September: I Want to Ride My Bicycle

In the Bay Area, summer doesn’t really arrive until September. And what says “summer” more than riding your bicycle? September features four killer movies about bikes.

September 5: BMX Bandits (1983) — Three BMX kids in Sydney go up against a group of incompetent bank robbers. Will this movie perhaps involve a lot of wacky chase scenes on bicycles? Features a sixteen-year-old Nicole Kidman, so be prepared for all kinds of inappropriate comments from the peanut gallery.

September 12: Rad (1986) — More excellent BMX action, including a memorable bike-dance scene at a high school prom. (Okay, that’s actually the only scene of this movie I’ve actually watched, but it was indeed rad. To the max.) Will our hero perhaps get the girl and win the big race?

September 19: Quicksilver (1986) — After losing everything in a bad trade, stock-market whiz Kevin Bacon quits Wall Street to become a bike messenger. Will he perhaps overcome the cultural barrier with his new colleagues by using his business skills to help them out? Also features Laurence Fishburne.

September 26: Breaking Away (1979) — After graduating from high school, Dave dreams of becoming a champion bicyclist. What will happen when he gets a chance to race against the Italian riders he worships? Will he perhaps learn something about life, love, and the value of true friendship?

August: Dolls and Toys and Puppets, Oh My!

What’s creepier than a doll sitting upright, alone, staring at you? The correct answer is nothing.

August 1: Child’s Play 2 — Don’t worry; you don’t really need to see the first one to get what’s going on. A dying serial killer calls upon his lord Satan to place his spirit inside a doll. Now he’s trying to get into a human body again before it’s too late…

August 8: Child’s Play 3 — Chucky rises again to seek revenge on the boy who killed him eight years ago — the now-teenage Andy Barclay. But in trying to get close to Andy, who’s now attending a military academy, Chucky finds an easier target in a trusting young cadet.

August 15: Puppet Master 3: Toulon’s Revenge (1991) — rench puppeteer Andre Toulon attracts the Nazis’ attention with his anti-Hitler productions, which feature a cast of magical string-free marionettes. The Gestapo promptly kill his wife and pursue Toulon’s animation formula to create a zombie army. Enlisting the help of his faithful creations, Toulon pulls the strings on a very gory revenge plan in this clever prequel to the first two films in the horror franchise.

August 22: Small Soldiers (1998) — From Gremlins director Joe Dante: The Commando Elite are toy action figures programmed to annihilate another toy group, the Gorgonites. Before the Elite have been tested, however, the son of a toy store owner opens them prematurely, setting off a brutal war. The Elite destroy the Gorgonites and attack the children playing with them. Pretty sweet.

August 29: Dolls (1987) — A charming doll collection turns into an unstoppable army of killers in this terrifying tale. When circumstances force a nervous salesman, two punks, an obnoxious couple, and their daughter to stay with an elderly couple who make and collect dolls, everything seems fine at first. But come nightfall, the dolls decide to get rid of their new houseguests…permanently. Directed by Stuart Gordon.