Well, the summer movie season is officially over, and while box office earnings are way up, it seems like the quality of the films have actually gone way down.  But for every few badly-written movies (like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2, and G.I. Joe–though some will say it’s not that bad), there was a diamond in the rough like District 9.  So why were so many movies so bad in the summer of ‘09, even if they did make a lot of money?  Hint: The Writers Strike!

Before the summer began, I wrote an article about how the 2007 Writers Strike might affect the summer 2009 movies.  I speculated that back in 2007, studios were nervous about how long the writers strike could last, leaving them with a possible lack of films for the fall/winter 2008 and all-important summer 2009 season (early May to late August 2009). To make sure they had big films lined up for Summer ‘09, the studios pushed to have their big-budget scripts quick-finished before the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) contracts were up in November 2007 and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in summer of 2008.

The last time we were “Crushing On” someone, it was Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) from the Harry Potter films. The “Crushing On” series focuses on one relatively unknown or underappreciated actor/actress that may not be popular with mainstream audiences (yet) but that we feel should get some exposure for their work. Today we continue our new semi-regular series “Crushing On” with a name that most people have heard but few people know anything about: Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Believe or not there are some people in the world that HAVEN’T seen Transformers 2. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe – especially with TF2 raking in almost three quarters of a billion dollars worldwide – but it’s true! So what are these people willing watch if not the biggest blockbuster film of the summer? My guess is that they are part of the art house, indie-loving crowd and they were holding off for Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s new film, (500) Days of Summer.

We haven’t covered this film on Screen Rant yet, but better late than never. (500) Days of Summer looks to be a really good mid-summer date film, much like The Proposal last month, but with more subtle humor and insight, rather than the big laughs Green Lantern Deadpool Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock brought to the screen. Today we’ve got the trailer for (500) Days of Summer, plus a musical montage featuring two songs from the film’s excellent soundtrack.