The Loft celebrates the cinematic legacy of Robin Williams
The Loft Cinema is celebrating the cinematic legacy of the late, great actor/comedian/Oscar-winner Robin Williams with special Labor Day holiday weekend screenings of three of his most beloved films, all showcasing his range, versatility and one-of-a-kind talent.
Net proceeds from all three screenings will benefit the local organization, COPE Community Services, Inc., providing best practice-based, integrated physical and mental healthcare to improve the health and well-being of each person and community served.
A Tribute to Robin Williams
Saturday, August 30 – Monday, September 1
11:00am each day
Admission to each film: $3 general; $2 Loft members
The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.
795-0844 / http://www.loftcinema.org
Saturday, August 23 at 11:00am / JUMANJI
Robin Williams stars alongside a young Kirsten Dunst in this thrill-a-minute adaptation of the award-winning children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg. When young Alan Parrish discovers a mysterious board game, he doesn’t realize its unimaginable powers, until he is magically transported before the startled eyes of his friend, Sarah, into the untamed jungles of Jumanji! There he remains for 26 years until he is freed from the game’s spell by two unsuspecting children who have discovered the magical game. Now a grown man, Alan (Williams) is forced to play the game again, only this time, the game sets the rampaging creatures of the jungle loose on the city. Alan reunites with the now-adult Sarah (Bonnie Hunt), and together with the youngsters Judy (Kirsten Dunst) and Peter (Bradley Pierce), he must try to outwit the game’s powerful forces and get the animals back in the box before they cause untold mayhem! An imaginative adventure that combines breathtaking special effects with thrills, chills and Robin Williams’ patented brand of comedic antics, Jumaji is a treat for kids of all ages! (Dir. by Joe Johnston, 1995, USA, 104 mins., Rated PG) Digital
Sunday, August 31 at 11:00 am / GOOD WILL HUNTING
Robin Williams garnered an Academy Award for his role as a kindhearted therapist in this moving and inspirational tale of a young man striving to reach his potential in the face of overwhelming odds. In Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon plays Will Hunting, a headstrong, working-class genius who’s failing the lessons of life. When an MIT mathematician (Stellan Starsgard) posts a difficult problem, janitor Will solves it before the professor’s students. Will is comfortable mopping floors, hanging out and getting into trouble with his working class friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck), but the professor sees wasted potential and points the troubled young man in the direction of therapist Sean McGuire (Williams) – who is carrying his own emotional baggage, but who may be able to offer Will his last chance at making something of himself. A critical and commercial smash, as well as a Hollywood breakthrough for director Gus Van Sant, Good Will Hunting was nominated for nine Academy Awards and launched the careers of then-newcomers Damon and Affleck, who jointly won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film also brought Robin Williams the only Oscar of his career, for Best Supporting Actor, proving his range as a performer extended far beyond the wild-and-crazy comedies for which he was so well known. (Dir. by Gus Van Sant, 1997, USA, 126 mins., Rated R) Digital
Monday, September 1 at 11:00 am / HOOK
Robin Williams stars as a grown-up Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg’s high-flying tale of magic, adventure and derring-do, a cinematic “sequel of sorts” to J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy. In Hook, the sprightly hero who refused to grow up is now a harried, middle-aged lawyer with a wife and two children, not to mention a cellphone permanently glued to his ear. Peter Banning (Williams), as he’s now known, is also woefully lacking a sense of magic or imagination, and he has mysteriously forgotten his childhood in which he took to the skies as Peter Pan. But Peter is forced to face his Neverland past when his children are abducted by the nefarious Captain Hook (an extravagantly evil Dustin Hoffman), and it’s up to Granny Wendy Darling (Maggie Smith) to convince the disbelieving lawyer that he was indeed once the legendary Peter Pan. And so the adventure begins anew, as Peter rediscovers his inner Pan, and once again enters the fairy tale world of Neverland to save his children, with a little help from his old pal Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts). Spielberg’s popcorn continuation of the Peter Pan tale is a rip-roaring good time, updated for modern-day children of all ages and heightened by immersive set design and a colorful cast of supporting players, which also includes Gwyenth Paltrow as the young Wendy Darling and Bob Hoskins as Hook’s henchman Smee. (Dir. by Steven Spielberg, 1991, USA, 144 mins., Rated PG) Digital
