Rooftops

This is Robert Wise's last theatrical feature and it has a terrible reputation. I'm here to tell you ... it's pretty good actually. It's a cheap late 80's B action flick, and I've seen a lot of those. This one is okay. This film is better than most of the films Wise directed in the 1970's. People tend to call this a "take" on "West Side Story". It's not ... it has absolutely nothing to with "West Side Story".

Robert Wise was one of Hollywood's most prolific directors but never an auteur. After a long, varied career, his swan song is this: An unmistakable product of the late eighties, cashing in on the capoeira craze, but also a faint echo of Wise's production from thirty years back, the West Side Story film. If you can appreciate over-the-top eighties movies (youth clad in tight jeans, Death Wish 3, groin kicks etc), you may find some enjoyment here.