with The Takeaway 鈥淢ovie Date鈥� podcast about the release of World War Z, starring Brad Pitt. Mr. Gordon credits Senior Adjunct Thomas Campbell and Associate Professor Terrence Ross from the and Greogory Mercurio from the Honors College for fostering his passion of films.

Here are his Top 5:

Much Ado About Nothing
English teachers are always raving about how timeless Shakespeare is, but very rarely do film adaptations and deliver. Most fall into one of three categories: the period piece (A Midsummers Night鈥檚 Dream,听Othello); the heavily adapted modernization that is hardly recognizable as Shakespeare (10 Things I Hate About You 补苍诲听She鈥檚 the Man); and the brazen reboot that is so modern it hurts (Romeo + Juliet 补苍诲听The Tempest). In Much Ado About Nothing, strips the film of such gimmicks and lets the Bard鈥檚 words and some creative camera work do all of the heavy lifting. It鈥檚 simply a timeless story told in a timeless way.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=rUWlPjXvFZU

The Way, Way Back
The screenwriting team of and really know how to produce clean dialogue. Their previous effort, The Descendants, netted an in 2011 mainly because it featured writing so grounded that it made even seem like a regular guy. Sure, it鈥檚 the coming of age story that you鈥檝e seen a thousand times before, but it鈥檚 never seemed quite this familiar. A lot of movies will evoke adolescence by showing you shades of places you鈥檝e been, or reminding you of people you鈥檝e met, but the real triumph of听The Way, Way Back听is its ability to genuinely transport you back there.

The To Do List
Set in 1993,听The To Do List听returns us to a more innocent time鈥攁 time when you would dream of having enough courage to pass a note to your crush in math class or to write his name in hearts all over your , and couldn鈥檛 learn everything you ever wanted to know about sex by spending 10 minutes on . It鈥檚 a well-told film with a sweet but misguided lead that just happens to be female. We鈥檝e seen raunchy teen sex comedies before, but never one with a real heart. If anything, The To Do List proves that high school antics can be completely ridiculous without being so far-fetched.

Pacific Rim
Sometimes you want to be so challenged by a film that you leave the theatre in a haze. Other times, you just want to see how hard a robot can punch an inter-dimensional monster in the face. Fortunately, you don鈥檛 always have to choose. While there is plenty of action to be had, Pacific Rim hasn鈥檛 received nearly enough credit for its intelligence. If you care to filter out the traditional 鈥淢onster Mash鈥� tropes, you鈥檒l find a world desperate to finish an endless war that eerily resembles our own. But if not, you can always sit back and enjoy the show.

Computer Chess
For those of us born in the digital age, it鈥檚 hard to imagine a time when technology was underwhelming. It鈥檚 absurd now to think that an early 1980s computer chess tournament could be so pivotal to our recent technological revolution, or that such an odd lot of characters pioneered an industry that would be institutionalized by an icon as cool as the late Steve Jobs. We see firsthand that even in its most primitive form the new technology had the fundamental ability to do the impossible. It鈥檚 a love letter to a time before the , and even handheld mice鈥搘hen computers belonged solely to the brightest minds, and your mother didn鈥檛 call you every night for tech support.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=b4DTRABpaAE