Lazy Daze of Summer

Slackers, stoners, ne'er-do-wells and losers; these characters can be movie magic. The key word here is "daze," more than "summer." We'll try to keep it summer-related, but some of these dazed characters are just too good not to list.

In this coming-of-age film set in Austin, Texas, Matthew McConaughey stars as a 20-something stoner who still hangs out with the students at Lee High School.

All we are, is dust in the wind, dude. Nobody does nothing quite like Bill S. Preston and Theodore Logan.

"Hey bud, let's party!" Life's one big pizza for surf-dude Jeff Spiccoli, one of the all-time great Hollywood stoners.

You'd think the biggest slackers at summer school would be the students. But not when your teacher is the Hawaiian-shirt-wearing, laid-back, borderline-lazy Mark Harmon.

Sometimes people aren't as lazy as you think, they're just really Zen. Like Bodhi.

The Dude. Or El Duderino, if, you know, you're not into the whole brevity thing…. Jeff Lebowski is the slacker against whom all other slackers will be measured into eternity.

Jason Segel is the very model of the modern-day slacker: he's 30, lives at home, and spends most of his time waiting for a sign from the universe to reveal his destiny.

In this 1925 silent film directed by Frank Borzage, Steve Tuttle would much rather lounge in the summer sun than do just about anything else.

Some slackers don't start out that way, like Peter Gibbons, who comes to embrace his rejection of the workaday world after a hypnosis session. "It's not that I'm lazy. I just don't care."

Dante, who runs a convenience store in New Jersey, redefines the slacker role for the ’90s, balancing his apathy with a healthy dose of anxiety.

While Wayne and Garth may have their own TV show, keep in mind it's on cable access, and it's in Wayne's parents' basement. This one is totally slacker-approved.

Maybe more spring than summer, this movie is standard viewing for any kid who came of age in the '80s…and wanted to master the art of avoiding work altogether.

Steve falls prey to the one enemy of all slackers, the one thing that can challenge their laziness, ambivalence and general disinterest in doing things: love.

Paul Rudd is the quintessential high school jerk here; the perfect combination of laziness, anger, defensiveness and indifference.

These two are a special sort: equal parts slacker, loser and idiot. Perfect.

Perhaps the most well-intentioned slacker ever, Paul Rudd seems to wreck everything he touches. Still, you can't help but love him.

There seems to be a pattern here with Paul Rudd. Here, he's got the Zen-lazy down pat, as a minimally competent surf instructor. "The less you do, the more you do!"