He was born ready.

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.