Win Tickets to Top Down: Rooftop Cinema!

• TOP DOWN: ROOFTOP CINEMA Only slightly less fun than topless cinema.

For this week’s paper, Mr. Ned Lannamann wrote up a quick piece about the Top Down: Rooftop Cinema series. Here it is:

THE NORTHWEST FILM CENTER’S summertime series, Top Down: Rooftop Cinema, begins July 21 and continues each Thursday night for the next six weeks, offering movies and live music on the roof of the Hotel deLuxe parking garage. As in previous years, the selection of films defies categorization, ranging from the Elvis/Ann-Margret 1964 camp-fest Viva Las Vegas to Francis Ford Coppola’s brooding 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, to Jackie Chan’s action-packed 1985 Police Story, to 1964’s similarly action-packed 007 joint Goldfinger. The only common denominator is that all these films are incredibly fun to watch, and should only be more so under the night sky.

The series kicks off with 1958’s Missile to the Moon, a turkey so inept Ed Wood would have been embarrassed to have his name on it. In other words, it’s gleefully entertaining, particularly due to the shot of the rocket landing on the moon (it’s the same footage as the takeoff sequence, only in reverse!), the insultingly silly-looking rock monsters, and the screenwriter’s decision to have characters refer to the Queen of the Moon as “the Lido,” which effectively makes everyone sound like they have a speech impediment. For this screening, the Filmusik crew will perform a live recreation of the soundtrack and dialogue, further heightening what should already be a surreal experience.

Sounds pretty fun, right? I’m particularly stoked for The Outsiders, Goldfinger, and Police Story. Oh and ALSO: Courtesy of the kind folks at the Northwest Film Center, I have five pairs of tickets to give away to Blogtown readers! They’re good for any of this summer’s Top Down screenings, and you can enter to win a pair (heh) by emailing me no later than 4:30 pm PST today (Wed July 13) with the subject line “Stay gold, Ponyboy.” At 4:30, I’ll pick five winners at random, then email ’em back to let ’em know how to pick up their tickets. Okay, cool. GO. CONTEST IS OVER. Read Blogtown sooner next time, slowpoke.