Every savvy movie buff knows that summers and even the months following it are the proverbial dumping ground for blockbusters deemed "highly entertaining," leaving us to shell out $8.50 for a film high on the big-name gloss factor, but short on substance. And while a film doesn't have to be "important" to be entertaining, this time is the gulag, the wasteland, before the oscar-worthy juggernauts are released. Where to go but to our trusty Netflix or video store to catch up on those forgotten favorites that deserve a second viewing.

But instead of getting the newest release of the next biggest sequel to the last biggest sequel, why not experiment with the perfect double-feature that is not as obvious as sequels? Here is a short guide of strongly recommended rentals to make a double-feature to die for. Each movie below stands on its own as a great flick, but for something different, try watching the two back-to-back.

1. Easy Rider / Lost in America - Watch in that order. This Dennis-Hopper-directed feature gives you the correct impression that the Dennis on the screen was really, well, Dennis. Easy Rider explores a place and time when easy anything was the way. In this 60s cult classic, two drifters (Hopper and Peter Fonda) and a tag-along (Jack Nicholson) live to ride (and ride to live) across the US. Then proceed directly to Lost in America, directed by and starring Albert Brooks. His almost-a-yutz character and his wife, played by Airplane's Julie Hagerty, quit their cushy jobs, risk it all, and try to emulate the Easy Rider way. They find that the glamorized life on-the-road is not so easy, after all.

2. Fail Safe / Dr. Strangelove - Watch in that order. Fail Safe, the classic 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Walter Matthau, Henry Fonda, and Larry Hagman among others, takes you into a Cold War nightmare, one of a machine overriding the possibility of human error. But a mistake is made. Can the human equation make it right again? It delves into an ethical crisis so big that it throws you into the deep end and leaves you for dead. Follow this with Kubrick's sardonic version, Dr. Strangelove (made in the same year), and you are sure to lose faith in humanity altogether. With George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, and Peter Sellers playing three parts himself, Strangelove is the brilliant story-without-being-a-spoof of an Army general going gung-ho nutso and sending his bomber wing to destroy Russia, which is sure to retaliate. Will the world be destroyed?

3. Glengarry Glen Ross / Reservoir Dogs - Both made in 1992. Glengarry won Al Pacino the Best Supporting Oscar -- and should have won Jack Lemmon one as Shelley "The Machine" Levine. Based on David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Glengarry swan dives into the seedy world of salesmanship. But a warning: This gripping, testosterone-laden, dog-eat-you world is only for "closers." Reservoir Dogs is a good follow-up, as Tarantino's flick fills to the rim the cesspool of who-betrays-whom. A gang of thieves, with names like Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Pink, plan a heist and pull it off, but something goes wrong -- and someone is not who he claims to be. With scripts as tight as these, can there be a better double-feature? (For extra flavor, add one more scoop to the cinematic cone and watch Kubrick's taut heist film, The Killing.)

4. Romeo and Juliet / Valley Girl - Sit down to watch R&J, the Zeffirelli version and you'll get your fill of some Shakespeare. While always endurable in small chunks, Shakespeare is done right in this take -- one of the better adaptations of his plays into a movie. This love story gone wrong is the quintessential metaphor for star-crossed lovers. It's a story about families sticking their noses where they don't belong. It's a story about lovers killing themselves in the end over love. It's old school. Insert Valley Girl disc into player and you'll get another heaping helping of "she's different, he's different, can this ever work?" Yes, it does. Nicolas Cage has hair and looks great as a punk rocker from Hollywood who falls for, you guessed it, a stuck-up, rich girl from the Valley (Deborah Foreman). Cultures clash, lips lock, and friends stick their noses where they don't belong, resulting in a hot makeout scene and some kick-ass soundtracks. Also stars Michael Bowen as Tommy, the jerk Valley ex-boyfriend, and Frederic Forrest as Julie's dope smoking, hippie dad. It will leave you new vocabulary residue that is totally trippendicular.

Add these classic double features to your Netflix queue now