Folks, if you haven’t already, it’s time to break out your lawn chairs. Summer Cinema is back and better than ever!
Get ready to roast some marshmallows, because the theme for this year’s weekly outdoor film series is… (drumroll, please)… camping!
As always, films will be shown every Wednesday night in June and July on the Haas Fine Arts Center lawn as soon as it gets dark. Pre-movie activities begin at 8 p.m. and include:
- Free music, fun and crazy activities, and yard games including Jumbo Jenga, Giant Connect 4, Ginormous Croquet, Super Disc Slam, Jumbo Checkers, Oversized Kerplunk and everyone’s favorite — Twister!
- Free popcorn and beverages, plus food vendors with some of your local favorites available for purchase including the 9 Degrees ice cream bike
- Meeting Blu, UW-Eau Claire’s beloved mascot
- Visiting the L.E. Phillips Memorial Library giveaway table and learning more about their summer reading program
- Participating in the shenanigans of the Visit Eau Claire Fun Patrol
Be sure to B.Y.O. blanket or chair (but leave the tents at home!) and take advantage of the free parking in the Haas Fine Arts Center and Water Street parking lots.
Check out the fun-filled lineup for this summer’s films!
This family favorite features a band of pre-teens who live in the “Goon Docks” neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon attempting to save their homes from demolition. In doing so, they discover an old Spanish map that leads them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. But this adventure isn’t as easy as the Goonies thought: a family of criminals is racing after them, trying to find the treasure for themselves.
September, 1965. A storm is three days away from the New England coast. At an island camp, a Khaki Scout’s gone missing: he’s 12-year-old Sam, a bespeckled misfit and an orphan. Ward, his by-the-book scoutmaster, organizes a search after calling Captain Sharp, the local police. Sam is running away with his pen pal Suzy, the laconic oldest child in a quirky and unhappy household of two lawyers (one of whom is having an affair with Sharp). As Sam and Suzy sort through their own issues, they stay a step ahead of the searchers as the storm creeps closer.
A group of underdog kids discover their beloved summer camp has been sold to a crazy fitness fanatic — one who’s determined to make their lives miserable! The new owner plans to keep the boys huffing and puffing, but these hungry kids have a plan of their own. They unite to turn the tables, take back their woodsy hideaway, and challenge the rival camp to the most outrageous summer games of all.
College football coach Tom Baker and his wife Kate have decided it’s time for a family vacation. The plan? Pack up the cars and take their 12 children to Lake Winnetka for some camping. But as you may assume, this is not as simple as it seems. Tom soon discovers his old rival Jimmy Murtaugh is also staying near the lake with his trophy wife Sarina and their equally enormous family of eight. Jimmy and Tom seem intent upon one-upping each other at every opportunity, and as the tensions mount, the Baker family and the Murtaugh clan face off in a not-so-good-natured series of family games to determine which of the parents have the greater bragging rights.
Teenager Zach Cooper isn’t pleased when his family moves from a big city to a small town, but he finds a silver lining when he meets Hannah, the girl next door. But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach’s happens to be Hannah’s mysterious father: R.L. Stine, author of the bestselling Goosebumps series. It turns out that Stine has unknowingly been protecting his readers from (very real) monsters by trapping them in his books. That is, until Zach accidentally lets them loose. Now it’s up to Zach, Hannah, and R.L. Stine himself to stop the ghouls, ghosts, and goblins from terrorizing the town and get them back into the books where they belong.
After witnessing the murder of a federal informant, the University of Texas cheerleading team needs some serious protection, and hard-nosed Texas Ranger Lt. Roland Sharp is just the man for the job. To disguise himself, Sharp takes on an undercover job as their coach. Though his assignment is fairly cut-and-dried, he ends up forming a variety of unexpected and decidedly less simple relationships. Aside from his immersion into the struggles and triumphs of the UT cheerleading squad, Roland finds himself dealing with a strong attraction to college professor Molly McCarthy.
This re-imagining of the classic collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling centers on Mowgli, a human boy adopted by a pack of wolves. But after Shere Khan, a villainous tiger, threatens the safety of the jungle, Mowgli and his panther guardian Bagheera must traverse the jungle to seek safety in a nearby “man village.” Along the way, they meet an affable, lazy bear named Baloo as well as a snake with hypnotic powers and an orangutan who wants to harness the power of fire.
A white-collar workaholic discovers the true meaning of “family bonding” when he deceptively persuades his family to forgo their much anticipated Hawaiian vacation for a cross-country road trip in a rented RV. Bob Munro is overworked and overstressed, and his increasingly dysfunctional family is reluctant to accept his proposal to hit the road. But Bob’s idea for a family trip isn’t as genuine as it seems — he has to make it to a business meeting in Colorado in order to save his job. The Munros have always managed to get by in the past, but after dealing with a broken parking break, raccoons invading the storage compartments, a clogged sewage system and a full-time RV family that seems to be stalking them, this family isn’t sure they can drive to the Rocky Mountains without driving each other totally insane.
