Rooftop Cinema: Big Trouble In Little China

There are many, many cool things about living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Of course if you are a high-tech entrepreneur and are compelled to do startups for a living, driven by a passion to change the world, there’s nowhere like Silicon Valley (whatever the dreams of so many pretenders around the world).

One of the coolest new things, for me: A small gathering of movie enthusiasts on a North Beach 5th floor roof, with the panorama of the city spread out in front of us as the backdrop to a projection screen, on which we watch movies once a month. Kim was invited to the first showing, last month and kindly got me invited too. That was Blade Runner and I’ll post about it as a follow up to this.



This month was Big Trouble In Little China. With the aroma of Chinatown restaurants regularly serenading us, we enjoyed a really fun movie on location. Right above the streets in which it’s set. (A position I’d never have imagined myself being in when this was the Saturday night movie, back in my school days.)

I had forgotten how funny a movie it is. The writers had fun with it. Some of Jack Burton’s one-liners are brilliantly observed cliches. A lot of the time this sort of spoof humour falls flat due to it’s heavy handed use of sarcasm & irony, or actors who fail to commit to their roles.  But this is great.  You can see the John Carpenter that influences Quentin Tarantino’s later movies.  Kurt Russell owns his role.

Of course wandering back up Columbus afterwards, past the strippers exiting post-shift and the aimless single guys empty-pocketed to the benefit of same strippers, one does look a little homeless, carrying folding chairs and blankets.

Still, stop in for a nice slice of Pizza en route back to the car FTW.

“Okay. You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning. And if we’re not back by dawn… call the president.” 

— Jack Burton