It's summertime, and that means blockbuster movie season. Instead of forking over a day's wages to pack in with sweaty crowds seeking refuge in a frigid theater, why not rent a flick and kick back in your own comfy home? Here're a few flicks we've reviewed in the magazine, starting with three from the genre everyone loves to hate, horror...
The Host
A notorious real-life incident inspired this monster movie鈥檚 opening scene: It鈥檚 2000, and a U.S. military mortician orders a Korean subordinate to empty hundreds of bottles of formaldehyde into the sink and thus, ultimately, into Seoul鈥檚 Han River. Jump ahead a few years: An enormous amphibious creature with a penchant for eating people leaps from the river. The film follows a wonderfully dysfunctional family in search of its youngest, who was snatched by the mutant. Think Little Miss Sunshine meets Alien鈥 cautionary environmental tale is suspenseful yet surprisingly funny and touching.鈥擜lisa Opar
Birdemic: Shock and Terror
As horror flicks go, is arguably one of the best of the worst, with wooden acting, cheesy dialogue, and corny special effects鈥攈omicidal birds that are more reminiscent of Nintendo鈥檚 鈥淒uck Hunt鈥 than Hitchcock. What sets the film apart is its blatant environmental messages. The hero sells solar panels and craves a hybrid car. An ornithologist stresses over climate change. And a hippie guards a forest that鈥檚 a refuge from the avian terror plaguing the NorCal-esque town beyond. California suburbia, best keep your eye on the sky.鈥擩ulie Leibach
Black Sheep
A New Zealand farmer tries to create the perfect sheep, but his barnyard project goes terribly wrong. An altered animal infects his herd, turning its members into carnivorous killers that attack anything within biting distance, including people, who mutate into enormous sheep that gorge on human flesh. A trio of unlikely heroes springs into action: sheep-phobic Henry; Tucker, the fearless farmhand; and Experience, a feng shui鈥揺mbracing activist. is a must-see for fans of horror movies and comedies. But insomniacs should take heed: Don鈥檛 expect that counting sheep will ever again help you fall asleep.鈥擲usan Cosier
And for the horror-averse out there...
No Impact Man
Oscilloscope Laboratories and +impactpartners, 90 minutes
In the new documentary , Colin Beavan ropes his somewhat unwilling wife, Michelle Conlin, and their two-year-old daughter, Isabella, into living 鈥渄eliberately鈥 for a year. The surprisingly funny film follows the Manhattanites as they reduce their environmental impact as much as possible: biking in place of subways; cutting out electricity and toilet 
paper; doing laundry in the bathtub; and housing worms (for composting, of course). Beavan, sincere and committed to his pursuit, may be No Impact Man. But what makes this film compelling is watching him and his wife, a self-proclaimed high-fructose- loving shopaholic with a healthy sense of self-deprecating humor, strive to stick to the plan. The experiment yields some unexpected benefits, as Beavan ponders aloud: 鈥淲hat if I called it 鈥楾he Year I Lost 20 Pounds Without Going to the Gym Once,鈥 or 鈥楾he Year We Didn鈥檛 Watch TV and Became Much Better Parents as a Result,鈥 or 鈥楾he Year We Ate Locally and Seasonally and It Ended Up Reversing My Wife鈥檚 Pre-diabetic Condition鈥?鈥 Viewers aren鈥檛 likely to replicate the lengths the family goes to, but this entertaining and poignant film is sure to motivate others to action, even if just piecemeal.鈥擲usan Cosier
Earth
Disneynature; 99 minutes; Rated G
A mother polar bear teaches her two cubs to hunt in the Arctic. An African elephant herd crosses the Kalahari Desert in search of water. A humpback whale and her calf migrate thousands of miles from the tropics to the Southern Ocean. loosely weaves together the 
tales of these families鈥 struggles to survive over one year. It鈥檚 the first feature film from Disney鈥檚 Disneynature division, and marks the company鈥檚 return to family-friendly nature documentaries, a genre it spawned with its True Life Adventures series in the 1950s. Much Earth footage is repackaged from the Discovery Channel鈥檚 Planet Earth series, but rather than feeling stale, the spectacular cinematography comes to life on the big screen. Narrated by James Earl Jones in his unmistakable sonorous voice, it touches lightly on changing environments, with brief mentions of melting polar ice caps and desertification. But the scope is really the animals鈥 exploits, and not just the three families. There are plenty of asides, from shots of adorable mandarin ducklings鈥 first flight, to slow-motion footage of a cheetah, muscles rippling, chasing down a gazelle. In such instances, the audience doesn鈥檛 actually see the bloody death. It is, after all, a G-rated production.鈥擜lisa Opar
The National Parks: America鈥檚 Best Idea
Florentine Films and PBS, 12 hours
By Ken Burns
One summer when I was a teenager, my family piled into our minivan and drove from New Jersey to Arizona, pit-stopping at Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon national parks, the Petrified Forest, and Mesa Verde. To me, earning a National Parks Passport stamp at each entrance gate practically equaled seeing the parks themselves. Turns out, I鈥檓 what filmmaker Ken Burns calls a national park collector. In his six-part documentary, 鈥,鈥 Burns introduces more than 50 unique characters, including the Gehrkes, a childless couple that, in the 1920s and 1930s, traveled from park to park in 鈥渁 revolving parade of new Buicks.鈥 The documentary, which opens with awesome imagery of spewing lava and raging rivers, offers lots of spectacular footage and chronicles many of the system鈥檚 milestones, from Teddy Roosevelt鈥檚 1903 Yellowstone visit to that park鈥檚 gray wolf reintroduction in 1995. There鈥檚 black-and-white footage of Franklin Roosevelt鈥檚 Civilian Conservation Corps and gorgeous shots of bison and other grand wildlife, interspersed with compelling observations by park rangers, historians, and nature lovers alike. The 12-hour program, over six nights, is so captivating that it seems much shorter. And it tells a uniquely American tale. Burns says, 鈥淔or the first time in human history, land was set aside not for kings or noblemen or the very rich, but for everybody and for all time.鈥擬ichele Wilson