Cinéma sur le toit

2011-08-15T23:10:00.004-04:00

Rooftop movies (5 years old) Rating: Awesome.

That's right, we're Cinéma sur le toit, and we're here to make you watch awesome movies on the roof and think about nothing at all but your beer and your movie and how awesome DC in the summer can be when it's not 100 degrees and stuff.

And next week, Thursday the 25th, that movie is SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. So round up your fake high school girlfriend, or your seven evil exes, or anyone else you care to bring, and show up on the rooftop. I'll totally be in lesbians with you forever if you come.

Have you seen Evil Dead 2...Yet?

2011-07-22T10:30:00.001-04:00

In High Fidelity, Rob and Barry have a conversation about Evil Dead 2 that's not REALLY about Evil Dead 2 (watch it here). It's actually about whether Rob's ex-girlfriend is going to sleep with another guy. Also, Barry seems to be confusing Evil Dead II with its sequel, Army of Darkness.

But all that is beside the point, which is that, just like Barry says, it's a brilliant, funny, violent film, and everyone should see it. And if you've already seen it, you should see it again. In either case, you can see it up on my roof this Thursday, July 28. And I promise that being outdoors 10 stories high is actually significantly cooler than at ground level. So beat the heat while enjoying the movie. Also, for the uninitiated who've never seen ANY of the Evil Dead movies and are afraid of being lost, seeing the first Evil Dead is entirely unnecessary, because Sam Raimi was kind enough to re-shoot a synopsis of the first movie and put it at the beginning. So now you have no excuse. See you Thursday!

Big Trouble, Third Try

2011-07-01T08:28:00.000-04:00

Yes, you read that right, we're tempting fate and trying for Big Trouble in Little China again. Either that or I'm doing my part in drought abatement by using this movie to try to coax wet weather into the area.

In any case, I'm determined that we're going to show this movie on the roof this summer, so we'll give it a go on Thursday, July 7, and you can see if I finally manage to make it happen, or if I just keep on tilting at windmills.

Double Impact Keynote

2011-06-17T08:23:00.000-04:00

At the first screening of the 2011 Cinéma sur le toit season, for the 1991 Muscles from Brussels opus, Double Impact, our distinguished guest speaker here gives us a stirring and informative introduction. Sadly, my phone ran out of memory about halfway through, so the rest of his comments about the Van Dammage we were about to witness are lost to all but the memories of the lucky individuals gathered on the rooftop last night. You can, however, find a full transcript here.

Kicking the Curse: Double Impact!

2011-06-10T10:16:00.000-04:00

DC's fickle weather does not seem to want to see Big Trouble in Little China, so I'm going to postpone that screening and see if changing titles breaks the string of cancellations.

One of Cinema sur le toit's most loyal attendees has been lobbying me for at least one season now to show a little damme love for the muscles from Brussels, and this week, I'm going to grant that wish, with a 20th anniversary screening of Jean-Claude's dual role as separated-at-birth twins who are reunited just in time to join forces to defeat a Hong Kong crime syndicate in Double Impact.

I'll leave it at that, because our featured guest for the evening, Mr. Chris Klimek, will be introducing the film, and is sure to have plenty of insights into just what makes this masterpiece tick. (Apart from having the best action-movie tagline in history with "Double the Van Dammage!")

Do your best anti-wind, anti-rain dance and join us on the roof on Thursday, June 16.

He was born ready.

2011-05-30T14:31:00.007-04:00

EDIT: Marginally high winds forced us to scrub last week's launch. So we've pushed things back to the following Thursday, June 9.

Honestly, I can't believe it took us this long to think to screen this movie up on the roof. It's got everything that we look for in an idea screening candidate here: a blend of action and humor, inexplicably bizarre events, and a wisecracking superhero. (If only he was wearing white sweatpants; but not every film can be a Gymkata.) When I saw a lonely copy on the picked-over shelves of the Friendship Height Borders during the final days of their going-out-of-business sales, I had two thoughts: 1) Why have I never owned this? and 2) This is leading off the rooftop movies this summer.

Director John Carpenter re-teamed with his The Thing and Escape from New York star Kurt Russell, this time going for big-budget action comedy rather than the dark sci-fi horror or post-apocalyptic action of those two flicks. Russell plays Jack Burton, a wisecracking truck driver who manages to land himself in the midst of a war between rival factions in San Francisco's elaborate Little China, as he tries to help his buddy Wang Chi rescue Wang's fiancee, who has been kidnapped to be sold into the sex trade.

The Little China of the movie is a vast underground, steeped in mysticism. The original writers took the trippy martial arts movies coming out of Hong Kong in the late 70s as inspiration for a martial arts western, and then Buckaroo Bonzai director W.D. Richter came onboard to rewrite the script with a more modern setting and a dash of the same brand of self-aware quirk that typified Buckaroo. The result was, predictably, an absolute failure with audiences, but a cult hit on home video. Again, the sweet spot for rooftop fare.

So BTiLC will open up this season this coming Thursday. If you're a longtime Cinéma sur le toi devotee, you know the drill. For those of you perhaps new to the experience, here's the deal: We get started around 9pm, or once most of the people we're pretty sure are coming have arrived; you're welcome to bring whatever snacks & drinks you'd like; we generally have plenty of chairs, but if you have folding chairs/camp chairs that are easy to bring along, feel free, that way we don't hoard too many of the chairs on the roof from other folks up there; lastly, keep an eye on the forecast. I know it's been hot this weekend, but you never know with early June: it could always get cool at night, especially up on the roof, in which case you may want to be sure to have a hoodie or something to wrap around your shoulders.

Who's putting Baby in a corner? Not us.

2010-09-26T16:06:00.005-04:00

We have a tradition at Cinéma sur le toit, and it involves Patrick Swayze, who we love and miss dearly. Something about the man's filmography taps into the spirit of our little event, and so, for the past two years, we've shown one of his films. Ever since we started doing that, we've had more requests for one particular film than any other. And they've come, unanimously, from our female attendees.

So the ladies have spoken, and rooftop movies are listening: the movie is Dirty Dancing. Which seems appropriate, being a movie about the end of the summer, and, barring some more late-season heat waves, this being the last hurrah for this season of rooftop movies.

I've been trying to get around to this one for a few weeks now, but scheduling has been a bear. So now we find ourselves at the tail end of September, the very last days where one can generally spend two hours on a 10th story rooftop in this town without needing to huddle together for warmth by the end of the night. At the moment, it looks like the weather should be pretty OK this week, so we're going to take a shot at Wednesday evening, September 29. So come on out for one last evening on the roof; bring a drink, bring a friend, bring a snack, and -- if I can play the part of your mother for just a moment -- bring a jacket, just in case it gets chilly up there by the time Johnny finally rescues Baby from that corner. We'll get started around 9 or so.

He's Got a Gold Medal in Kicking Your Ass

2010-08-27T14:03:00.013-04:00

On this week's installment of the always excellent Pop Culture Happy Hour on NPR, the PCHH foursome discuss "Tomorrow's Rediscoveries": former stars who are "either currently out of fashion or currently not taken seriously [that] might have an opportunity to rise from the ashes, as if by magic, to take what you might call a Rourke-ian journey to redemption."

After Linda Holmes makes an earnest plea for Tony Danza based on his upcoming reality series, regular Cinéma sur le toit attendee Glen Weldon trotted out a pick -- at 22:15 if you're looking for the clip -- that left his cohorts shocked and awed. Well, at the very least, amused. They laughed. A lot. I'll leave the description to Weldon:

I'm talking about a man who made but one film, and then vanished into Hollywood legend. That one film, that one man, is Kurt 'Gymkata' Thomas. Gymkata, a 1985 film, tagline: "Gymnastics Skills, Karate Kills". Kurt 'Gymkata' Thomas, who is a gold medal gymnastics guy, plays a gold medal gymnastics guy who is picked up by the S.I.A., the "Special Intelligence Agency" — see what they did there — and dropped into the fictional, remote, Himalayan country of Parmistan. What happens next is the best scene in the history of cinema, where our mulleted hero is being chased down an alley, which dead-ends into what else, of course, a pommel horse. Which he then proceeds to mount. These Parmistanians with scimitars are coming at him (one at a time), and he is dishing out, you know, your Rear Double Scissor, your Mushroom, your Direct Stockli, your Reverse Hecht, your Russian Wendeswing.

In other words, Gymkata has the one thing that I was expecting, but didn't get, from our last feature, Never Too Young to Die, which also had a gymnast turned secret agent in the lead, but which never delivered ANY pommel horse, rings, or parallel bar action from John 'Not Gymkata Material' Stamos.

In addition to that, we also get some additional nonsense about winning a Parmistanian competition that will get Thomas a wish, which the U.S. government wants to use to magically create some kind of satellite monitoring system as an early nuclear attack warning system. Yeah, sounds like the 80s, alright.

So, in the interest of getting what was missing from the Stamos film, and in the interest of making Glen 'Gymkata' Weldon's (Klimek tells me that we're now authorized to refer to him thusly) fondest rooftop movie dream come true, we'll be kickstarting (so to speak) the Kurt Thomas renaissance on the roof this Thursday, September 2, somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 p.m.

Bring a snack, bring a drink, bring a friend, but most importantly, bring yourself.

Uncle Jesse Rides His Pommel Horse Into the Sunset

2010-08-08T13:44:00.004-04:00

There are really only a few things you need to know about Never Too Young to Die

1. Gene Simmons of KISS plays a transsexual criminal mastermind. The band actually had to cancel part of a tour to allow him to film the movie. In retrospect, they probably regretted that decision.
2. John Stamos, in his pre-Full House stardom days, stars as a college gymnast who is the son of a secret agent (played by George Lazenby, who played THE secret agent, James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service) who is killed by Simmons. Stamos must use his inherited secret agent skills and, presumably, his gymnastics acumen, to both avenge his father's death and save the world from the evil gender-bending menace.
3. Vanity, the Prince protégé who had cut ties with her mentor and dropped out of Purple Rain a couple of years prior, co-stars as a Bond-girl-style sidekick, whose name is, I'm not kidding, Danja Darjeeling. She probably sorely regretted ditching Purple Rain after this.
4. The future Freddy Krueger, Robert Englund, also turns up as Simmons' evil assistant.

What's that you say? I had you at Gene Simmons playing a transsexual criminal mastermind? That's what I thought.

Also, in keeping with the It Came From the 80's theme, we will be screening this movie without the benefit of a laptop, DVD player, or other digital source. Instead, we will be utilizing an archaic, late-20th-century piece of analog technology known as the "Video Cassette Recorder", which plays what was known as a "Video Home System" cassette tape. Some of you may even remember having these devices in your homes as children. Come one, come all, to watch this antique in action.

We'll be watching this classic this coming Wednesday, August 11, and we'll get things started around 9 p.m., or a little after, as per usual. Feel free to bring a drink, a snack, and/or a friend.

A Vision in a Dream...

2010-07-26T08:31:00.000-04:00

After taking a couple of weeks off in deference to the all-consuming forces of the DC Fringe Festival, rooftop movies return this week, with one of the most legendary of camp classics, the movie that paired Greek mythology with roller disco, and Olivia Newton-John with Gene Kelly. Bad move for Kelly: he wouldn't work again after this until a Love Boat guest shot four years later, and he never worked in movies again. This was a just-barely-post disco musical that refused to believe that disco might be dead (or at least resting, pending late '00s reevaluation), and a film that probably ended up selling more copies of its soundtrack (devoting one side each to Ms. Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra, respectively) than it did actual tickets to the movie.

For pure kitschy disco-musical awfulness, Xanadu still doesn't reach the heights of absurdity of The Apple (one of the best installments of the old Vision cinema's midnight kick-the-keg movie screenings, to be sure). But there's plenty of laughable badness here for everyone, in a brighter, glossier package.

Also of note: the director of recent lefty political documentaries such as Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is the same director, Robert Greenwald, who brought us Xanadu (as well as that classic of 80s made-for-TV battered-wife-revenge flicks, The Burning Bed). See if you can spot the seeds of his future liberal activist filmmaking sandwiched in between the musical numbers and the desperate death throes of Gene Kelly's career.

Join us on the roof this Thursday, July 29, and we'll get started around 9pm. Roller skates optional. We'd bring up the disco ball, but we have nowhere to hang it.

Footy for freedom: Rooftop Movies World Cup edition!

2010-06-27T11:51:00.007-04:00

We're putting the third movie in our planned trilogy of movies from the 80s being remade or sequelled this year in favor of something a little more timely, given the current tournament in South Africa.

Anyone who played any kind of organized soccer in the 80s probably watched Victory multiple times, being one of the few American films about the sport. Despite starring Sylvester Stallone, the film tanked in the U.S., not surprising given our general ambivalence about soccer when it was released in 1981. Still, youth soccer leagues of the decade formed a sort of a natural cult for the film, and everyone I've ever known who played as a kid has a love for the film, even if it is more than a little ridiculous.

I'm not sure how it did internationally, and whether the bizarre sight of Stallone as a footballer was outweighed for the rest of the world by a cast that included a host of international soccer stars, most notably Pelé, along with Michael Caine and Max von Sydow.

Stallone, Pelé, Caine, and all those soccer stars are a group of POWs in a German prison camp in WWII, and they play games of soccer, as a group of foreigners (excluding the one American in the group, of course) might be expected to do with time on their hands in the camp. The Germans decide it'll be a great propaganda opportunity to pit the prisoners against a German team in a massive stadium event, and the prisoners figure this will be a golden opportunity to escape.

Yeah, it's riddled with sports and war movie clichés, but it's still huge fun, directed with a sure hand by John Huston near the end of his career, and featuring some great footage on the field, with all the real players getting to show off their signature moves.

~~That's this Wednesday, June 30th, up on the roof.~~ We'll get started around 9pm or so.

EDIT! We had to cancel this screening at the last minute. Make up date is now Thursday, July 8. See you there!

Governors ain't got time to bleed.

2010-06-14T12:29:00.007-04:00

We've decided that after Tron, we're going to keep the theme going for a trilogy of 80s titles that are being either remade, rebooted, or sequeled here in 2010.

In 1988, John McTiernan revolutionized the action movie, making what is still, 22 years later, the gold standard for high-octane explosion-heavy thrillers, and a movie that is, as far as I'm concerned, as important a Christmas tradition as watching A Charlie Brown Christmas after trimming the tree. For years afterwards, no one could make a movie even remotely similar to his '88 opus without some critic declaring it "Die Hard on a _____" (fill in the blank with the appropriate setting: plane, train, bus, island, dentist's office, hot air balloon...the possibilities are endless).

Yeah, so now that I've set all that up, I should mention that we're not showing that movie.

What we are showing is the movie that McTiernan did immediately prior to that, which would improbably feature two future governors shooting invisible aliens with neon green blood. That would be Predator, which has inspired its own decendents, just as surely as the director's next film would. First up was Predator 2, which had a socially conscious agenda dealing with drugs and gang violence in Los Angeles, starring Bill Paxton (probably wishing he was in another James Cameron alien flick rather than this one), Gary Busey (just on the cusp of the coming insanity), and Danny Glover (who most certainly was too old for this shit when it came to battling bloodthirsty, trophy-seeking aliens alongside gangbangers). Then things got even worse with a pair of infuriatingly bad Alien vs. Predator flicks, which they really should have found a part for Bill Paxton in, given that he's the only actor to have been killed onscreen by both alien species.

Despite the failings of those movies, producers are going back to the well this summer for Predators, in which the titular beasties kidnap a group of the roughest, toughest hombres that Earth has to offer in order to hunt them on a game preserve on their own planet; their judgement has to be seriously called into question given that Adrien Brody and Topher Grace are among those supposed badasses. At least Danny Trejo is along for the ride.

In any case, there's really no room for improvement on the original. You've got future Minnesota head honcho Jesse "The Body" Ventura spitting tobaccy juice all over the jungle while unleashing an endless stream of macho one liners. Future governator Swartzenegger as the leader of this band of ultra commandos dropped into a jungle where they are about to become big game. Carl Weathers as Ah-nuld's former BFF, and a current pencil pusher gone soft...or has he???

Head on over and join us on the roof this Thursday, June 17. Chris Klimek, who claims to have seen this movie over two dozen times between the ages of 11 and 13, has volunteered to give us a brief introduction to the finer points of this sci-fi/horror/action near-masterpiece. We'll get the projector fired up after dark, around 9pm, but I'll be up on the roof from around 7pm onward, so feel free to show up and hang out whenever you like.

Second Verse, Same as the First

2010-06-06T19:13:00.002-04:00

People out of town, people mired in the last week of the school year, people too tired, and people who just didn't know about it (due to my failed experiment of only "inviting" people via Twitter and Facebook) resulted in our scrubbing the launch of the 2010 rooftop movies.

So, we're going to try this again, and everything we said in last week's post applies again this week, except for the new date, which is Thursday, June 10. We'll see you up on top of the world.

"Are you a user?"

2010-05-31T00:56:00.007-04:00

Many of you have been asking when the first rooftop movie of the season is going to be scheduled. I'm sure you've been sitting at your desk every day at work feverishly refreshing your browser on this blog, checking back through your RSS feed, making sure that you haven't missed the big announcement. I'm sure. But the debut is here, this Wednesday, June 2.

While I'd wanted to start a little earlier this year, being out of town for the last half of May ended up scuttling those plans. However, I did come out of Los Angeles with a short video to use as one of our standard weird short lead-ins. See, I'm still thinking of all you loyal rooftop cinema goers even when all the way across the continent. I'm not sure if we'll show said short this week, or save it for a later date, but we'll have something unusual to whet your appetites before the feature, to be sure.

And the feature? Popular demand and general geek-nation excitation over the impending Tron sequel - which you should be excited about whether or not you're excited about Tron, because it'll mean a new Daft Punk album, as they're doing the soundtrack - has dictated that we're going to open this season with the original 1982 Disney video-game-ready classic about computer programmers who get digitized and sucked into the mainframe. There, they are forced to carry out neon-colored gladitatorial battles that, let's admit, have little purpose aside from looking really cool. But let's not forget: they look REALLY COOL.

And they're bound to look even cooler glowing neon red and blue up under the DC summer sky, so bring friends, bring a snack, bring a drink or three, and if you've got a favorite lawn chair, feel free to bring that, too. Sunset is around 8:30, so we'll look to get things underway by 9. See you there!

Insert "That's What She Said" joke here.

2010-04-22T18:37:00.006-04:00

Exciting news for the fourth summer of rooftop movies! No, we haven't scheduled the first screening yet, though we know what we're going to show. Ever since that early April heat wave, the nights have been pretty chilly, and I'm waiting for an evening with a forecast low that doesn't go below 60. No dice yet, and next week isn't looking so great, so fingers crossed for the first week of May.

In the meantime, though, we're always hard at work here at Cinéma sur le toit looking to improve your moviegoing experience! Last year, it was an upgrade to the projection system. That improvement got us a smaller, but more powerful piece of equipment; this year, however, bigger is better, and we're all set to deliver to you 46% more image for every movie you come to see.

Many thanks to Eric for the long term screen loan that he wasn't even aware he'd made to the cause for the past few years. That screen has served us well, but this afternoon we took delivery of a brand new screen; it still has that new screen smell and everything. This thing is bright, white, and as you can see from the photo, absolutely huge. Basically, I went for the biggest one that I knew we could fit in our closet. With 99 diagonal inches on it, compared to 68 on the old one, we'll now be absolutely certain that no one else on the roof will be able to ignore what we're watching.

Keep an eye on the weather, and as soon as the nighttime temperature creeps up a few more degrees, we'll get everyone over here to see how this looks up on the roof.

Little hand says it's time to rock and roll.

2009-09-14T11:32:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the short notice, but good opportunities for rooftop movies this time of year are harder to come by than in July and August, and with the early week warm front and the fact that Angel and I are otherwise disposed later in the week, tomorrow night is looking like an excellent night to sit under the stars with a movie.

With that in mind, we're making last year's Patrick Swayze tribute (which kicked off with Roadhouse) an annual event with a screening of his 1991 action masterpiece, Point Break, in which he plays a bleached blonde surfer who accepts FBI agent Keanu Reeves into his surf-gang as Reeves is learning how to surf in order to bust a ring of Presidentially-masked robbers who the Bureau also suspects are hanging ten in their time away from crime. Reeves goes a little native as he is seduced by the thrill-seeking allure of the waves, while Swayze is perhaps more than he first appears to be. All in all, a classic.

It's also directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who I'd say is now a shoo-in for a Best Picture nomination for this year for The Hurt Locker, and like her latest, it's yet another example of why she's one of the best action directors in Hollywood, even if she's sadly underemployed and, it seems, passed over for more marquee properties in favor of male directors who are usually incapable of making action flicks quite as gripping and smart as she is at her best. So we have Patrick Swayze (reason enough for you to show up), Keanu Reeves in a role you won't hate him in, Gary Busey before he went batshit insane, and some of the best action sequences ever put to film. Sold, see you there!

Bring a hoodie, or a blanket, or a slanket, or a snuggie, because it can get a little chilly up there in September. Flasks of whiskey also help.

Bill Murray rarity!

2009-08-24T11:27:00.002-04:00

Back in 1984, Tom Schiller made Nothing Lasts Forever, his one and only feature film, an oddball sci-fi flick about an alternate NYC taken over by the Port Authority, and a young artist forced to work in the Holland Tunnel after failing an art test, with Bill Murray as the driver of an interstellar bus line carrying the elderly to space. Schiller was one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live, and directed a number of the short films that appeared on the show in its early years. Dan Aykroyd also co-stars, and Bill Murray has, I'm told, stated from time to time that this is his favorite film that he was ever in.

Sadly, the film all but vanished. Wikipedia is a little conflicted on whether it was ever released or not, with the entry on the film stating it had a very limited release, and the entry for Schiller stating that it was never released at all. Either way, it's safe to say that few, if any, people ever saw a public screening of it in the 80s, and a handful of folks have been lucky enough to see it in special museum/retrospective screenings here and there over the years, usually in New York. It has never been released on home video in any form.

Is it that much of a stretch, then, to wonder if Wednesday night might be the first semi-public screening in the District of Columbia in 25 years, if not ever? Are you really going to let yourself miss that? I didn't think so. We'll see you on Wednesday night.

Rooftop Movie Club: Demented and Sad, But Social

2009-08-10T11:20:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately, circumstances have conspired to make yet another tribute to the departed necessary, with the passing of that master chronicler of 80s teen angst, Mr. John Hughes.

And no film of his demonstrates that more perfectly than the story of the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess and the criminal. Keep your fingers crossed that this week's thunderstorms take a break for a few hours Wednesday night (unfortunately, Thursday isn't an option for us, otherwise we'd do it after the cold front moves through), and come join us for The Breakfast Club.

Bring beer, munchies, and, if you're feeling so inclined, a Cap'n Crunch & Pixie Stix sandwich.

EDIT: Current weather.com forecast puts the chance of rain at 15% or less between now and midnight, so we're going for it. See you on the roof!

Los Vampiros del Mar!

2009-07-20T11:10:00.003-04:00

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the roof...

We've been talking about it all summer, and it's finally here: Piranha II: The Spawning, aka P2:tS, aka (as the Spanish preferred to call it) Piraña 2: Los Vampiros Del Mar.

This one comes to us from the director who brought us The Terminator, Aliens, and who has promised to revolutionize the cinema as we know it with his upcoming Avatar. That's right, the director who made the highest grossing film in history (Titanic) got his start on this low budget Italian-produced B-movie, getting promoted from special effects coordinator to the director's chair after the original director quit. Everybody's gotta start somewhere, right?

Of course, it's a pretty blatant attempt to continue to cash in on sea-based horror in the post-Jaws years, but by '81 the formula was getting pretty stale. Unable to top even the worst of the other copycats, or its predecessor, the surprisingly excellent John Sayles-scripted enviro-horror of the original Piranha, Cameron and the Italians followed genre convention and did what any tired horror sequel must: upped the amounts of gore, sex, and death. Oh yeah, and they gave the Piranha a genetic mutation that now allows them to fly, so you're not even safe if you can manage to get out of the water.

It's never funny when it supposed to be, but is pretty much hilarious the rest of the time. And still far better than suffering through Titanic. In fact, I think that movie might have benefitted from some carnivorous flying fish.

As usual, we'll start off with some classic animation. But before we go into the feature, we'll also take a moment for a public service message to remind everyone, as P2:tS demonstrates, that the outdoors contain many dangers. This will come in the form of perhaps the strangest 1970s educational film you've ever seen.

Bring the drinks and snacks of your choice, and if you have easy-to-transport lawn/camp chairs, feel free to bring those as well so we don't get as many dirty looks from the rest of the rooftop for monopolizing the chairs. See you there!

Le Roi est Mort

2009-07-06T11:03:00.000-04:00

We at Dorchester Rooftop Movies have had a sad couple of weeks. We'd like to observe a moment of silence for Farrah of the feathery hair. Give a spirited HEY-O! to the dearly departed Mr. McMahon. A heartily shouted lament that Billy Mays will never be here for another indispensable product. But we're all still reeling from the shock of the fallen King of Pop. And so, we at the Rooftop Movies' Office of Programming, Pretension, and Arbitrary Decision-Making feel we would be remiss if we didn't use our unique platform to make some kind of larger tribute. As such, we must first apologize for yet another delay of the hotly anticipated screening of James Cameron's ode to toothy flying sea-dwellers (Piranha 2: The Spawning). That will, again, have to wait for another week.

Instead, this Wednesday we'll be showing Moonwalker, Jackson's 1988 companion film to the Bad album. The movie consists of a number of loosely related short films, and as such, we can't help but feel it is likely the structural basis for Robert Altman's Short Cuts, and we trust that Altman will not be stepping forward to dispute this claim. It's also a rarity, having long since gone out of print on both VHS and DVD. So when the hasty re-issue hits stores in a few weeks, you may sneer down your nose at everyone else on your block and tell them that you just attended a screening weeks ago, so no thank you very much.

In keeping with the usual tradition, the feature will be preceded by a cartoon; which in this case should hopefully be an episode of the Jackson 5ive animated series from the early 70s.

As usual, bring any beverages or snacks you'd like to enjoy, and keep an eye on the weather in case it's going to get chilly after dark.

Single white sequined glove optional.

IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING NOTE:
Prior to the Jackson 5ive cartoon, we'll be showing a short film by Susan Etheridge, currently untitled, depicting how alcohol, uneven pavement, pyromaniacal boys, and illegal fireworks that bear the name HELLRAISER, are a certain recipe for disaster and near-death experiences. It's sort of a public service message. With fire. The director and many of the actors will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A.

First night, Take 3 (THE GATE!)

2009-06-20T10:55:00.003-04:00

After our first two attempts at a rooftop movie were foiled by inclement weather, we've regrouped, and developed a three-pronged strategy to finally have a successful night:

1. Ditch Spaceballs. The gods are obviously angry at Mel Brooks. They must have seen Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Dracula: Dead and Loving It at full price; I'd be pissed, too. So with apologies to Mr. Brooks, you'll have to get your schwartz on on your own time.

2. Sneakiness. By sending this evite out semi-last minute, hopefully, the forces of raininess will be unable to marshal their troops against us.

3. Accuweather. Actually checking the weather in advance and scheduling on a night where there's virtually no chance of rain might help, too. We've done so this time.

So join us on this Wednesday night for a screening of a classic bit of 80s horror, The Gate, in which a bunch of kids accidentally unleash the forces of Hell via a hole in their backyard left over after a tree is removed. I like to think of it as a horror version of the cross-breeding of The Goonies and Home Alone. Less Culkin, less Chunk, more demons. Also, the feature film debut of Stephen Dorff.

Same schedule and pointers as usual apply: bring a few drinks, any snacks you want, and we'll get started with a classic cartoon as soon as it's fully dark out and then move on to the feature.

PS- For those who were looking forward to Piranha 2, we're saving that for another week.

PPS- It's been brought to my attention that this film is currently scheduled for a 3-D remake directed by Alex Winter, who you may remember from such roles as the vampire with a really bad mullet in The Lost Boys. Consider this screening your preparation for seeing the remake.

Rooftop Movies Strike Back: The Schwartz is Strong

2009-05-29T10:41:00.002-04:00

Things were touch and go for a little while there for the start of season three of rooftop movies at the Dorchester: our projector was repossessed over the winter (some might say "Indian gifted", but those people would be culturally insensitive assholes, now wouldn't I..er...they?). That was a dark, dark day, indeed. I'm sorry if we ever expressed any doubt that the movies might not happen, for I knew this was a tradition that was irrepressible and essential: hence I went out and found a replacement projector that no one can take away. And I found it, as the TV man says, on eBay.

See, I'm firmly committed to every American's god given right to watch movies in the out of doors with a cold beer in hand. If I might quote one Chris Klimek upon the news that a new projector had been procured, "America, Fuck Yeah!". I couldn't let you all down; it'd be unpatriotic.

Weather permitting, the lights go down and the screen comes up on a third summer up on the roof on Thursday of next week for anyone who cares to join us. We'll be screening a crowd pleaser for the first time out, Spaceballs. Please feel free to recite lines along with the movie like you're back in your parents' basement watching it in middle school. Or was that just me? We'll likely move things into more oddball territory next time out with James Cameron's auspicious debut directorial effort, Piranha II. Bring snacks, bring beer, and bring a blanket, as it can get chilly up there after sundown in early and late summer.

EDIT: Due to impending rain tonight, we're postponing until next week.

EDIT 2: Make-up date rained out as well! Curses!

You got a real pretty mouth.

2008-09-14T10:35:00.004-04:00

August sort of got away from us there, what with vacations and beach trips and such, but we're ready to get some more movies in on the roof before the weather starts turning too cold. After many requests for this during discussions of a tubing trip in West Virginia earlier this summer, the next selection this Friday will be Deliverance.

In John Boorman's 70s classic, the director has a great deal to say about the dwindling opportunities in modern society for men to be men, the reshaping of the beauties of nature by technology, and what happens when good, wholesome, small-town folks are confronted with the arrogance of East Coast ivory tower urban elitists.

Which is to say, hot man-on-man hillbilly sexual assault.

The implications for this election season are clear. We'll be up on the roof staking out a spot as early as 7-7:30, so feel free to show up anytime after that with your beverage of choice. We'll get things started around 9. First up will be something from the Looney Tunes library, very likely featuring Porky Pig, if you see where we're going there. Feature presentation to follow.

On the rooftops of Gotham...

2008-07-13T10:33:00.002-04:00

As mentioned at the last movie night, and to some of you in the time since then, we're going to celebrate the release of the new Batman movie this weekend by doing a rooftop screening of the old Batman movie. No, not the old Adam West Batman movie, nor the old George Clooney Batman movie (even though everybody loves the Clooney), but the (3 year) old Nolan/Bale Batman movie, Batman Begins. I know a lot of folks are scheduled to see The Dark Knight on Saturday, so hopefully a bunch of you can turn up for this.That said, I know that there are a number of other things going on for various people that night, so be sure to let us know if you can come or not...if it looks like attendance is going to be lackluster, we may scuttle the screening, but we'd like to do it if possible...

ROAD HOUSE!

2008-06-30T09:43:00.002-04:00

Long before this year's rooftop movie season had arrived, we decided that a night devoted to one of the cinema's, nay, western culture's brightest stars was in order. We'd heard that the creative powerhouse that is Patrick Swayze had been stricken with a horrible malady, and it seemed only right to pay tribute to the icon whose performing prowess is unmatched in the varied fields of song, screen, dance, and general kicking of ass.

With an oeuvre as varied as Swayze's, though, what film to choose? For Swayze the lover, there's Dirty Dancing, or Ghost. For Swayze the fighter, there's Point Break, or Next of Kin. Or maybe we further showcase his range with Swayze the transvestite (To Wong Foo...) or Swayze the pedophiliac motivational speaker (Donnie Darko). Or maybe Swayze the singer, in which case we could simply run an endless loop of his smash hit romantic single "She's Like the Wind". So many choices. While we were sort of hoping for a two-sides-to-every-Swayze double feature of Dirty Dancing with Point Break, because of the rooftop closing time of midnight, there is simply not enough darkness to manage a double feature with daylight lasting as long as it does now.

So we were forced to decide what movie would contain the broadest range of Swayze's best qualities in one film. By that measure, the choice was simple: Road House. Swayze as lover, fighter, philosopher, bouncer, and ass-baring stone cold hottie. He will totally throw your ass out of the bar if you step out of line, and he can quote Kierkegaard while he's half-nelsoning your sorry tuchus down to the pavement.

And we're quite certain that any man that can do this, can beat cancer with one lean, well-muscled arm tied behind his back.

So come out for Independence Day eve, and get a head start on celebrating our nation's birthday by celebrating the All-American onscreen virility that only the Swayze can bring. The founding fathers totally approve of a well-reasoned ass-kicking. As usual, bring the tasty beverage of your choosing to enjoy atop the Dorchester roof, and we'll get things started with a classic bit of Warner Bros. animation, and maybe, just maybe, a special treat for you kiddies before the main event. Entertainment to start around 9pm, but feel free to show up earlier, as we'll be up there staking out a spot well before dark.

Rooftop Movies return...on Friday the 13th!

2008-06-08T09:35:00.000-04:00

Rooftop movies are back! As it happens, our first night back atop the Dorchester is on a Friday the 13th, so we're taking advantage by showing Friday the 13th, part 4 - the one with Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover!

The movie will begin around 9pm, but feel free to show up earlier. We'll show an old cartoon, drive-in style, before the feature. We'll probably be hanging out on the roof from early on in the evening in order to stake out a good spot with room for everyone who's coming.

Last Rooftop movie of the year: The Dude Abides

2007-09-23T02:44:00.005-04:00

The temperatures are dropping, and this may be the last warm week before it's too cold to hang out on the roof at night, so this week we're going to screen what may be the last rooftop movie until next year...we promise we'll start earlier in the summer so we can get more movies in before the weather turns next time around.

Anyway, for what may be the grand finale (barring some early October indian summer), we'll be showing The Big Lebowski on Wednesday night. White Russians will be mixed for anyone who's so inclined, and get things started around 9pm.

See you then...

Rooftop Rialto, Part 3: Buckaroo Banzai

2007-09-01T02:40:00.004-04:00

More rooftop movie watching fun this week...come out to catch the adventures of everyone's favorite physicist, neurosurgeon, Samurai, rock star, jet car driver and comic book hero as he saves the world from certain doom (someone saving the world from certain doom seems to be developing into a theme for the rooftop movies). That's right, it's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! We'll also have a classic cartoon before the movie, and, if you're all very good, there may be the potential for a special super-secret world premiere just as exciting as the debut of Susan's documentary last time around.

That's this Thursday, Sept. 6, and we'll get things started at 9pm.

Rooftop Rialto, Part 2: Who You Gonna Call?

2007-08-20T18:25:00.003-04:00

Our first showing of a movie on the rooftop of the Dorchester (Flash Gordon a couple of weeks ago) went so well, we're doing it again. This time, it's Ghostbusters, which seems particularly appropriate since the last act of that one takes place almost entirely on a rooftop. At the moment, it appears the weather is set to cooperate on Thursday (August 23).

Setting up for the first time took longer than anticipated last time around, but now that we have the routine down, we should be running right on schedule, so we'll aim to start the movie at 9. Please do let us know if you plan on coming so we can be sure we have enough chairs on hand.

And, if it turns out that the Dorchester is also some sort of supernatural antenna for summoning Sumerian deities, just remember Winston's wise advice: If someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes .

Inaugural rooftop movie!

2007-07-25T18:15:00.001-04:00

Well, it's summertime, when we try to find all the ways to do outdoors what we normally do indoors, and here's the latest variation on that theme. After much back and forth with my building's management, the power outlet on the Dorchester roof deck is finally on, which means that we can finally do what Scott and I have been talking about doing for months: show movies on the roof!

We've done a test run, and it looks like everything is in working order, so we're going to have our first screening next week. So we want YOU to come over to the Dorchester on Thursday evening next week (August 2) for a rooftop screening of Flash Gordon.

Just like Screen on the Green, we'll get started as soon as it gets dark enough, which seems to be around 9pm or so right now. Feel free to show up anytime after 8. Provided everything goes well, we'll try to do this every couple of weeks until the roof closes down or it gets too cold, which is probably the end of September/beginning of October.