Summer movies: The triumph of pure escape

It’s been a bright summer day in Spokane, so what better way to spend the afternoon than by sitting in the dark watching flashes of light dance across a big white screen? And since it’s summer, why not make those light flashes the kind that make life resemble a real-life “Matrix” ?

Really, “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Terminator 3” are, taken together, just a little more than four hours of pure escapism. Oh, sure, the “Terminator” films offer and ostensible warning about the dangers of technology. But along the way, creator (and director of the first two) James Cameron and now Jonathan Mostow (“U-571”) sure blow things up pretty good (that a two-syllable goo-ood). And “Pirates” director Gore Verbinski (“The Ring”) stages more than a few sword fights that, while hardly on the Errol Flynn-Basil Rathbone level, are impossible not to watch.

And that’s really the point of a summer film: Keep us thrilled, keep us focused and, most of all, keep us coming back and buying those overpriced concessions . That way we won’t have to think about other things — the rent, maybe, or food. Who needs food, anyway, when we have Raisinettes?