A skilled young street fighter battles criminals across the rooftops of New York City.A skilled young street fighter battles criminals across the rooftops of New York City.A skilled young street fighter battles criminals across the rooftops of New York City.
- Director
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- Stars
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
Jay Boryea
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- (as Jay M. Boryea)
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Featured reviews
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.
Rooftops is sort of Robert Wise's version of his West Side Story set in the eighties. The film has capoeria, karate and street fights. The film featured many young actors like Jason Gedrick, Tisha Campbell and Allen Payne. I like this movie though.
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-. . .
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-. . .
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.
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".
Did you know
- TriviaThis is the final theatrical film directed by Robert Wise.
- SoundtracksAvenue D
Written by David A. Stewart, Etta James and Richard Feldman
Performed by Etta James featuring David A. Stewart
- How long is Rooftops?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,043,889
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $1,111,263
- Mar 19, 1989
- Gross worldwide
- $2,043,889
- Runtime
- 1h 38m(98 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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