It’s Back: Bosque Film Society announces schedule for Second Annual Summer Blockbuster Movies Showcase at the Cliftex presenting free films all summer long
By SIMONE WICHERS-VOSS
Bosque Film Society Founder Board Member
There’s always an increased hype surrounding summer blockbuster movies with ads heightening the anticipation. The often big-budget movies designed for mass appeal aim to draw a big crowd in the heat of the summer.
This year, the Bosque Film Society presents its Second Annual Summer Blockbuster Movie Showcase, with 10 free movies screened weekly every Tuesday at 6 p.m. from June 9 to Aug. 11.
“Most of the signature summer movies will surely trigger memories of spending a spectacular afternoon, sitting in the air-conditioned movie theatre,” Bosque Film Society founder and board president Brett Voss said. “We want everyone to visit our historic theatre with siblings, family and friends, soda on one side and popcorn on the other, and be amazed watching some of the big budget blockbusters on the big silver screen once again.”
The series kicks off June 9 with a 50th anniversary showing of Rocky, the ultimate movie about beating the odds. Small-time Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa goes the distance after getting a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed. The Italian Stallion’s life culminates in a million-to-one shot of winning.
Watch a nobody become a “heavyweight champion contender” in the 1976 movie by John G. Avilsen, starring Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers and Burt Young.
It’s Sci-Fi Tuesday on June 16 with Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1968 Planet of the Apes, the original film that launched a franchise that endures today exploring a time in the future where no human can remain human.
After being kept in hypersleep during a long expedition into deep space, astronauts Taylor – played by Charlton Heston – Landon and Dodge crashland in the 40th century on a planet where highly intelligent non-human ape species are dominant, and humans are enslaved. Taylor befriends Cornelious, played by Roddy McDowall, who helps Taylor escape captivity.
On June 23, experience the triangle of trouble with a man, a woman and a rabbit in the groundbreaking 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit, directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film blends animation and live action, comedy and film noir together in Toontown.
Cartoon rabbit Roger is accused of murder, and enlists the help of a burnt-out private investigator Bob Hoskins to prove his innocence. The film expertly marries history with groundbreaking techniques and technology. While Hoskins and Charles Fleischer are memorable as Eddie Valiant and Roger Rabbit, Kathleen Turner’s femme fatale Jessica Rabbit is maybe most memorable.
On June 30, the film society makes good on not have shown a Bond movie since its establishment in 2020. Meet “Bond, James Bond,” MI6 secret agent 007 in the 1963 classic, From Russia With Love.
Bond’s mission is to retrieve a Soviet decoding device from female Soviet Corporal Tatiana Romanova. The alluring corporal was forced to defect by SPECTRE, as bait to lure Bond to his end in Istanbul. In true Bond fashion, the secret agent ends up seducing the beautiful corporal instead. Directed by Terence Young, Sean Connery is the indelible Bond, with Daniela Bianchi playing his love interest Tatiana.
Right before baseball season’s halfway point on July 7, BFS brings the 1988 movie on the nation’s favorite sport, Bull Durham by Ron Shelton with Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins in the main roles.
With the tagline, “A major league love story in a minor league town,” a baseball veteran Crash Davis is expected to shape hotshot rookie pitcher with potential Ebby “Nuke” LaLoosh. Both of them become involved with baseball groupie Annie, who has her own unique perspective on the game and how to coach and educate LaLoosh into becoming a major league pitcher.
Called a masterpiece for fusing sci-fi and horror, the nightmarish 1979 Alien offered July 14 will fill you with ultimate dread all over again. Director Ridley Scott masterfully paces the suspense, keeping the alien hidden for most of the film, allowing the audience’s imagination to amplify the fear and dread.
In the tense, claustrophobic adventure in a gritty space ship far out in space, where no one can hear you scream, Signourey Weaver as Ripley – with Tom Skerritt and John Hurt at her side – offers a groundbreaking performance.
In the 1983 War Games from John Badham, Matthew Broderick as teenager David thinks his hack into a military computer is into a sophisticated game, and nearly triggers World War III on July 21.
Will David and girlfriend Jennifer played by Ally Sheedy end up assisting General Beringer by realizing the only winning move is not to play and thus saving the world from nuclear annihilation? Watch and see.
On July 28 audiences can experience a double whammy with a King Kong double-feature with the 1933 original at 4 p.m. matinee and the 2005 remake 6 p.m. feature.
The 1933 original and 2005 adaptation by Peter Jackson share the same core story – that “behind every great love is a love story.”
Filmmakers travel to a prehistoric island, capture a giant gorilla, and bring him to New York. Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, the 1933 original is hailed as a landmark achievement in special effects utilizing stop-motion animation.
The 2005 version offers a modernized, emotional epic with state-of-the-art CGI, expanding the runtime to over three hours.
With Peter Weir’s 1998 The Truman Show Aug. 4, all the world’s a stage. Jim Carrey leading a humdrum life as an insurance salesman Truman Burbank starts to question his reality.
The reality turns out that he unknowingly has been the main character in an elaborately staged television 24/7 reality show for over three decades. Truman’s journey is one of self-discovery, courage, and the human desire for authenticity.
The Summer Blockbuster Showcase concludes Aug. 11 with the unlikely melding of a great love story with a disaster movie with James Cameron’s 1997.
Nothing on Earth could come between Kate Winslet’s New York high society Rose DeWitt Bukater and Leonardo DiCaprio’s talented but impoverished artist Jack Dawson – not wealth, not class, not culture. But after the “unsinkable” ship is struck by an iceberg and starts to go down as the band plays, it was the harsh, freezing briny deep that ended their unlikely but fathom-deep bond.
Experience the majestic song again, melt as Jack holds Rose at the ship’s bough, chuckle as Rose learns “how to spit like a man,” and root for Jack on as he struggles with hypothermia.
By donating the funds for the movie licensing fees, the Bosque Film Society’s generous patrons and sponsors, these screenings can be made free to the public.