Week 10: Watch ‘Back to the Future’ live chat with Lea Thompson

Times film writer Mark Olsen went “Back to the Future” with special guest Lea Thompson . on July 16 in the latest installment of the Ultimate Summer Movie Showdown.

The virtual live chat is available on the Times’ Classic Hollywood Facebook page. Or tune in on YouTube or Twitter.

The Ultimate Summer Movie Showdown is the L.A. Times series where each week readers vote on the greatest summer films of all time. Or at least since 1975, the year that “Jaws” forever changed the landscape of summer moviemaking.

Film writer Mark Olsen chats with actress Lea Thompson for week 10 of the Ultimate Summer Movie Showdown live July 16. This week’s reader favorite summer movie is “Back to the Future.”

(Ken Kwok/Los Angeles Times)

Welcome to a time-travel-themed Week 10, where readers chose “Back to the Future” over “Terminator 2” and other films that debuted the same week in summers past. Thompson played Lorraine Baines in the 1985 movie that also starred Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.
The showdown: Times film critic Justin Chang launched the weekly virtual series in May. The first 10 winners chosen by Times readers, are: “The Avengers” (Week 1); “Bridesmaids” (Week 2); “Mad Max: Fury Road” (Week 3); “Alien” (Week 4): “Finding Nemo” (Week 5); “Jurassic Park” (Week 6); “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (Week 7); “Jaws” (Week 8, June 19-25); and “Do the Right Thing” (Week 9) and “Back to the Future” (Week 10).

To recap the rules: Chang presents readers with a list of 16 movies from 1975 to 2019, all of which were released during a particular summer time frame. You may vote for your favorites on his Twitter account @justincchang. Each week’s polls are posted at 5 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday.

What’s next: For Week 11, it’s Christmas in July this week as readers considered a field of 16 films that came down two finalists: “When Harry Met Sally” and “Die Hard.” By a narrow margin, “Die Hard” won.

Watch the winning movie on your own, then join the Ultimate Summer Movie Showdown at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 23 for a livestreaming conversation on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.