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Endless Summer: The Birth Of The Blockbuster

ENDLESS SUMMER: THE BIRTH OF THE BLOCKBUSTER from tomorrow (Friday, August 30) to Sunday (September 1) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. See listings. Rating: NNNNN


Yes, TIFF’s weekend blowout of 70s and 80s pop classics, Endless Summer: The Birth Of The Blockbuster, is basically just another manifestation of the nostalgic “Hey, remember the 80s?” impulse that’s driven their mainstream programming choices of late.

That said, I can’t really complain too loudly about a series that offers one last Friday-night screening of Jaws before the leaves change – and follows it with the original theatrical cut of Alien, another perfect movie – or lines up Back To The Future and Raiders Of The Lost Ark for my inner child’s ideal Saturday matinee. (The adrenaline rush keeps going with The Goonies, Top Gun and Aliens.)

Sunday, it’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, the original Die Hard and John Carpenter’s The Thing, all exquisitely produced pop touchstones with long shelf lives. (No spoilers, but it’s nice to see Star Trek II getting some big-screen play now that it’s become a key point of reference in J.J. Abrams’s reboot.)

The Thing, though? As much as I love Carpenter’s sci-fi masterwork, I do have to wonder how it ended up in a series with the word “blockbuster” in its title, given that it was one of the biggest bombs of the summer of 1982.

Maybe TIFF’s counting on people not knowing that. Kinda goes against their mission of education through entertainment, though.

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