Rooftops

First of all, why are most of the reviews on here from the early 2000's? Just sayin'. Anyhoo, I just watched this on Tubi 'cause I'm a sucka for '80s cheese and this movie is EPIC! It's got a b-movie script and mostly nobodies in the cast, but the direction and overall look and feel are first-rate. I guess it was directed by the guy who did West Side Story; it's kinda the same storyline, with a star-crossed love story between a dude who lives in an abandoned watertank and a girl who reluctantly works as a lookout for her crack-dealing cousin. There's a fair amount of that weird Brazilian dance-fighting as well as some parkour and the requisite terrible soundtrack. But the sense of time and place is great, and the acting is pretty good. Would make an excellent double feature with the amazing "Delivery Boys".

I have the sneaking suspicion that the the story behind the movie "The Ring" , wherein people die after watching a video, came to someone after watching this movie. My own VCR exploded in protest while I was watching it. It probably saved my life. It is the rarest of films, one in which absolutely none of the elements work. If you intentionally set out to make the worst movie in the world, I doubt you could equal the unholy "Rooftops". I have a method I use for measuring how bad a particular work is. I call it the David Lee Roth factor. Simply ask yourself "Would this be any worse if David Lee Roth were somehow involved?" In the case of "Rooftops", the answer is a resounding "No!" Believe you me, you don't want to see or hear anything that David Lee Roth can't ruin.

As production manager on Robert Wise's Rooftop, and with the news I received today that Bob had passed away, I want to tell everyone about this great film director. I worked on his last feature on the roofs of the lower eastside of NYC. No elevators to get to the roofs and Bob with a bad knee climbed with the best of us. He was a man who loved his crew, who thanked people and who could be a father to all. I was standing next to him as we just filmed a very complex scene with noticed flaws. He said move on, I said, only one take on such a long difficult scene, Bob replied, I am not going to use that part of the scene. A true editor who knew what he was doing, A man for all seasons, and who had more stories, but only when you asked. A true American and I am so glad and honored to have worked for him, God Bless Bob, thank you.

There is something uncomfortable about 'Rooftops.' Perhpas it's the dreadfully slow pace and very thin plot. Characters threaten to foist revenge on one another, and each expects it, but none really seem to appreciate the danger. It comes off as young children bickering with each other about being on one another's property. It is meaningless and stupid.

Rooftops, however, does have some merit. The story is about a bunch of homeless kids living in the slums of New York. They've made their homes and their territory on the rooftops of the abandoned buildings. They carry about with their own sort of culture, particularly noted by a variety of combat (which looks more like dancing) which I think is one of the more uncomfortable moments since there seems to be no point to it.

"T" is the center of the story. Jason Gedrick's character is interesting at least in that he's not an annoying teenager (or older, I presume), but is actually a pretty smart, protective guy. Unfortunately, other than watching him go about his rather easy-going existence on the rooftops, there's not much to his character.

His unrelenting antagonist is Lobo, a pimp and drug dealer who plans to move T out of his territory. Like 'Deuces Wild,' T and his friends vow not to let Lobo move in and mess things up for these kids. I suppose they've been pushed out of one too many families (T was homeless after his parent's died and so was his friend Amber; Squeak left home to avoid his mother's abusive boyfriend; and so forth), so they're determined to just to finally find a place of their own.

Of course, getting rid of Lobo is no easy job. Especially when he patrols the rooftops with his gun toting goons,,going a little too far to get rid of a couple of homeless teenagers. Luckily, T's weird combat training and the rooftop kid's smarts make a pretty good match for Lobo. A little too unbelieveable, since Lobo was always threatening these kids with a gun. I bet a real drug dealer/pimp, intent on pushing his business no matter what, wouldn't think twice about killing these kids. Likewise, I doubt anyone would think twice about killing Lobo and his goons, since they never seemed to have connections to anyone else.

There are just some strange qualities to the movie, mostly marked by the pace. It takes a long time for characters to be introduced and understood, for the plot to actually have something interesting going on, and so forth. A lot of the movie just seems to follow the kids and their rooftop lifestyles which is unfortunate, considering that this probably could've been a much better movie, considering the story.

It sure does have a lot of weird junk going on, but I don't think it was too bad. There is just something entertaining about the whole mess. I may just be forgiving since I've seen one too many bad movies this week (at least when compared with this one). I think this one is just best recommended for die-hard 80s fans.

Awful songs, crummy acting, Troy Beyer the babe, "combat dancing", living in a water tower, this one's got everything for the bad movie 80's fanatic. I rented it once, loved it, & bought it off E-bay for $1. Worth every penny.

One a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with one star being the lowest & 5 stars being the highest, I rate this one an A-. . .